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14.
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"Secondly, and more importantly perhaps, it is surely an unhelpful over- simplification to talk as if the only question to be resolved is the level of CSSA payments to the elderly.
"It is surely unhelpful, and indeed misleading, to assume that we only need to consider payments for the elderly, and that $2,300 or whatever, is the right level.
"We must recognise that it is the needs of all recipients, not just the elderly, that should be considered.
"After all, at other times, we have been told that we must give priority to the needs of the single parent, or of children.
"Surely other groups, not only the elderly, have a right to be considered too?
"Hence there is a genuine need to see the results of the household expenditure survey towards the end of the year, and in the light of those results to assess calmly and rationally the appropriate level of payments for all recipients, including the elderly.
"Thirdly, the timing is also impossible for this year's Budget.
"Members are well aware that expenditure decisions are taken well in advance of the Budget Speech, and that we cannot at the last minute find large recurrent sums."
Sir Hamish said the Government shared the underlying wish of the community and of many LegCo members to provide greater protection and support for the elderly.
"We wish to relieve the financial anxieties of old age. But we must do so in a manner which ensures that we consider other valid claims on our sympathy and on our inevitably limited resources," he said.
Sir Hamish said the Government must maintain the discipline of not letting expenditure grow faster than the economy.
"We therefore have to set priorities," he added, "and setting priorities means that if you give a high priority to one area you must give a lower priority to another
area.'
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Sir Hamish added that since 1971, the standard rate for a single elderly person had increased by 23 times whereas inflation had increased by a mere six times over the same period.
End/Wednesday, March 1, 1995
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