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5. The Report also questions the proposals on contributions; whether employers should pay only for their employees who elect to join the Scheme, or whether a pay-roll tax on all employees should be introduced. The employers' contributions would provide funds for the benefits. The report argues that the employees' contribu- tions should be regarded as a provident fund, because the employee could withdraw from the Scheme at any time with a refund of his own contributions. It also proposes that machinery should be set up to deal with dubious claims, and that there should be sufficient doctors whose opinions on fitness of individuals for work can be relied upon.
The Government Actuary's Department have told us that, until Hong Kong have studied their Report, there is nothing that they can do to expedite matters.
6.
On the wider aspects of Hong Kong's plans for social develop- ment, the OLA, reporting on his recent visit, believes that there is scope for increasing the value of Public Assistance, although he agrees that the social wage should not overtake the average earnings of a manual worker. While he accepts that Hong Kong already spends a large amount on social services, and that the budget proposes a 36% increase in spending in this field, he argues that Hong Kong's continuing surplus permits scope for yet further transfer payments.
7. Mr Hurst thinks that the family unit may now be in danger of breaking down, since the population base is getting younger and more independent, in the face of increasing urbanization and industrialization; a view which I too have come to hold as a result
He confirms of my visits to Hong Kong during the past four years.
my view that the early introduction of a compulsory and contribu- tory social security scheme, with provision for retirement and non-means tested unemployment benefit would do much to the political and social stability in Hong Kong.
He also believes
that this breakdown of the family unit calls into question the means testing, within the Public Assistance Scheme, of the family unit. He urges a switch to consideration of the means of each
individual.
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