The Legislative Council Assembly will resume next Wednesday (October 19). The newly appointed Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Sun Yuk-han, earlier (September 26) presented a number of "poverty alleviation effects" to the Legislative Council Reform Poverty Alleviation Policy and Strategy Subcommittee , including an increase in social welfare spending, various subsidies, and a reduction in the number of poor people. It is also said that the latest "Co-creation "Teen" plan has taken an important step.
However, there may be a lot of gap between social evaluation and the government.
Are there some fundamental problems with the authorities' objective understanding of poverty, their pursuit of value in poverty eradication, and their goals and means of eradicating poverty, which have made it impossible to focus on and eradicate intergenerational poverty for many years?
This also reflects what kind of "poverty alleviation thinking" of the Hong Kong government?
"Intergenerational Poverty" Series In-Depth Report No. 4
Sun Yuhan summed up the government's poverty alleviation achievements in the Legislative Council subcommittee on September 26.
He said that the government's past work has achieved certain results in poverty alleviation and poverty reduction.
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Intergenerational Poverty・1｜The monthly income gap between rich and poor is 47 times. Can children get rid of poverty with "Co-creation Teen"?
The government prides itself on helping the poor
On September 26, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mrs Sun Yuk-han, introduced poverty alleviation policies and measures to Members and discussed the way forward in the Subcommittee on Reform of Poverty Alleviation Policies and Strategies of the Legislative Council.
He first explained the SAR government's concept of poverty alleviation: in short, it is to encourage citizens to be self-reliant, and at the same time to provide "down-to-earth" welfare support for citizens in need.
For low-income households who are able and willing to work, but unable to cope with living expenses, the government will provide "working family allowance". Currently, there are more than 200,000 families benefiting from 60,000 families; The "Old Age Allowance" of $1,515 per month is subject to review, and the "Old Age Living Allowance" of $3,915 per month that is subject to review; in addition to this, the government has another "Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme" commonly known as "CSSA" , providing a basic safety net on a monthly basis for the elderly, sick, disabled, single parents, unemployed, low-income individuals: $2,755 for able-bodied single adults aged 65 or below, $3,915 for senior single seniors, with a disability of 100% $4,730 and $6,655 for those requiring frequent care.
Sun Yuhan also cited the government's determination and achievements in poverty alleviation with the substantial increase in welfare expenditure.
For example, in the ten years from 2012/2013 to 2022/2023, social welfare expenditure has increased by 2.6 times, reaching 111.8 billion yuan; another example, according to the "2020 Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report" released by the government at the end of 2021, the poor population and The poverty rate originally reached 1,652,500 and 23.6%, but after the government intervened with regular cash, non-constant cash, and non-cash welfare programs with means test (mainly public housing), the poor population and poverty rate were improved. decreased to 553,500 and 7.9%.
Huang Hong believes that turning poverty alleviation into cash income, thinking that giving money is equivalent to solving poverty problems, is a bit arrogant and a bit silly.
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Window display non-real poverty alleviation
The SAR government claims to have contributed to poverty alleviation through bright figures. However, senior sociologists who have been concerned about poverty in Hong Kong for many years disagree.
"The government's statement in the past two or three years: We have done a good job, we have sent a lot of money, and Hong Kong seems to have no poor people." Huang Hong, an associate professor of the Department of Social Work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, questioned that the government's use of digital games to pile up the effectiveness of policies The practice is just a "window showing" of the achievements of poverty alleviation, but the actual system and policy are the opposite of "welfareism", "(at all) do not want to help the poor, let alone eliminate poverty, but are afraid of welfare to support laziness. People. Never thought, what can I do to eradicate poverty?”
Taking the above-mentioned "poverty line" used to measure poverty in society as an example, we can roughly get a glimpse of the SAR government's poverty alleviation thinking.
The authorities have adopted the concept of "relative poverty". Since 2013, the official poverty line has been 50% of the median household income before policy intervention. For example, in 2020 (see chart below), a one-person household earning less than $4,400 per month , a two-person household whose income is less than 9,500 yuan is considered "poor"; however, the government generally does not simply announce these figures, but emphasizes the changes after various policy interventions. Aid, public housing, consumer vouchers, etc., so that the income of "poor" households is higher than the "poverty line", and the "poverty alleviation" can be achieved statistically.
However, the government has never cared whether the lives of low-income households who have been statistically “lifted out of poverty” have actually improved.
According to the official poverty line, a one-person household earning less than $4,400 and a two-person household earning less than $9,500 are considered "poor."
(Screenshot from the website of the Census and Statistics Department)
Some arrogant, some stupid
As for the working family allowance, Huang Hong also criticized that it is essentially just a "work benefit": "If you are willing to work and be in the labor market, I will help you. If you have the labor force but are unwilling to work, the government will not give it to you. Your welfare.” This poverty alleviation logic relies on cash allowances rather than intervening in the market to create more “good jobs”.
Regarding the various elderly benefits that the government is proud of, including an annual medical voucher of 2,000 yuan, and a "community care service voucher for the elderly" that can choose a monthly service package ranging from 4,210 to 10,070 yuan according to needs, Huang Hong also pointed out that, These policies are actually "distributing money" and do not focus on the vital needs of the elderly at all.
"Elders are required to get medical vouchers and buy services by themselves, but are these vouchers enough to pay for the services they need, and do the elderly need to queue up? Conversely, why doesn't the government provide services directly?" Huang Hong asked himself and answered himself, this is because the government does not want to Adding to the financial pressure, they are unwilling to undertake elderly care services, and simply turn poverty alleviation into cash income for the elderly.
Lin Jingwen believes that the government should further optimize and review the effectiveness of the social mentoring program, and put forward specific goals to make it more comprehensive and future-proof.
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Infinite hope becomes hopeless
Lin Jingwen, a professor at the School of Social Sciences of the Caritas Institute of Higher Education, also pointed out that this "spending money is a problem" approach exposed the SAR government's passive and short-sighted poverty alleviation thinking, which only looked at the "current" poverty alleviation needs.
Taking the "Co-creation 'Teen' Project" launched by the "Action Group for Students from Disadvantaged Groups to Get Rid of Intergenerational Poverty" led by the Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-kee as an example, Lin Jingwen mentioned that the reference of the "Co-creation 'Teen' Project" The object is the "Child Development Fund". The latter was established as early as 2008. After 14 years of baptism, there should have been many areas for the government to improve. Unexpectedly, the former almost copied the latter. It can be seen that the government has not tried to make the plan more comprehensive. , more visionary.
"This is similar to the government's welfare policy, which is one-way thinking and does not consider other factors." Lin Jingwen said that policies are often linked.
Take the "minimum wage increase" as an example. It can increase family income and reduce working hours, thereby improving the quality of life of families. It can also greatly alleviate the problems of poor families. Unfortunately, the government has been stuck in the same position for many years.
"I thought that the distribution of cash would alleviate the inequality between the rich and the poor, but it didn't really solve the problem of poverty. This is the right medicine for the wrong disease!" Huang Hong also said that the government was reluctant to face the core of the problem, thinking that another way would be useful, but in fact it failed to prescribe the right medicine, " This is very different from the existence of citizens, and it will make the problem worse." As a result, "infinite" hope has become hopeless...
(To be continued)
Intergenerational Poverty・1｜The monthly income gap between rich and poor is 47 times. Can children get rid of poverty with "Co-creation Teen"?
Intergenerational Poverty III｜Government's "Window Display" for Poverty Alleviation Huang Hong: Some are arrogant and some are stupid