TNAG-0608-FCO40-756-Planning-paper-on-progress-made-on-social-security-in-Hong-K-1977 — Page 17

0003230

C.F. 323

CONFIDENTIAL

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23.

employer should be permitted to contract out any, or all, of his employees. In carrying ou these responsibilities, the authority might use ctaff seconded to it from the Social Welfare Department. But, to keep administrative costs down and to facilitate cross checking with other social security schemes, personal records of contributors might be kept and payments made by the Department on behalf of the authority. This should be a reasonably practical division of responsibilities, similar to many ways to that applying to the criminal and law enforcement injuries compensation schome. If the Department kept all contribution records on a computer, the authority could have a terminal link to the computer to provide access to the records and to authorise payment of benefit.

From an administrative point of view, optior (u) is best. Since the Government will be meeting administrative expenses, it is of course desirable to have an effective means of keeping these under control. (Had the Government not been meeting the expenses, it would have been even more important to assure potential scheme members that the authority was run on economical lines). The more distance that an authority is from the Government, the more difficult it is for the Government to keep an eye on administrative costs. On the other hand, the political implications are also important. If the scheme is likely to be better trusted and therefore more acceptable by being run at arm's length from the Government, then at least option (c) will have to be seriously considered.

Relationship between social security and social welfare services

24.

The Green Paper (para. 11.21 says that the Government proposes to discuss with the organizations involved how best to achieve a consistent and effective policy on feer for social welfare services. The following material, which was not included in the Green Paper because of the possible implications for other social services, might serve as the basis of discussion.

Whether a fee should be charged

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The first question to be answered is whether a charge should be made for a particular scrvice. This is not a question that can be asked in relation to social welfare services as a whole; it would have to be asked in relation to each area of service. In reaching answers in respect of each area of service, the Government would have to take into account the following points :-

a) Seeking to recover the ful or a substantial part, of

the cost of a universally provided service, like services for youth, would be self-defeating. If it is the aim to reach all young people who want to use the service, imposing changes would evidently defeat that aim.

The