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Following is a question by the Hon Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (November 14):
Question:
The Office of The Ombudsman, Hong Kong pointed out in its direct investigation report published on October 29, 2009 that problems were found in areas such as the eligibility criteria for Disability Allowance (DA), the role of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in the DA scheme, as well as SWD's appeal procedures, etc. The Office also made certain recommendations accordingly. Responding to the report on the same day, SWD indicated that it would form a cross-departmental working group with the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health to conduct a comprehensive review of the implementation details of the DA scheme, which was expected to be completed within six to nine months. Nevertheless, the outcome and specific recommendations of the review have not been announced so far. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the operation of the aforesaid working group, including when it was formed, the names and post titles of its members, the name of its chairman/convenor, its functions, the number of meetings held so far, ways by which the views of stakeholders (in particular the views of DA recipients and their families) were gathered, its work schedule, the reasons why the review outcome has not yet been announced, as well as when it will complete the review and announce the outcome;
(b) whether it has examined or revised the current eligibility criteria, including whether a new definition has been formulated for "severely disabled"; whether it has reviewed how far the current levels of DA help the recipients "meet special needs arising from severe disability", and whether the policy objectives can be achieved; and
(c) whether it has considered developing an electronic platform for vetting and approving DA applications to replace the existing mode of processing applications by circulating paper documents, so as to allow officers to exchange information and process applications via the electronic platform; if it has, of the timetable and options for developing the platform; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by Dr Hon Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung is as follows:
(a) and (b) In its Direct Investigation Report on "Granting of Disability Allowance and Processing of Appeals by Social Welfare Department" released in October 2009, the Ombudsman mainly recommended that the Social Welfare Department (SWD) should fine-tune the implementation details for the Disability Allowance (DA) eligibility criteria and revise the Medical Assessment Form and internal guidelines to clearly reflect the original policy intent and facilitate assessment work; improve the assessment mechanism and procedures, increase its transparency, and enhance the objectiveness and consistencies of the assessments; and clarify the roles of relevant departments and authorities (i.e. SWD, the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Department of Health (DH)) and strengthen their co-ordination.
Having regard to the Ombudsman's recommendations, SWD set up a Working Group (WG) in November 2009 to conduct a review. The Convenor of the WG is the Deputy Director of Social Welfare (Administration), and the WG members comprise representatives from the Labour and Welfare Bureau, HA, DH and Efficiency Unit. The list of members is at Annex.
The WG has suitably refined and updated the guidelines, Medical Assessment Form and checklist used by medical officers at public hospitals/clinics for conducting medical assessments, and also the work flow of relevant departments and authorities in processing DA applications, in order to ensure the consistencies and objectiveness in conducting medical assessments, and achieve the policy intent of DA. At one point in time, the progress of the WG was affected by a judicial review lodged by an ex-DA applicant. With the conclusion of the judicial review in mid-July 2011, the WG immediately continued its review work, including conducting briefings, focus groups and meetings with stakeholders involved in the operation (including SWD frontline colleagues, doctors and medical social workers of HA and DH, etc.) to collect their views on the details of the review and the proposed refinements.
Having collected the opinions of the aforesaid stakeholders and accordingly refined the work process, guidelines and forms, the WG has basically concluded its work. However, the Chief Executive in his manifesto had proposed to allow people with the loss of one limb to apply for DA. This proposal has a direct bearing on the current eligibility criteria of DA, which makes reference to the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282), and will also affect the applicability of the results of the WG's review. Before deciding on when and how to implement the outcome of the WG's review, we need to consider the implications arising from the follow-up work on the proposal.
(c) The development of an electronic payment authorisation platform for DA amongst relevant departments and authorities will involve substantial changes to the computer systems and work procedures of the departments and authorities concerned. This falls outside the scope of the WG's work, and at this stage the Administration has no plans to make such a substantial change.
Ends/Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Issued at HKT 11:54
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