Reference.......
ник 23711
Mr McQuay
1878
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Clift
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3
HONG KONG: PROPOSED SICKNESS, INJURY AND DEATH (SID) BENEFITS SCHEME
1.
The attached EXCO memorandum contains the Hong Kong
Government's latest views on a contributory insurance scheme See 4
against risk of extended sickness, injury and death.
2.
You will recall that the last Labour Government gave considerable priority to the introduction of such a scheme in Hong Kong but the Hong Kong Government (and its Executive Council) were not enthusiastic. Nonetheless, a voluntary scheme was floated in the 1977 Green Paper, and subsequent White Paper on Social Services in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government have now, however, come down firmly against such a scheme, basically because they do not believe it would be popular and because it would be expensive to administer. They are therefore proposing to extend the existing sickness benefits under the Employment Ordinance and to introduce provision for death grant by employers in the same Ordinance (if the deceased was unemployed or otherwise ineligible, the Government would make the grant).
3.
This development does not cause me concern although it does surprise me a bit in that I understood Mr Clift to have said that the Governor would deal with the introduction of the contributory scheme in his speech at the opening of LEGCO this October.
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CODE 18-77
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18 August 1981
Wildiyum
The OLA
Jass
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P J Williamson
2
has minuted on this in the context of the
Turner Study. I certainly had the impressin that
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CONFIDENTIAL
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