XN000022-1996-03-14 — Page 6

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In addition, she noted, elderly persons would be granted $320 per year to encourage them to participate more fully in the life of the community, thus enjoy the benefits this brings in terms of support by neighbours and friends. They would also be given an annual $200 "lai see" at Chinese New Year.

Mrs Fok stressed that it was inappropriate to test CSSA rates for the elderly by comparing them with the level of financial support envisaged in retirement protection schemes such as the original Old Age Pension Scheme or the Mandatory Provident Fund.

She said: "CSSA payments for the elderly, as for all other groups, are set at a level to meet their basic needs.

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"Payments from a pension or retirement protection scheme seek to do more than this they are normally the accrued benefits from savings which seek to provide financial security and support a certain lifestyle for an elderly person. Because such payments are higher, these schemes are normally contributory because it is recognised that they are too costly to fund exclusively from Government revenues," she added.

Apart from financial assistance, the Secretary believed that the provision of appropriate services and community support for the elderly was of much greater importance.

In this respect, the Government will be spending $3.7 billion on health and welfare services for the elderly in 1996/97 which is a 15 per cent increase over this

year.

Services to be provided include in-patient care, elderly health clinics, outreaching geriatric and psycho-geriatric teams, a wide range of residential care facilities, home help services, day care services and social centres.

The Government will also promote social networking to provide support to the single elderly living alone.

The Director of Social Welfare is also launching two inter-related initiatives to address this issue. The first involves a two-year pilot project costing over $17 million in which the 24 existing multi-service centres for the elderly and the six new ones due to open this year will be given extra resources to organise new ways of reaching out to elderly people at risk.

The second initiative is for District Social Welfare Officers to create District- based Committees involving representatives of non-governmental organisations, the Housing Department and the Home Affairs Department to foster new social networking.