XN000022-1995-11-22 — Page 4

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"It is also not clear what the position would be if the person remains unemployed after having received assistance for six months," she said.

As regards the Hon Fred Li's suggestion to provide a CSSA payment of $2,750 for an unemployed adult, Mrs Fok argued that this could only be justified in terms of the CSSA scheme if one was satisfied the real needs of the unemployed were much greater than the needs of other vulnerable groups.

"I am not satisfied that such a case can be made," she stressed, "Nor do I believe that the CSSA Scheme is the right vehicle to use to address a perceived need for unemployment benefits."

Mr Li further proposed to raise the level of assets a person should be able to hold while being eligible for CSSA payments to $96,000.

To this suggestion, Mr Fok said this would appear to be high for a single person although she noted that under the current CSSA rules an asset limit of $71,000 would apply to an unemployed person living in a family unit of four persons.

Since there were no statistics on the level of assets generally held in Hong Kong, Mrs Fok said the impact of any major relaxation of this eligibility criterion was particularly difficult to assess in financial terms.

Any major relaxation could obviously expand considerably the numbers of people becoming eligible for CSSA.

She said all of the recommendations arising from the current CSSA Review, including that on the asset limits, would be set out for members early next year with all the background information to support a fully informed debate on them.

End/Wednesday, November 22, 1995

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