C
X
- 9 -
supplement (in Chinese
). The long term
supplement would be payable to a family or single person who
had been receiving public assistance for more than 18 months,
apart from the able-bodied.
Public assistance is payable to those with low earnings and
to the unemployed. It is not however, desirable that the
Government should appear to be encouraging such persons to be
relying unnecessarily on public assistance when they could be
self-supporting. Accordingly, it is proposed that the long
term supplement should not be payable to a person of working
age (15
60) who was fit and available for work: or to a
family in which there was such a family member The amount
payable to a family would be equal to the amount of the scale
allowance for a single person (currently $180 a month); and
half that amount for a single person. It might appear to be
more logical for the amount of the long term supplement to
vary with the size of the family. But this is not proposed:
partly for simplicity but more because household costs like
to replacement of household goods (as opposed, everyday living
costs) do not vary so much as between different sizes of
families and because larger sums would probably bring the
1
amount of assistance payable to a family too close to wage
rates. The fact that a long term supplement was being raid
would not rule out discretionary grants for non-household
needs like special diets but it would reduce, if not largely
eliminate, the number of discretionary grants to meet house-
hold needs.
18.
Yore encouragement to self-help. Apart from one or
two specified exceptions, all incone is taken fully into
account when assessing the need for public assistance, and no
proposal is made to alter this general position. A system of