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Following is a question by the Hon Regina Ip and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (December 4):
Question:
At present, the Government provides, through the Student Financial Assistance Agency (SFAA), various types of student financial assistance (including School Textbook Assistance, Student Travel Subsidy Schemes and Subsidy Scheme for Internet Access Charges) to families with financial needs (excluding those families under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme which directly apply to the Social Welfare Department for such assistance). As those applicants who have passed SFAA's means test and met the relevant eligibility criteria may also be granted the "enhanced travel subsidy for needy special school students" and the "additional flat-rate grant" provided by the Community Care Fund (CCF), and their children may also enjoy the "school lunch subsidy" at school provided by CCF, whether SFAA's means test mechanism can effectively verify the eligibility of the applicants and identify recipients of assistance with genuine needs is of utmost importance. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the staff establishment in SFAA responsible for conducting the means test and the average time for processing an application, in each year from 2011-2012 to 2013-2014 school years;
(b) of the number and percentage of the applications approved, the number and percentage of those applications randomly checked by SFAA, and the number of those applications in which false income declaration had been uncovered and the percentage of such number in the total number of applications approved, in each year from 2011-2012 to 2013-2014 school years; and
(c) whether, apart from conducting the means test, SFAA will conduct an asset test on applicants; if not, of the reasons for that, and whether it has assessed if such a practice will result in a waste of public money and CCF's resources?
Reply:
President,
(a) The SFAA processed over 200 000 family-based applications for financial assistance for primary and secondary students each year from the 2011/12 to 2013/14 school years (excluding CSSA applicants). During the peak season, about 220 staff are engaged in processing applications and conducting income test each year.
As regards the time required for processing applications, in accordance with the SFAA's performance pledge, if the applicants can provide all necessary information and supporting documents to the SFAA when submitting the applications, the SFAA can normally complete the processing of applications and notify the applicants of the results within three months from the receipt of applications. Nevertheless, given the uniqueness of family circumstances, some families may not be able to provide all the necessary information and supporting documents (including personal particulars and income proofs of family members) at the time of application. In such cases, more time will be required to follow up with, and seek clarifications from, the applicants. Hence, the processing time varies from case to case.
In order that a greater number of eligible students can receive student financial assistance before the commencement of the school year, the SFAA has adopted a risk management approach and re-structured the workflow since the 2011/12 school year to advance the disbursement of STA. Following the new workflow, majority of the applicants who are not applying for the first time (accounting for about 80% of all applications for financial assistance for primary and secondary students) could receive the textbook assistance before the start of the school year. Applicants who received textbook assistance in the previous school year and have submitted the duly completed application form together with all necessary information by the end of May could receive the textbook assistance in the first half of August if they can pass the income test of the new school year. Since the 2012/13 school year, the SFAA has further streamlined the procedures such that the first batch of eligible applicants could receive the textbook assistance by the end of July. The processing time was overall shortened to within around two months.
(b) When processing applications for financial assistance, the SFAA will examine the information provided by each applicant thoroughly. In respect of applications with unclear or incomplete information, the SFAA will seek supplementary information from applicants. Applications would only be approved when accurate and sufficient information is collected. In addition, supervisors of the processing teams of the SFAA conduct, from time to time, random check on cases that have been vetted by their subordinates to ensure accuracy and consistency in application processing.
Furthermore, to prevent applicants from obtaining financial assistance through misrepresentation, concealment of facts or provision of false information, the SFAA conducts authentication and detailed review on selected successful cases every year. There is a designated team in SFAA specifically responsible for the authentication work. If overpayment of financial assistance due to misrepresentation or omission of income is found, the Authentication Team will recover the overpaid amount from the applicant. Cases involving serious omission or suspected deception will be referred to the police for investigation.
The numbers of applications for financial assistance for primary and secondary students, cases authenticated and cases involving misrepresentation or omission of income which necessitate the refund of subsidies from the applicants for the 2011/12 to 2013/14 school years are set out at Annex (application on a family basis).
As regards the 2013/14 school year, statistics on authentication are not yet available because the SFAA has just commenced the 2013/14 authentication cycle for applications for financial assistance for primary and secondary students in mid-November.
As shown in the annex, after the re-structuring of the workflow in the 2011/12 school year, the SFAA has further reviewed the overall vetting arrangement and increased the percentage of successful applications for authentication in the 2012/13 school year to ensure that financial assistance is disbursed to students with genuine needs. To strengthen its monitoring role, the SFAA has authenticated over 15 000 applications in the 2012/13 school year, representing an increase of 43% over the preceding year.
(c) At present, a standard income test is adopted for assessing the eligibility of applicants for various financial assistance schemes for primary and secondary students. Asset test is not required.
The SFAA is committed to processing each application for financial assistance in a fair, just and efficient manner in order to ensure that financial assistance is provided to eligible applicants as soon as possible. Given that the SFAA has to process over 200 000 applications for financial assistance for primary and secondary students each year, there is a need to strike a balance between the proper use of public money and the timely disbursement of financial assistance to the needy applicants. We are of the view that the current practice to assess the eligibility of applicants for financial assistance for primary and secondary students by means of the income test, coupled with detailed authentication on successful cases on a random sampling mechanism, can ensure the appropriate provision of financial assistance to needy primary and secondary students and is a suitable way of operation.
Ends/Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:25
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