Push open the iron gate and walk into a unit in Nanchang Village. The gray-white gate is full of cracks, and the light-yellow walls in the unit have many places with newly patched white paint.
The 70-year-old Granny Qian is the owner. Sitting in the sofa, she looked at the dilapidated gate and the white paint on the wall. She said with a wry smile, "There is no way, I really have no money to fix it."
Granny Qian never planned to be a property owner, but her husband passed away suddenly eight years ago. Relatives and friends worried that she would be forced to evict, so they helped her buy a public housing unit.
However, buying a home depleted her savings, and she had to rely on the old age living allowance of less than 4,000 yuan per month. She has not bought a single shirt in the past 8 years, and her life is almost zero.
She laments that it is more difficult to live in peace after buying a property, and owning a property does not mean living well. "Although it is called owning a property, life is very difficult and painful."
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Savings from buying public housing are exhausted and Changshengjin becomes the only income
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Chen Guoji, pointed out last month that when calculating the poverty line, the assets owned by citizens are not included. In extreme terms, if someone owns 3 to 4 properties, but he retires and has no income, he may become a poor person. Therefore, New methods are being researched.
In the original life plan of Granny Chin and her husband, home ownership was never included. They have no children and they plan to live in public housing all the time.
However, suffering from breast cancer and the sudden death of her husband disrupted all plans, "I was completely devastated at the time."
Bought a residential unit with 420,000 yuan from savings and relatives and friends
Relatives and friends who came back from overseas were very worried when they saw her situation, and feared that she would be forced to move to a small apartment, and proposed to subsidize her to buy the public housing unit where she had been living.
In 2015, Grandma Qian finally spent all her savings, together with the support of relatives and friends, to buy the unit for about 420,000 yuan, but she said, "I know it will be miserable before I buy it."
With her savings exhausted, Granny Qian's only monthly income is the Changshengjin Jin of RMB 3,915.
Management fees of more than 540 yuan per month, quarterly rates, consultation fees for 6 specialties in public hospitals, drug fees... Various expenses are deducted, and there is very little money that can be used freely every month. "Myself I haven’t counted it, I think it seems to be nothing.”
I really regret it, I regret it, if I don’t buy it, I’ll live in public housing... Even if I don’t get CSSA, it turns out that the old people have halved the rent, at least I don’t feel like I’m at home Sample.
Granny Qian
8 years of life without buying a shirt is almost zero entertainment
In order to save money, Granny Qian has not bought a single shirt in the past 8 years, and rarely buys meat when buying food. When buying fish at fish stalls, she will ask the store to cut the 10 yuan fish into small pieces, jokingly called "feeding the cat". It is eaten slowly in three meals a day, but to save 2 yuan when buying vegetables, I always buy two catties at a time. When I get home, I wrap it and put it in the refrigerator.
When the elderly center or patient organization has activities, whether it is a day trip or an annual dinner, she is always absent. When asked, she dare not say that she is poor and can only prevaricate by saying that she is unwell and has no time to attend. You can’t tell people that I don’t have money, because people think you’re fake because of your behavior.”
Prosthetic milk and nutritional milk powder dare not buy enough money to arrange funeral affairs in advance
Daily life is economical, as is medical care. The prosthetic breasts to be used after the operation cost 420 yuan, which she thought was too expensive. At first, she bought one after the operation and used it for 3 years.
During the follow-up visit, the doctor told her that she was not nutritious enough, and asked her to drink nutritional milk powder, but after looking at the price, which cost more than 300 yuan a can, she was also afraid to buy it.
"Save at death" every month to avoid "clearing" bank deposits, but the monthly balance is only hovering between 13,000 and 14,000 yuan. I want to entrust social welfare organizations to help arrange funeral affairs in advance, but I have not been able to save enough 1.8 yuan The cost of 10,000 yuan, "Because there are so many expenses, it is very difficult to save."
Handling fees are too high to give up selling the property to keep promises and refuse to receive CSSA
Granny Qian said frankly that she thought about selling the unit, but there are many procedures involved in selling the property, which involves a lot of handling fees that can easily cost thousands of yuan. Dig it out?" In the end, he had no choice but to give up the idea of selling the property.
Since self-occupied properties can be exempted, Granny Qian is eligible to apply for CSSA due to her financial situation. However, many people have tried to persuade her over the years, but she has refused them all. The reason is that she once agreed with her husband that after retirement Rely on savings, not CSSA.
Eight years later, when mentioning the sudden death of her husband, Granny Qian still didn't let go of it, and believed that her husband had a heart attack in the middle of the night because of the stress of taking care of her. , because it is my promise to him. I feel so sorry for him. If I didn’t have these things (cancer), he wouldn’t let him quit his job, maybe he wouldn’t go like this, right? ah?"
Granny Qian had made an agreement with her husband to rely on savings instead of CSSA after retirement.
(Photo by Li Zhenbang)
Seeing nursing homes for the elderly as the final destination, but fearing that the property will become unoccupied and lose long-term living allowance
With no children and no relatives in Hong Kong, Granny Qian knew that no one would take care of her, and she regarded a nursing home as her final destination.
However, she originally owned a public housing unit, which also hindered her admission to a subsidized nursing home.
After recovering from breast cancer, Grandma Chin suffered multiple strokes and falls, and was found fainted at home several times. Social workers had applied for a subsidized nursing home for her in the early years, and she had been allocated a place earlier.
However, under the current financial review system, once she enters a residential care home, her public housing unit will change from "self-occupied property" to "non-self-occupied property", which makes her exceed the asset limit and lose her eligibility to apply for the Longevity Allowance.
Losing the Longevity Allowance means losing her only income. Considering that she has no income, it is difficult to balance the expenses of nursing homes, management fees and rates of public housing units, so she has not moved into a residential home for the time being.
Can the government be considerate of us, those who are old, sick, and low-income, although they are called housing estates, are living very hard and painful lives.
Granny Qian
As an owner, you can be poor even if you have a lot of responsibilities
You can be poor even if you have property.
Grandma Qian mentioned that although the property has a certain market value, the identity of the owner also comes with many responsibilities, such as mandatory window inspections, water pipe leaks, and replacement of air-conditioning racks, all of which have to be handled at their own expense. It's such a heavy burden."
Buying a home but unable to settle down, Granny Qian felt that she was not alone, and hoped that the government would provide assistance to the old owners. It was very difficult and painful.”
Lian Weiqiao, director of the Hong Kong Association for Community Organizations, pointed out that owning a property does not mean that there is a monthly income that can be used.
(Photo by Jiang Liying)
Owning a property does not mean having disposable income, prompting the government to introduce specific policies for old owners
Lin Weiqiao, director of the Hong Kong Association for Community Organizations, pointed out that owning a property does not mean that there is a monthly disposable income, and including assets into the poverty line may not reflect the real poverty situation.
He suggested that in order to truly reflect the living conditions of the old owners, consider introducing objective scales to evaluate whether they poverty.
Lian Weiqiao continued to point out that some old owners face various expenses, and their lives are sometimes more difficult than those who live in public housing and apply for CSSA. If they live in a house, their self-occupied property will become a non-self-occupied property, which will make them lose the Longevity Allowance.
The government is considering revising the poverty line with asset calculations Shi Lishan has reservations: she will not be asked to sell a building Li Jiachao intends to solve intergenerational poor children's development matching fund: the hope plan is not a slogan-based initiative. Seventy percent of CSSA and WFA are below the poverty line