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Social Welfare
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 stationed in public hospitals and some specialist clinics provide support to patients and their families with welfare needs, to facilitate their recovery and reintegration into society. SWD medical social workers dealt with about 193,180 cases in 2020.
Clinical Psychological Services
During the year, 56 clinical psychologists from the SWD and NGOs provided 2,338 psychological assessments and 19,046 treatment sessions for 2,717 people, while eight clinical psychologists of the Central Psychological Support Service (Pre-school Service) made 691 consultation visits to pre-school rehabilitation centres and six clinical psychologists of the Central Psychological Support Service (Adult) made 423 consultation visits to adult rehabilitation centres.
Social Welfare Financial Assistance
Working Family Allowance Scheme
The Working Family Allowance Scheme aims to relieve the financial burden of low-income working households, especially those with children, to encourage self-reliance and ease inter- generational poverty. In 2020, about 96,500 out of about 130,800 applications were approved, granting allowances exceeding $1.28 billion to over 65,400 households (or over 217,600 individuals), and covering about 86,900 children and youths. Payment rates under the scheme were increased from July.
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 42 social security field units and two centralised offices.
The SWD prevents and combats fraud and abuse of social security payment to preserve the system's integrity and ensure the proper use of public funds. The department receives reports from the public via its hotline. In 2020, 49 abusers were jailed, bound over, ordered to perform community service, fined or given warnings.
Comprehensive Social Security Assistance
The non-contributory CSSA Scheme gives cash assistance to people in financial hardship to meet their basic needs. It is means-tested and applicants must satisfy a residence requirement. As at 31 December, there were 224,895 CSSA cases involving 319,200 beneficiaries. Total expenditure in 2020 was about $23.4 billion, an increase of 8 per cent from the previous year.
In 2020, the government improved the CSSA Scheme by enhancing its employment support services, increasing the maximum rent allowance and extending the community living.
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