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Social Welfare
Home, with 388 places, offers educational, vocational and character training for juvenile offenders as well as children and young people with behavioural and/or family problems.
The Correctional Services Department and the SWD jointly run a Young Offender Assessment Panel, providing the courts with professional views on sentencing options for offenders aged 14 to 25, and a Post-Release Supervision of Prisoners Scheme, which helped 835 discharged prisoners rehabilitate and reintegrate into the community during the year. The SWD also funds. an NGO to offer hostel and support services to former offenders.
Medical Social Services
Medical social workers are stationed in public hospitals and some specialist clinics to assist patients and their families with welfare needs, helping them recover and reintegrate into society. SWD medical social workers dealt with about 192,340 cases in 2017.
Clinical Psychological Services
In 2017, 55 clinical psychologists from the department and NGOs provided 2,928 psychological assessments and 23,069 treatment sessions for 2,573 people.
Social Welfare Financial Assistance
Low-income Working Family Allowance
The Low-income Working Family Allowance Scheme, operated by the Working Family Allowance Office, aims to relieve the financial burden of low-income working households, especially those with children, to encourage self-reliance and to ease inter-generational poverty. A household of two or more members that meets the working hour requirement and the income and asset limits may apply for the allowance. Each eligible child may also receive a Child Allowance. The scheme opened for applications in 2016. In 2017, more than 45,800 applications were approved out of about 56,800 received, granting allowances totalling around $529 million to about 31,400 households and 114,800 individuals, including around 50,800 children and youths.
The government completed a policy review of the scheme in 2017. It expects to start implementing on 1 April 2018 a series of enhancements, which include extending the scheme to one-person households, relaxing the income limits and working hour requirements and increasing the allowance. The scheme will be renamed the Working Family Allowance Scheme.
Social Security
The Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme and Social Security Allowance (SSA) Scheme form the mainstay of Hong Kong's social security system, supplemented by three accident compensation schemes: the Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation Scheme, Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Scheme and Emergency Relief Fund. These schemes are administered by 41 Social Security Field Units and two centralised offices.
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