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Legislative Council|Tang Ka-piu advocates that the poverty line is not divided, the number of households is not divided, and the poverty reduction effect is checked according to the living expenses

2022-01-24T06:03:09.969Z


The problem of poverty has always plagued Hong Kong. Tang Ka-piu, a member of the Legislative Council of the Federation of Trade Unions, introduced a motion in the Legislative Council this week, asking the government to review the current definition of poverty and formulate poverty reduction goals. Deng Jiabiao is remembering today (24th)


The problem of poverty has always plagued Hong Kong. Tang Ka-piu, a member of the Legislative Council of the Federation of Trade Unions, introduced a motion in the Legislative Council this week, asking the government to review the current definition of poverty and formulate poverty reduction goals.

Deng Jiabiao pointed out at a press conference today (24th) that the current method of dividing households according to the number of people, and then calculating half of the median income as the poverty line is flawed, because the income of different households varies greatly, and it is impossible to accurately understand the poverty situation.


He suggested that half of the median household income in Hong Kong should be set as the basic poverty line, and necessary living expenses should be newly established as a factor to examine the effectiveness of poverty alleviation.


Tang Jiabiao pointed out that the government needs to formulate poverty reduction goals and implement targeted poverty alleviation measures for different types of poverty.

(Photo by Su Weiran)

Tang Jiabiao said that at present, the Hong Kong government lacks a clear target setting for what is meant by "poor population". He pointed out that the current statistical method divides the poverty line according to the number of households, which will make the poverty line of different families vary greatly.

For example, he pointed out that among the one- to two-person households, many are elderly households with no income, which makes the poverty line of one- to two-person households lower in disguise; on the contrary, most of the three- to five-person households are employable families. The last two Household poverty lines make significant differences: households with fewer people have lower poverty lines, but have higher living costs than multi-person households.

He questioned that according to the current calculation method, Hong Kong will underestimate the poor population, so it is necessary to formulate a poverty reduction target and review the definition of poverty at the same time.

He believes that the current method of measuring poverty limits the government's imagination. He believes that since "relative poverty" is difficult to catch up in poverty alleviation, the poverty line should be set based on basic expenditure.

Tang Jiabiao suggested that half of the median household income in Hong Kong should be set as the basic poverty line, and necessary living expenses should be newly established as a factor to examine the effectiveness of poverty alleviation, and the poverty of the elderly should be considered as the primary object of inspection.

(Photo by Su Weiran)

The country has three guarantees to combat poverty, including adequate housing

Deng Jiabiao also pointed out that although the country adopts the definition of "absolute poverty" in poverty alleviation, it also proposes "two no worries and three guarantees", and promises to the people the guarantees of education, medical care and suitable housing.

He pointed out that Hong Kong should have ambition and become a reference for the country's big cities in poverty alleviation.

He mentioned that in the past, most of the growth in the number of poor households in Hong Kong stemmed from one- and two-person households. In the next 30 years, the number and proportion of the elderly in Hong Kong will continue to rise, which will further increase the poverty problem. Therefore, the government needs to formulate poverty reduction goals and also set different types of poverty reduction targets. Poverty-targeted implementation of poverty alleviation measures.

In an online opinion survey conducted by the Federation of Trade Unions last week, a total of 80% of the public believed that the poverty problem in Hong Kong was serious or very serious.

(Photo by Su Weiran)

Trade Union Opinion Survey: 80% of the public think that the poverty problem in Hong Kong is serious

In addition, last week, the Federation of Trade Unions conducted an online opinion survey of 685 citizens, of which 80% of the citizens believed that the poverty problem in Hong Kong was serious or very serious; if divided into different types of poverty, 28.3% of the respondents believed that the elderly poverty problem was the most serious, 26.9% believe that working poverty is the most serious problem, and 12.2% think that intergenerational poverty is the most serious problem.

The questionnaire also asked that the current poverty line for 1-person households is set at below 4,500 yuan. When asked if they think they can maintain a basic life, as many as 93.8% of the respondents believe that they cannot; and the poverty line for 4-person households is 20,800 yuan per month. Below, with an average of 5,200 yuan per person, 75.8% of the respondents believed that they could not maintain a basic life in Hong Kong.

Budget | The Federation of Trade Unions proposes to send 10,000 yuan of consumer vouchers to promote the implementation of the cancellation of MPF to hedge the Legislative Council election as soon as possible. Labor's position provokes Tang Jiabiao: LAB's continuation of collective bargaining rights, the essence of customs clearance is indefinite | Tian Beichen said that there are still "little doors" "Unopened, Deng Jiabiao calls on hotels to detect and reduce the number of people.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-01-24

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