XN000022-1996-02-14 — Page 29

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Reply:

(a) of the elderly persons currently in receipt of CSSA, about 53,300 are living alone, about 23,900 are living in residential institutions and about 16,600 are living in a family.

(b) We estimate that about 8,400 elderly clients living alone and about 3,700 elderly clients living in a family are receiving special grants to pay for their monthly telephone charges. We have no readily available statistics on the number of elderly CSSA clients who have received special grants for the provision of telephone lines.

(c) Elderly CSSA clients not living alone may be provided with special grants for installing telephone lines if they can demonstrate a need for this facility to maintain contact and communication with other people. This special grant would be provided, for example, if all other members of the household were habitually not at home during the day and the elderly person thus left alone had no other easy access to a telephone.

(d) Special grants for installing telephone lines are provided to those who need such a facility. It would not be appropriate to provide this special grant to all elderly clients regardless of whether they have such a need. For example, most elderly clients living in residential institutions already have access to communal telephones; many already have their own telephone lines installed before they join the CSSA Scheme; and some living in private tenements are able to use communal telephones provided by their landlords.

End

Fuel supply to airlines at airport

Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Services, Mr Gordon Siu, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council: