Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu delivered the third Policy Address today. Oxfam Hong Kong  endorses the 2024 Policy Address for its proactive exploration of measures to support the impoverished, incorporating some recommendations previously presented by us. However, there remains significant room for improvement in addressing the poverty issue. Oxfam Hong Kong urges the government to develop a Poverty Alleviation Framework to facilitate Targeted Poverty Alleviation, implement resettlement plans to eliminate subdivided units, establish a database for doubleton and singleton elderly households, and promote active ageing policies, to alleviate the escalating poverty issue in Hong Kong.

“The ‘Hong Kong Poverty Report 2024’ released by Oxfam Hong Kong reveals the income gap between the poorest and richest deciles surges to 81.9 times compared to 34.3 times in 2019. As the challenge of an ageing population, Oxfam Hong Kong welcomes the  adoption of the government of our earlier policy proposals aimed at activating the economically inactive workforce, including unleashing the productivity of the elders through retraining and reemployment, as well as enhancing childcare support to facilitate greater female labor force participation. We recommend that the government revises its current poverty alleviation policies to ensure their effectiveness and utilised resources, aligning with its commitment to ‘Improve People's Livelihood in Pursuit of Happiness’,” Kalina Tsang, Director General of Oxfam Hong Kong said.

1.Developing a Poverty Alleviation Framework for Targeted Poverty Alleviation

The government has ceased publishing poverty reports and the associated poverty lines since 2022. Instead, it has adopted a strategy of Targeted Poverty Alleviation to provide support specifically for single-parent households, elderly households, and households residing in sub-divided units. In the latest Policy Address, the government has proposed expanding the Strive and Rise Programme – recruiting 4,000 mentees in the third cohort, enhancing the School-based After School Care Service Scheme and launching a three-year pilot scheme for elderly recipients of CSSA to retire in Guangdong.

Oxfam welcomes the government's initiative to increase the quotas of existing programme to benefit more individuals in poverty. However, Oxfam believes it is essential for the government to retain a poverty line to analyse and monitor the overall poverty situation in Hong Kong from a macro perspective. Utilising the poverty line data to implement Targeted Poverty Alleviation can enhance the design of effective poverty reduction and relief policies tailored to various underprivileged groups.

We recognise that there are  doubts among society regarding the accuracy of poverty lines. To address these concerns, we propose calculating the poverty rate of "elderly households" independently and annualising their assets as monthly income, combining with original market income and cash transfers as total income and to adopt absolute poverty in the calculation. This approach aims to accurately measure the poverty rate of elderly households, addressing the perception that their poverty rate is overstated as they are presumed "income-poor asset holders”.

2. Enabling and Active Ageing Policies for Elderly

The Policy Address proposed the set-up of a Working Group on Promoting Silver Economy, led by the Deputy Secretary for Administration, to implement measures in developing the silver industry. This includes promoting elderly-friendly consumption, exploring new products and financial security services, as well as providing retraining and reemployment opportunities for the elderly, thereby unleashing "silver productivity". Oxfam welcomes the government's endorsement of the directions we proposed in the Poverty Report, which advocate for a proactive "enabling" and “active ageing” approach among the elderly to address the issues arising from population ageing.

Official data shows more than 580,000 people aged 65 or above are living in poverty, and the number of singleton and doubleton elderly poor households also reached 260,000. Earlier, we suggested that the government establish a "database for singleton and doubleton elderly households” by integrating data from various departments (including the Housing Authority, Social Welfare Department, Hospital Authority, etc.). We are pleased to see the Policy Address mentioned the study of establishing of an inter‑disciplinary and inter‑organisation database for caregivers of the elderly and disabled, along with identification tools for the detection and early intervention in high-risk cases. To gain an understanding of the actual situation of elderly households and provide various services, we hope the authorities expand the scope of the database. In addition to assisting households in need of care, we should also focus on identifying capable and willing younger seniors and creating job opportunities for them. This includes encouraging employers to hire elderly through simplified application procedures of the Employment Programme for the Elderly and Middle-aged, as well as enhancing elderly’s willingness to work by lowering the threshold for elderly applicants in the Working Family Allowance Scheme.

For elderly individuals in need of care, we welcome the government's proposal in the Policy Address to develop primary healthcare solutions. This includes devising health promotion strategies by adopting a life‑course framework to formulate health management plans for the public according to age and health conditions. The solutions also include upgrading more District Health Centre Expresses into District Health Centres, expanding the service network, and integrating the services of Elderly Health Centre. We suggest the government utilise innovative technology and  ‘Care Teams’ to provide improved support for elderly individuals wishing to age in place.

3. Unleashing Economically Inactive Women’s Workforce Participation

According to our “Hong Kong Poverty Report 2024”, the labour force participation rate of impoverished women is lower when their children are younger, and it increases as their children grow. Children caring responsibility is one of the barriers preventing these women from entering the workforce. 

We welcome the approaches in the Policy Address that support working parents, which include setting up one more aided standalone child care centre, increasing the home-based child carers quotas by 25% to 2,500 and extending the coverage of School-based After School Care Service Scheme to 110 primary schools. Apart from increasing the quotas, we suggest the government to cover infants aged 0-2 - the government should assess service quotas based on the age distribution of children in different districts and increase the number of places for 0–2-year-olds conditions in aided child care centres attached to kindergartens. We also recommend expanding Home-based childcare services to strengthen the support for families in need, especially working single parents. Home-based childcare services and centre-based care can provide extended services for kindergarten and After School Care Programme for Primary School Student. The government should also explore providing ancillary transport facilities to coordinate community child care services with “School-based After School Care Service Scheme”.

4. Implementing Resettlement Plans to Eliminate Substandard Sub-divided Units

The government proposed legislation to convert substandard subdivided units (SDUs) into Basic Housing Units, which include windows, individual toilets, and a minimum area of not less than 8 square metres. Three additional Community Living Rooms will be established in areas clusters with SDUs, benefiting approximately 1, 300 targeted households. Meanwhile, the total public housing supply will reach 189, 000 units in the coming five years, with the composite waiting time potentially shortened to 4.5 years by 2026-27.  

Oxfam endorses the crucial need to improve the living standards of SDUs and to increase public housing supply as part of poverty alleviation efforts. According to Oxfam’s “Hong Kong Poverty Report 2024”, the number of poor singleton and doubleton elderly households  has significantly increased. Additionally, according to the “Hong Kong 2021 Population Census – Thematic Report: Persons Living in Subdivided Units”, the number of SDUs has exceeded 100, 000 households, with over 200,000 individuals residing there. The housing options for the impoverished population are limited, making it hard to find suitable and affordable accommodation. Comprehensive measures should be taken to address the urgent needs of subdivided unit residents, who are currently suffering from overheating indoor temperatures, cramped living spaces, and insufficient storage. Previously, Oxfam collaborated with a self-storage business, Storefriendly, to allow subdivided unit residents to temporarily store their belongings, thereby providing more space in their flats and improving their living conditions.

We urge the government to encourage businesses to actively utilise their resources to improve the living in SDUs through the tripartite collaboration among Government, Businesses, and NGOs, thereby creating a greater social impact. At the same time, we welcome the government’s expansion of the Pilot Programme on Community Living Rooms and suggest that this initiative be expanded to all 18 districts based on the population ratio of each area, benefiting more target residents while regularly assessing its effectiveness and social impact. Oxfam believes it is essential to implement resettlement plans to effectively convert SDUs into Basic Housing Units. The government should expedite the registration of SDUs and establish a clear timeline. Given the difficulty in significantly increasing public housing supply in the short term, we believe strengthen transitional housing is an interim solution to provide better living conditions for residents. For those unable to move into transitional housing, the government should provide sufficient rental subsidies to secure their housing stability and prevent any situation that may lead to homelessness.

5. Supporting Ethnic Minorities

The Policy Address has proposed setting up one more support service centre to provide interpretation and translation services to ethnic minorities. The Education Bureau will also  provide after‑school Chinese‑language courses and enhance the Online Chinese Language Self‑learning Resources for non-Chinese-speaking (NCS) students. On the other hand, it will organise cross-school, teacher-learning communities for teachers and provide parental education activities for parents. We welcome the government's continuous support for ethnic minorities and agree that learning Chinese is an effective way to integrate in society and get out of poverty. Oxfam has been running “Start from the Beginning – Chinese Supporting Scheme for Non-Chinese Speaking Students in Kindergarten” since 2015  to design Chinese-as-a- second-language teaching materials and interactive Chinese enrichment classes. The project also trains teachers to teach Chinese as a second language. To date, we have supported over 1,000 NCS students and over 100 teachers. Coming up, we recommend the government to take reference of Teacher Professional Development on Catering for Students with Special Educational Needs, to set up a three-level course (Basic, Advanced and Thematic) for teaching Chinese as a second language and set training objectives. To ensure adequate Chinese learning support to NCS students, the government should offer the training to certain numbers of teachers working in schools with NCS students.

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