Political situation
Written by: Chen Chuolan
2021-02-07 11:18
The last update date: 2021-02-07 11:18
The new crown pneumonia epidemic has lasted for many months, and many industries have been forced to suspend operations. The unemployment rate reached 6.6%, a record high in 16 years.
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, stated on the Hong Kong and Taiwan program "Letter to Hong Kong" today (7) that in order to cope with the challenges brought by the epidemic, the government announced on the 4th that it would relax the working hours requirements of the Working Family Allowance Scheme. And temporarily relax the asset limit for food banking services, hoping to temporarily reduce the financial burden of individuals and families in need.
The government announced last week that starting from June, the application threshold for the Working Family Allowance Scheme will be relaxed. The working hours of non-single-parent households will be reduced from 144 hours to 72 hours. It is estimated that 24,000 people will benefit.
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Luo Zhengguang said that under the epidemic, the current working hours and income of working people may be reduced. Due to the reduction in working hours, some people may be at risk of losing their application for working family allowance. To prevent this "double danger", the government recommends Temporarily reduce the basic working time requirement for non-single-parent families to 72 hours per month; the working time requirement for the intermediate allowance will also be reduced from 168 hours per month to 132 hours per month; and for single-parent families 36, 54 and 72 hours per month The working hours requirements will remain unchanged.
Under this temporary arrangement, families with a total monthly working hours of 72 to 131 hours will be eligible for a basic allowance of up to HK$1,000 per month, and each eligible child and youth in the family can receive up to 1,400 per month. The child allowance in Hong Kong dollars, taking a family of four with two children as an example, can earn up to 3,800 Hong Kong dollars per month.
▼On February 3, the Hong Kong government "strongly recommends" civil servants to use peace of mind when entering and leaving the government headquarters▼
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In addition, the government temporarily relaxes the asset limit for food banking services. The service aims to provide one-time basic food assistance for up to eight weeks to help individuals and families who encounter sudden changes and face direct financial difficulties to cope with daily food expenses.
The government proposes to relax the asset limit for food banking services by increasing the asset limit for the Working Family Allowance Scheme. Taking a family of four as an example, the asset limit will be increased from HK$264,000 to HK$548,000.
The government expects to increase its commitment by approximately HK$430 million, which can benefit approximately 120,000 additional service users.
Luo Zhiguang hopes that these two additional measures can temporarily alleviate the financial burden of individuals and families in need. He also hopes that with the launch of the vaccination plan, the global epidemic can be controlled and social and economic activities can be restored to a certain extent.
The threshold for WFA working hours will be relaxed to 72 hours starting from June, and the social association will leave the ground: many people have no food at all
The government will significantly reduce the monthly working hours requirement of WFA to 72 hours. Luo Zhiguang will help 24,000 people
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Low-income working family allowance Luo Zhiguang