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Social Security
26.
The benefits derived from changes in taxation should continue to be directed in the Hong Kong Government's programmes towards the less fortunate. In the case of social welfare benefits in cash these in Hong Kong are financed entirely from revenue and are quite different in character to those in the UK National Insurance Scheme or even the Singapore Provident Fund, both of which are based on compulsory contributions. A serious objection, however, to a compulsory contributory scheme in Hong Kong within the time scale of this Paper results from the political uncertainty overhanging the Colony's future. We thus agree with the Hong Kong Government's assessment that for the present it is better to build upon the present non-contributory scheme financed from general revenue than to attempt to introduce a new one with a contributory element from employer/employee or both. In spite of improvements in recent years, there are weaknesses or gaps in Hong Kong's social security system: there is no direct provision for unemployment benefit; pensions are small and are available only to persons of 75 and over; sickness benefits, an employer's liability, does not extend beyond 24 days; and there is no pension for widows, To some extent, these deficiencies are met from public assistance but the Hong Kong Government accept that there is considerable room for improvement particularly as regards extending unemployment benefits for industrial workers between 18 and 55, the need for which was demonstrated during the recent recession. The absence of a contributory element to any scheme of expanding Hong Kong's social security system has led to a system based on the criterion of need. But in the extension of the scheme consideration should be given both to the possibility of introducing a contributory element for some benefits of an immediate nature, eg unemployment and of conferring some non contributory entitlements. In general, the aim should, in our view, be to produce an agreed scheme of extended benefits by 1 January 1978 for introduction in a series of steps by the end of 1980. But meanwhile the Hong Kong Government should give urgent attention to extending public assistance to unemployed males between 15 and 55
as soon as possible.
Housing, Education and Health
The next most obvious target for increased expenditure is housing. The Hong Kong Government has made significant progress in housing the
27.
/immense
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