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Following is a question by the Hon Frederick Fung and a written reply by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, in the Legislative Council today (March 29):
Regarding poverty alleviation initiatives, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the authorities intend to announce the latest information on indicators of poverty around March/April every year, of the specific date of announcement for this year and the details of the latest information; how such indicators will guide the formulation and policy planning of anti-poverty strategies, and how the authorities will, on the basis of the relevant indicators, review the effectiveness of the poverty alleviation initiatives undertaken by various government departments;
(b) given that the authorities have indicated in its paper submitted to the Commission on Poverty in November last year that a study has been commissioned to look into income mobility in Hong Kong and the results are expected to be available in the middle of this year, of the progress and preliminary findings of the study;
(c) whether it will consider following the successful experience of overseas countries in poverty eradication and requesting various government departments and relevant public organisations to set time-bound targets on poverty eradication (e.g. to lower unemployment and underemployment rates within one year, or to totally eradicate child poverty within three years); and
(d) whether it will conduct a study on social alienation of the poor; if so, whether the scope of the study will cover the impact of adverse labeling on people in poverty; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Updating of the indicators of poverty has started. Since the district-based statistics required for Indicators 19 - 24 would not be available until end-March, the whole set of updated indicators covering the periods Q4 2005 and the whole year is expected to be available in the latter part of April. As to the likely trend of the indicators, those employment and income-related indicators are expected to show further improvement in Q4 2005 and for the year as a whole, along with the sustained economic upturn. In the coming update, detailed analysis of the indicators will be provided together with the set of updated statistics.
The macro poverty indicators are meant to give an overview of how the poverty situation evolves over time. By giving prima facie suggestions of areas deserving focused study, these indicators provide useful reference in policy formulation. For instance, the size of non-engaged youths would reflect the extent to which our basic education and training programmes are effective in preparing youths for further study or work. Operationally, bureaux and departments would also draw reference to other tools in policy formulation and evaluation, including more detailed and specific indicators at district level, relevant researches and analyses, and feedbacks from consultation, etc.
(b) A survey on income mobility was conducted in Q4 2005 to collect information about people's present and past employment earnings, as well as their socio-economic characteristics. Data processing and validation work is in full swing. The preparatory work for detailed data analysis has also started. Preliminary findings from the study are expected to be available in the middle of this year.
(c) We understand some Members consider that the Government should set simple targets for combating poverty, drawing reference to some EU examples. While drawing from the good experience overseas, such should always be analysed in context. For instance, the U.K. example is often cited as successful in reducing the number of children in relative low-income households by changes in the tax and benefit system (e.g. introducing tax credits to working families). But such is not applicable in Hong Kong given all low-income employees are already outside the salaries tax net.
On the employment front, the Government is committed to promoting employment and helping the unemployed to work. With our efforts in promoting economic growth and employment/training opportunities, we are glad to see improvement in the employment/income related indicators as the economy continues to improve. However, employment figures are also influenced by other external factors including the macro-economic environment. In the case of Ireland, it succeeded in reducing poverty in the 1990s as a result of a drastic fall in unemployment rate brought by exceptional economic growth. For externally-oriented and developed economies like Hong Kong where growth has steadied and where responses to the changing global market must be swift, what we need to focus is how to strengthen our efforts, in particular in providing more targeted assistance to the middle-aged, low-education and low-income group to adjust to economic restructuring and changing requirements of the labour market. The appropriateness of choosing unemployment figures as output indicators deserves careful consideration, especially if what is being contemplated are short term targets.
(d) Understanding poverty is one of the important tasks of the Commission on Poverty (the Commission). In the past year, the Commission has initiated a number of studies and researches for the purpose. A gist of the key studies is set out below. While the term "social exclusion" may not be mentioned in the titles of the studies, Members will note that it is the common underlying theme in our studies which invariably focus on needs of the less disadvantaged groups in our society, and in finding ways to provide them with appropriate assistance and to integrate them into the mainstream society (in particular (ii) to (v) below).
(i) Measurement of poverty - Besides compiling a set of multi-dimensional indicators of poverty and conducting a survey on income mobility, the Commission also agreed at its meeting in January 2006 to conduct a study on the impact of taxation and social benefits (e.g. education, housing, welfare) on different household income groups. This should facilitate a better understanding on the situation of the low-income household and the effectiveness of our relevant public policies in helping them.
(ii) Children and youth - The Commission's Task Force on Children and Youth has identified strengthening parenting support for the disadvantaged and hard-to-reach parents as one of the important tasks. A study has been commissioned to assess the needs of these parents through in-depth interviews in order to find out the reasons why they are not actively seeking help, as well as to recommend an appropriate approach to outreach and provide assistance to them.
(iii) Employment - A District Study on Employment Assistance has just been completed which has examined closely the delivery of employment assistance at the district level by different agencies from the angle of the unemployed, in particular the needs of the "difficult-to-employ" who may run a higher risk of being "filtered out" from the existing employment programmes due to administrative criteria/performance targets.
(iv) Social Enterprises - Two studies have been commissioned in order to explore the pertinent issues relevant to the further promotion of social enterprise development in Hong Kong. These include, for example, how social enterprises facilitate work integration of the less disadvantaged groups, and help them gain self-esteem and integrate into the society.
(v) District-based Approach - In order to distil good practices and to guide the long-term strategies in implementing a district-based approach in alleviating and preventing poverty, the Commission's Task Force on District-based Approach would conduct a study on district strategies which contribute to sustainable improvement of the livelihood of the disadvantaged in our community.
Ends/Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:57
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