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The following is issued on behalf of the Community Care Fund Secretariat:
The Community Care Fund (CCF) will start verifying eligibility of and accepting new applications from two-person households for the third launch of the "One-off Living Subsidy for Low-income Households Not Living in Public Housing and Not Receiving CSSA" assistance programme from tomorrow (February 1). The amount of subsidy for two-person households is $8,000.
Beneficiaries should currently be renting accommodation in private housing, industrial or commercial buildings on a monthly basis (or for longer tenures), or renting bedspaces offered under the Home Affairs Department's Singleton Hostel Programme, or residing in temporary housing, or living on board vessels, or homeless persons. Their monthly income must not exceed the specified limits. They should not be receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance or own any property in Hong Kong. For those renting accommodation in private housing, industrial or commercial buildings, their monthly rent should not exceed the specified rental limits. The income and rental limits for two-person households are $16,140 and $8,070 respectively.
Eligible households who benefited from the relaunch of the programme from January to August 2015 can benefit again, among which two-person households will receive notification for confirming eligibility from the CCF Secretariat (the Secretariat) starting from early February. Households who meet the eligibility criteria of the programme should complete the reply slip with appendices attached to the notification and return it to the Secretariat to confirm eligibility on or before August 31. Upon verification of the eligibility of the household, the Secretariat will send notification of eligibility verification result to the household. The Secretariat will arrange to disburse the subsidy to eligible households according to their chosen method under the relaunched programme (i.e. either through direct payment into a bank account or by order cheque).
Other eligible two-person households should submit new applications to service units from tomorrow onwards. Households with elderly people only (i.e. all members in the household are aged 65 or above), households with young people only (i.e. all members in the household are aged 24 or below) or homeless people can submit applications to elderly service units, youth service units or service units accepting applications from homeless people respectively. The Secretariat and service units will vet each application, including verifying the eligibility, checking the supporting documents submitted, and conducting visits/home visits and income tests on selected applications. The Secretariat will issue notifications of application results to applicants after vetting the applications concerned and disburse the subsidy to eligible households through direct payment into a bank account or by order cheque.
The programme was launched for the third time on January 4 to relieve the financial pressure on low-income households. The Secretariat started verifying eligibility of and accepting new applications from one-person households on the same day. As at January 29, around 9 000 households have confirmed their eligibility or submitted new applications, and the Secretariat has started to disburse the subsidy to eligible households in phases since the end of January.
The CCF will verify the eligibility of and accept new applications from three-person households and four-or-more-person households from March 1 and April 1 to August 31 respectively.
For details of the programme, please visit the CCF website (www.communitycarefund.hk) or call the programme hotline on 2180 6666.
Ends/Sunday, January 31, 2016
Issued at HKT 11:30
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