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4.
SECRET
medical and health. On social welfare the
payments side provided a satisfactory framework
for the maintenance of people in need, and for
maintaining the aged or permanently infirm.
It had proved its worth during the recession.
It had only been in operation for 3 years
and there were gaps and inadequacies in it;
but it provided a framework on which a reasonable
and recognizable non-contributory system of social
security could be built. In view of the very
rapid rise in expenditure on direct payments,
before considering any amendment to this aspect
of social welfare he wished to concentrate on
provision of special services in particular for the
handicapped and for youth. Work on these was
well advanced, and he hoped that a green paper
on the first would issue in September.
A
provident fund might have made a useful
contribution if introduced in the '50s, but it was
now too late and he was resigned to social security
being paid for from revenue. The most useful
contribution made by the Singapore Provident Fund
was a home purchase scheme and the introduction
of such a scheme was already under consideration.
Perhaps the field in which Hong Kong was most open
to criticism was labour legislation. Here the
aim was to bring Hong Kong up to the highest
!