umer plopment.
т
•
but that
3
+
there
would be advantage in persuading employees to contribute toward
better social security rather than rely entirely on Government
or their employers.
10.
Against this background, the aim has been to put
forward proposals which, in keeping with Hong Kong's approach
to social security, are directly related to needs needs
which can be readily identified and which are accepted as such
by the community as a whole so that the maximum use can be
made of available resources. The new proposals achieve this
by relating needs to individual circumstances (low income or
needs arising from old age or sickness) which are outside the
person's control.
11.
A further aim of the proposals has been to retain
simplicity, both in the structure of social security and its
administration. To some extent, giving priority to simplicity
produces rough justice. But that is outweighed by the benefits
of having a system which is not unduly expensive to operate and
which can be more easily understood by the public. A
sophisticated and finely-tuned system of social security can
lose much of its impact and acceptability if the way it works
is not understood.
Public assistance scheme
12.
The public assistance scheme has been a central pill
of the social security system in Hong Kong, and it is proposed
that it should retain that position. The scheme is now
familiar to, and so far as possible for a means-tested scheme,
accepted by the people of Hong Kong. Being related to a family'
means and neods, fi fito very clearly into the Hong Hong
approach to social security. And by its structure, it provides
effective method of concentrating help on those
both an