The Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme, which provides monthly cash allowances for households in financial need, had about 220,000 cases by the end of November last year, benefiting about 310,000 people.

Some 18,700 cases fell under the category of unemployment, a nearly 50 per cent jump from the 12,600 recorded in January 2020, when the pandemic started.

That mirrors the rising unemployment rate, which went from less than 4 per cent before Covid-19 to 7.2 per cent during the three months up to February last year, before gradually falling to 4.1 per cent in the three months to November 2021.

To make assistance accessible to more people, the Social Welfare Department doubled the asset limit for CSSA applications for able-bodied people for a year until the end of May 2021.

More than 1.12 million people were benefiting from the Social Security Allowance Scheme, which provides monthly allowances to people with disabilities and the elderly, at the end of November last year. Among them, more than 600,000 people aged 65 and above received old age living allowances, Leung said.

Donald Ng Man-kit, head of the Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency, also revealed at the media briefing that the number of households receiving the government’s Working Family Allowance, which provides monthly payments for low-income families, had reached about 60,000 by the end of last year, up by 30 per cent from about 46,000 recorded at the end of 2019.

Total expenditure of the Working Family Allowance for 2021-22 amounted to about HK$1.98 billion, up by 47 per cent from about HK$1.35 billion for 2019-20.

Apart from a greater number of people seeking financial support, more people applied for food assistance. The department has been working with seven NGOs to provide those in need with short-term food assistance, including basic staples for up to eight weeks at a time.

Requests reached 19,438 in 2020, compared with 13,142 in 2019, and hit 20,638 in the January to November period last year.

Leung also revealed more people became homeless during the pandemic. The department has been sponsoring three service units operated by non-governmental organisations for the homeless, whose number rose from 1,348 in 2019 to 1,541 in 2020, and had reached 1,581 by the end of last year.

Leung said that despite the increased demands, the department managed to keep up its services, but social workers and experts said more should be done.

Chua Hoi-wai, chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, urged the government to set up an unemployment assistance scheme to provide short-term financial support for those who lost their jobs but did not qualify for the CSSA scheme.

“Although the government relaxed the application threshold for the CSSA, its qualification remains strict. There are many people who are not grass roots but need help,” he said.

Chua said the department should also consider offering various service arrangements to better serve the different types of needs. It could resume some essential ones for residents who were vaccinated and not high infection risks, while stepping up its vaccination outreach effort to encourage more elderly residents to receive a jab, he said.

He also suggested the authorities review the amount of the CSSA allowance and ensure the application criteria kept up with public needs, adding that the last time the government reviewed the amount was more than a decade ago.

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Mok Hing-luen, a retired senior lecturer in social work at City University, said the department should bolster its services for those in need, especially the elderly living in care homes, and work to help residents maintain social connections during strict social distancing.

Leung noted the department had provided support to the elderly and rehabilitation centres through tapping the Innovation and Technology Fund for Application in Elderly and Rehabilitation Care, which allowed them to rent or buy better technological products, many of which were used for remote training when centres closed and visits were suspended in care homes.

Since its inception in 2018, the fund has provided about HK$380 million to help roughly 1,300 centres purchase or rent more than 9,600 products, such as smart hospital beds and companion robots.

But Mok said the department should review the accessibility and affordability of the products, and also enhance training for the elderly on their use.

He added that manpower, including social workers and nurses, had long been in short supply in care homes and called on authorities to add more workers to meet the urgent need of an ageing population.

Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation, said the department had been too slow to respond to certain needs that arose as a result of the pandemic, such as a demand for personal protective equipment, while the application process for welfare had also slowed, especially when government employees were working from home.

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CSSA applicants had to wait an additional month on average to start receiving their monthly allowances, she said.

Some services, such as ones for the elderly and children, had been scaled down or suspended because of social-distancing rules, leaving those in need in distress, she added.

“Authorities should have learned from the experiences over the past two years during the pandemic and be more flexible to help those in urgent need,” she said.