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Reply:
Mr President,
Before I give an answer to this question, I would like to set the record straight. In response to a question asked in this Council on 22 February 1995, I did not say that my Branch, in assessing eligibility for social security assistance, would take into account the "non-housing expenditure required to maintain a reasonable standard of living for households of different sizes". What I said was that in the case of public housing, income criteria for assessing eligibility were set by reference to the cost of renting accommodation in the private sector and the non-housing expenditure required to maintain a reasonable standard of living for households of different sizes. I also said that in view of the costs of housing in Hong Kong, it was not surprising to see that income eligibility criteria in this field were different from those used for assessing social security assistance.
The CSSA standard rate for a family of four with two able-bodied adults and two able-bodied children currently stands at $5,100 a month. If the two children concerned were at school then the family would also be eligible for school-related special grants. The total average CSSA payment to a family unit of this composition is currently $7,200 per month. I should add that of the 3,200 four-member CSSA households only 9% or 300 households is of this composition. Most CSSA households of this size contain only one able-bodied adult and three dependants. The average CSSA payment to such households is higher, at $8,200 per month.
As for the standard rate element of the overall payment, I do not have a breakdown of the amount for specific items of food, clothing, fuel and other household expenses assumed in the calculation of this rate. I should like to explain why this is so. When the Public Assistance (now CSSA) Scheme was set up in 1971, its basic rates covered only the cost of food based on recommendations originally made by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service as to what was required for an adequate diet based on nutritional advice.
The basic rates were then substantially improved in 1972 to take into account other essential items of household expenditure on, for example, fuel and light, clothing and footwear, durable goods, transport and services. The method then used was to relate the cost of these items to the cost of food according to the weighting given to each item in the then Modified Consumer Price Index which showed the expenditure pattern of low income families in Hong Kong. By using the index weightings, an amount for these items proportionate to the amount provided for food was then worked out.