inter alia for the overall direction and supervision of the payments, inspections and audit sections of public assistance cases.
61. The establishment of the Department was strengthened to cope with the expected substantial increase in applications for assistance. As a proportion of families eligible for public assistance also require other social welfare services, more staff were required not only to service directly the public assistance scheme but also to cope with casework and counselling.
62. The main impact of the revised public assistance scheme was not felt in expenditure on public assistance in 1970-71. Nevertheless, budgeted expenditure on public assistance for the year increased from $4.75 million in 1969-70 to $6 million during 1970-71. The number of families who received public assistance increased by 17% to 8,607 compared with a figure of 7,317 for 1970.
EMERGENCY RELIEF
63. The Public Assistance Division is also responsible for the administration of emergency relief which is provided for people made homeless in natural disasters, fires and similar occurrences. Emer- gency relief is mainly given in the form of hot meals which are cooked at and delivered from two large kitchens situated at Happy Valley and Hung Hom, which can produce a maximum of 110,000 meals a day. During the year, 95 major and minor disasters resulting from rain, storm, typhoons, fires, shipwrecks and the closure of dangerous buildings made 5,071 persons homeless. The Department provided emergency relief in the form of hot meals and temporary shelter as well as financial aid under the Community Relief Trust Fund from which payments amounting to $433,870 were made. Further details of assistance rendered is at Appendix 17.
LEGAL AID
64. In addition to the duties of administering public assistance and emergency relief, the Public Assistance Division also assists the Director of Legal Aid by investigating the financial means of persons applying for legal aid. During the year 2,255 applications, an increase of 399 cases compared with the previous year, were dealt with by the Division.
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