********************************
Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (January 20):
Question:
The Government is conducting a public consultation exercise on the future retirement protection system. The fourth pillar of the retirement protection framework, put forward by the World Bank and mentioned in the consultation document, comprises items like "personal assets" (e.g. owner-occupied properties) and "family support" (e.g. financial support from descendants). Regarding statistics on these two items, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of elderly singletons aged 65 or above in each of the past three financial years, broken down by the value of assets (excluding owner-occupied properties) they held (set out in Table 1);
(2) of the number of elderly couples aged 65 or above in each of the past three financial years, broken down by the value of assets (excluding owner-occupied properties) they held (set out in Table 2);
(3) of the number of elderly households with all members aged 65 or above and holding owner-occupied properties in each of the past three financial years, broken down by household size and appraised property value (set out in Table 3); and
(4) of the number of persons required to pay salaries tax who made claims for allowances for maintaining parents or grandparents aged 65 or above in each of the past three years of assessment, as well as the total amount of allowances granted (and set out a breakdown in Tables 4 and 5 by number of dependents involved)?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Cheung Kwok-che's question is set out below.
(1) and (2) The Social Welfare Department (SWD) only keeps information on the value of assets (excluding owner-occupied properties) held by elderly persons who are receiving the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) under the Social Security Allowance (SSA) Scheme.
The OALA, which was introduced on April 1, 2013, supplements the living expenses of persons aged 65 or above who are in need of financial support. The financial test of OALA is conducted on the basis of a single person or a married couple. The asset profile of OALA recipients (excluding owner-occupied properties) is set out in Table 6 and Table 7 below. It is worth noting that before the introduction of OALA, a means-tested Normal Old Age Allowance (NOAA) was available to elderly persons aged 65 to 69. However, since the SWD does not maintain the asset profile of the then NOAA recipients, the information requested for the 2012-13 financial year is not available.
(3) Based on the data obtained from the General Household Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), the number of households with all members aged 65 or above by household size and tenure of accommodation in 2012 to 2014 are set out in Table 8 below. The C&SD does not collect information on the appraised value of the properties of households.
(4) Under the Inland Revenue Ordinance, a taxpayer is eligible to claim dependent parent/dependent grandparent allowance if he/she maintains a parent/grandparent who is aged 55 or above; or being under the age of 55, is eligible to claim an allowance under the Government's Disability Allowance Scheme. The Inland Revenue Department does not maintain statistics in respect of cases where the dependent parents/dependent grandparents are aged 65 or above, as requested in the question.
Ends/Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Issued at HKT 15:26
NNNN
