and puitte
abe!
Major developments since 1973
6.
Apart from the extension of public assistance to the
unemployed and the amendments to the Employment Ordinance in
respect of sickness allowance and severence payments, the only
major developments have been the proposals concerning more
and direct services.
人
financial aid to the elderly in the Gees Paper "Services for
the Elderly" the Green Paper) which have recently been
considered by Council (XCR (77).
Proposals for development of social security 1978
7.
82
It is proposed that the next developments in social
security in Hong Kong should be concentrated in three areas:
the streamlining and refining of the public assistance scheme;
the extension of various benefits to the elderly and to those
incapable of work; and the introduction of a voluntary
contributory sickness, injury and death benefit scheme.
8.
These proposals have emerged as a result of fairly
wide ranging informal consultations within and outside the
Government. Outside Government, there have been some 30 to
40 informal meetings with UMELCO, other prominent citizens and
people active in social welfare and labour relations, employers
and life assurance associations and staff of the Universities.
9.
Two planning assumptions underlie the proposals.
The first is that, given a probable community preference for
expenditure on education and housing rather than social welfare,
there are clear limits to the amount of Covernment resources
that can be devoted to social security. The best use has
therefore to be made of available resources.
The second is
that it is not realistic to plan on the basis of a compulsory
system of contributory social insurance, (cf XC (7%), which
deals with the possibility of a central provident fund);