- 5-
Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Mr President,
of the measures in place to assist CSSA recipients in the unemployed and low-increase categories to regain employment and to increase their income;
whether it will strengthen the liaison between the Labour Department and the Employees Retraining Board so as to promote the Employees Retraining Scheme (the "ERS") actively among CSSA recipients and encourage them to enrol in the ERS courses;
how many of the 90000-plus workers who have undergone retraining under the ERS-
(i)
(ii)
are CSSA recipients, or
have now regained employment and are no longer receiving assistance under the CSSA Scheme, together with a breakdown of the trades in which they are engaged and the types of jobs in which they are employed; and
whether consideration will be given to requiring all CSSA recipients eligible for receiving ERS retraining to enrol in the ERS courses, so as to increase their chances of regaining employment; if not, why not?
First of all, I would like to thank the Hon CHENG Yiu-tong for this timely question on retraining for the unemployed, as the Employees Retraining Scheme is currently under review. My answer is as follows:
(a)
It is Government policy to help CSSA recipients who have the ability to work to join the workforce so that they can support themselves rather than rely on social welfare. Under the CSSA Scheme, able-bodied adults aged between 15 and 59 are required to register with the Labour Department for employment assistance. The Local Employment Service (LES) of the Labour Department provides job seekers with a full range of employment services. Priority to such services is given to CSSA recipients. They can either choose to use the self-help mode of employment service or join the Job Matching Programme which provides in-depth interviews and counselling as well as job matching and placement services. For disabled CSSA recipients who wish to seek open employment, the Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department provides specialised placement services for them.