Government responds to cash handout concerns among Hongkongers by simplifying process
- Proof of address no longer needed after concerns some residents would not be able to provide it
- One million more forms to be printed after early demand left some district councillors scrambling to provide them
Applicants for a HK$4,000 cash handout will no longer have to provide proof of address, after the government acceded to widespread criticism and removed the requirement.
The city’s No 2 official accepted the scheme could have been handled better.
The administration also expanded the number of phone hotlines set up to help people make their claim, from 28 to 34, and printed an extra 1 million forms after complaints people were having to print their own.
Distribution of the application forms for the Caring and Sharing Scheme began on Monday, and almost immediately complaints were raised by applicants, district councillors and lawmakers from both sides of the political divide.
Under the scheme, Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above will get up to HK$4,000 if they do not own property or benefit from government allowances. Those who are given tax breaks will get the difference between HK$4,000 and the concessionary amount.
But the application form has been criticised for being too complicated to fill in, while some district councillors said the forms ran out on Monday, forcing councillors to make copies with their own photocopiers.
Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung admitted on Thursday the government could have done better.
“Our colleagues at the Treasury wished to launch the plan earlier ... there is certainly room for improvement in the process and we would simplify the procedure if we were to launch similar plans again,” he said.
Kwun Tong district councillor and lawmaker Wilson Or Chong-shing said his photocopier broke down after copying more than 12,000 forms.
Other complaints focused on the need for proof of address, which poorer people might struggle to provide. That has now been changed.
“Considering there is already a declaration in the application form that could attach criminality against misrepresentation of claims, we’ve waived the proof of address, making it easier for citizens to make the applications,” said Esmond Lee Chung-sin, head of the Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency, which is responsible for handing applications.
Government will take flexible approach to cash handout, Cheung vows
Lawmakers also criticised the government for not properly explaining some of the deductions available, and how they applied to married couples, for example.
“District councillors like me have been tirelessly explaining the details about the plan,” Mandy Tam Heung-man, a district councillor in Wong Tai Sin, said. “It was supposed to be the government who explained the details. How could the duty have fallen on us?”
Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai criticised the government for being too bureaucratic in launching the scheme.
“It is almost unthinkable that the government prepared one year for all this,” Wu said on a radio programme on Thursday.
“Government officials were only thinking as bureaucrats, not from an end user’s point of view. Why make the entire scheme so complicated?”
43,000 needy and elderly in Hong Kong first to get cash handouts
The decision to relax the rules around the handout was made public hours after lawmakers from the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, spoke to James Lau, the secretary for financial services and the treasury, on Wednesday.
The cash handout was not originally part of the government’s budget last year.
It was announced in March after the administration was put under enormous pressure to share its wealth with residents. It is expected to benefit 2.8 million Hongkongers, and cost the government HK$330 million to run.
Also on Thursday, Cheung said the government would process applications sent without enough stamps, by subsidising the postal service under an exceptional arrangement.
