XN000022-1995-11-15 — Page 36

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(a) of the number of cases in which senior citizens who were former recipients of the Old Age Allowance and who were either disqualified from receiving the allowance or required to refund the allowance owing to their failure to comply with the rule on the period of absence from the territory, as well as the amount of expenses which the Government has saved as a result of such disqualification and refund, in each of the past three years;

(b) whether the Government has assessed the effects of such a rule on the livelihood of senior citizens; if so, what those effects are; and

(c) whether the Government has examined the feasibility of relaxing the rule; if so, what is the progress and when its recommendations are expected to be released?

Reply:

Mr President.

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The Old Age Allowance (OAA) is a non-means-tested and non-contributory welfare payment for which all persons over 70 years of age are eligible and for which all persons between 65 and 70 years of age are eligible subject to a simple income declaration. An OAA recipient will continue to receive OAA payments for so long as he or she does not leave Hong Kong for more than 180 days about 6 months in any one year. The purpose of this rule is to allow recipients the freedom to travel overseas for pleasure and to spend time with relatives and friends outside Hong Kong. At the discretion of the Director of Social Welfare, a longer period of absence may be permitted if the recipient needs to receive medical treatment outside Hong Kong. Subject to documentary proof, any absence from Hong Kong necessitated by work can also be disregarded for the purposes of retaining eligibility for OAA.

Prior to April 1994, OAA records were kept manually and it would thus be difficult and very time-consuming to identify OAA recipients whose absence from Hong Kong for more than 180 days made them ineligible for the allowance. Since April 1994, OAA records have been computerised. According to these records, about 1.7% out of the total number of 420,000 OAA cases have exceeded the permitted absence limit in 1994-95.

When a recipient's absence from Hong Kong exceeds the permitted limit, his or her OAA payment is temporarily suspended. Records of the amounts not paid as a result of the suspension of payments are not kept and it would be difficult and time- consuming to calculate them. But according to records available, the total number of cases involving over-payment as a result of a breach of these absence rules was more than 3,200 in 1994-95.