TNAG-0570-FCO40-703-Planning-paper-on-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 128

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4.

SECRET

medical and health. On social welfare the

payments side provided a satisfactory framework

for the maintenance of people in need, and for

maintaining the aged or permanently infirm.

It had proved its worth during the recession.

It had only been in operation for 3 years

and there were gaps and inadequacies in it;

but it provided a framework on which a reasonable

and recognizable non-contributory system of social

security could be built. In view of the very

rapid rise in expenditure on direct payments,

before considering any amendment to this aspect

of social welfare he wished to concentrate on

provision of special services in particular for the

handicapped and for youth. Work on these was

well advanced, and he hoped that a green paper

on the first would issue in September.

A

provident fund might have made a useful

contribution if introduced in the '50s, but it was

now too late and he was resigned to social security

being paid for from revenue. The most useful

contribution made by the Singapore Provident Fund

was a home purchase scheme and the introduction

of such a scheme was already under consideration.

Perhaps the field in which Hong Kong was most open

to criticism was labour legislation. Here the

aim was to bring Hong Kong up to the highest

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