Hong Kong NGO urges city’s finance chief to provide more support to those in need amid latest social-distancing restrictions
- Society for Community Organisation says city’s finance chief should allocate at least 25 per cent of gross domestic product to public expenditure
- Group urges authorities to dish out HK$10,000 in handouts to people living below the poverty line
An advocacy group representing the underprivileged in Hong Kong has urged the city’s finance chief to allocate at least 25 per cent of gross domestic product to public expenditure ahead of his budget address next week to ensure there are enough resources to support the needy.
“Just as the unemployment and underemployment rates started to recover from their highest levels last year, Hong Kong was hit by another wave of Covid-19. We expect the jobless rate to hit a new high,” she said.
Sze said the government’s latest Covid-19 restrictions, which included a ban on evening dine-in services, and the closure of bars, gyms and other premises, had hurt many workers, adding that relief measures fell short of supporting those in need.
SoCO urged authorities to dish out HK$10,000 (US$1,280) worth of handouts to people living below the poverty line, provide rental relief for public housing tenants, and give subsidies to so-called N-nothing households, those earning too much to qualify for subsidised housing or welfare assistance but not enough to buy homes or benefit from tax breaks.
“We also request that [the government] ‘regularise’ the subsidy for those non-CSSA [Comprehensive Social Security Assistance], non-public housing people, who are living in cage homes, subdivided flats,” Sze said.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po is set to deliver his annual budget on February 23.
Wong, 36, who lives with her husband and two children in a subdivided flat in Yau Tsim Mong district, said she could no longer work at restaurants in the evening as she had to stay home to look after her children due to the suspension of in-person school classes.
“The poorer you are, the poorer you’ll become because you get nothing from the government,” Wong said. “Things are very difficult because I have to look for work all the time.”
Keirya, a 28-year-old single mother who moved from Africa to Hong Kong, said she used to work part-time at a coffee shop three days a week, and earned just over HK$2,000 per month.
“I’m worried about how we will survive,” the Sham Shui Po resident said. “Sometimes I don’t have enough money for food so I just tell my daughter that I’m fasting.”
Last year, eligible Hong Kong residents were offered HK$5,000 worth of government e-vouchers aimed at boosting local spending and jump-starting the city’s economic recovery. But the group said the consumption vouchers were not enough to help the city’s poorest residents.
