Supplementary to Question 6 LegCo, 17th December, 1980
Revd. Joyce M. Bennett:
Sir, has the Government considered that it is possible for the Government to set its mind to the problem to overcome the objection
in paragraph 3 of this answer in the same way Art business firms
in the private sector overcome this problem?
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Secretary forthe Civil Service:
Sir, the Government has set iss mind to this question and I have nothing to add to paragraph 3. The Government does see objection to the
tax payer subsidising the private sector and I am not aware of cases
where the private sector subsidi
sidiseny the public sector.
Revd. Joyce M. Bennett:
Is it not possible that there are husband and wife working for two private firms and the private firms overcome this problem. My question is, can the Government not also overcome this problem?
Secretary for the Civil Service:
Sir, Miss Bennett is referring to a question which is not referred to at all in my answer. She is referring to the question of double benefits.
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I deliberately did not wish to complicate my answer by referring to
that but indeed the Government did in fact take a decision that we should
/ try to find some way of avoiding double benefits. We are still
studying the best way of doing that.
Revd. Joyce M. Bennett:
Sir, has the Government recognised that many women in Hong Kong are the providers of their families?
Secretary for the Civil Service:
Sir, where a woman is the provider of her family, for her family, in the sense that perhaps her husband is disabled, where she looks after the family because the husband lives apart, perhaps overseas, or where she looks after the family following divorce, then we do hope to draw up rules which will ensure that she does receive benefits on compassionate grouhds, for her children as well as herself.