Hong Kong authorities have said they will not extend a trial subsidy scheme for people waiting for public housing, despite warnings from an NGO that ending the benefits would impose a financial burden on the poor.
The Society for Community Organization (SoCO) said in a press conference on Sunday that its survey of 330 households found that over 40 per cent received the Cash Allowance Trial Scheme.
According to SoCO’s findings, the scheme helped nearly 70 per cent of recipients move to a better living environment. It also supported their food and medical expenses, as well as costs associated with their children’s education.
Launched in 2021, the scheme provides a monthly allowance for households that have been waiting for public rental housing for over three years and are not receiving the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme, a subsidy programme for low-income families.
Recipients of the trial scheme receive between HK$1,300 and HK$3,900 a month, depending on the size of their households.
In May, the government said the scheme would conclude at the end of June.
In response to media enquiries, the Housing Bureau said on Sunday that the scheme would end as planned.
The bureau said the first batch of flats under the Light Public Housing scheme – which provides rental accommodation for households that have been waiting for public housing for at least three years – has been completed, with move-ins having started in March. The second batch of flats will begin move-ins at the end of June.
Given that beneficiaries can soon occupy these transitional housing flats, as well as the government’s need to be prudent in public spending, the government has no intention of continuing the scheme, the bureau added.
305,000 recipients
As of the end of February, a total of around 110,000 eligible households – or about 305,000 people – had benefited from the Cash Allowance Trial Scheme, the government said.
The scheme’s expenditure was around HK$5.56 billion.
The scheme has already been extended for one year past its expiry date. When it was launched in 2021, the government said it would run on a three-year trial basis, with an expected end date in mid-2024.
Last year, the government said it would prolong the scheme for one year until June 2025 to “help grassroots families on the waiting list for public rental housing.”
In its press release, SoCO urged the authorities to help the city’s poor “weather the hard times” and to extend the scheme.
The group said that the Light Public Housing scheme would offer only 55,000 units when completed, far fewer than the number of households receiving the cash allowance.
It added that more than 80 per cent of the units would only be completed between the last quarter of this year and the last quarter of next year.
During the annual budget address in February, the city’s financial chief Paul Chan announced that the city had logged an estimated HK$87.2 billion deficit, marking the third shortfall in a row.
SoCO acknowledged the government’s aims to lower spending, but emphasised that the beneficiaries of such welfare schemes were grassroots families.
“Any consideration to cancel this programme must be handled with greater caution, as it cannot be assessed solely from a financial perspective,” SoCO wrote in Chinese. ” The social impact of the programme should not be disregarded.”
