TNAG-0608-FCO40-756-Planning-paper-on-progress-made-on-social-security-in-Hong-K-1977 — Page 126

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Major developments since 1973

6.

Apart from the extension of public assistance to the

unemployed and the amendments to the Employment Ordinance in

respect of sickness allowance and severence payments, the only

major developments have been the proposals concerning more

and direct services.

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financial aid to the elderly in the Gees Paper "Services for

the Elderly" the Green Paper) which have recently been

considered by Council (XCR (77).

Proposals for development of social security 1978

7.

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It is proposed that the next developments in social

security in Hong Kong should be concentrated in three areas:

the streamlining and refining of the public assistance scheme;

the extension of various benefits to the elderly and to those

incapable of work; and the introduction of a voluntary

contributory sickness, injury and death benefit scheme.

8.

These proposals have emerged as a result of fairly

wide ranging informal consultations within and outside the

Government. Outside Government, there have been some 30 to

40 informal meetings with UMELCO, other prominent citizens and

people active in social welfare and labour relations, employers

and life assurance associations and staff of the Universities.

9.

Two planning assumptions underlie the proposals.

The first is that, given a probable community preference for

expenditure on education and housing rather than social welfare,

there are clear limits to the amount of Covernment resources

that can be devoted to social security. The best use has

therefore to be made of available resources.

The second is

that it is not realistic to plan on the basis of a compulsory

system of contributory social insurance, (cf XC (7%), which

deals with the possibility of a central provident fund);