The old age supplement would be taken into account in deciding whether any discretionary allowance, to meet needs arising out of old age, is justified and should reduce substantially the number of such allowances.
Disregarded resources
4.17 The public assistance scheme has emphasised simplicity in its treatment of a person's resources. The general principle is that all a person's income and disposable capital (except for savings up to a prescribed level) is taken into account in assessing his need for public assistance. There are very few exceptions to this: for example, if a voluntary agency makes a payment towards essential household expenses, $10 a month per family member is ignored when assessing the family's entitlement to public assistance. The Government believes that this general approach is right and does not propose to alter it. A system of disregarding differing amounts of different kinds of income (called "disregards" and found in some social assistance schemes) is complex to administer, difficult to understand and at odds with the principle of a means-tested scheme, the objective of which is income maintenance.
4.18 On the other hand, the present public assistance scheme provides very little incentive to self-help, since all additional earnings are taken into account in full. There is a good case for providing some encouragement, to those who do not have to register with the Employment Service as a condition of receiving assistance, to undertake part-time work.
This would be of particular value to a widow with young children who wanted to increase her income but did not want to, or could not, work full time. It would also help an elderly person who would like a part-time occupation, but would naturally expect some financial return from his efforts. Accordingly, it is proposed that a single person, or family member, should be able to retain half his earnings up to a maximum of $100 a month. If he earns more than $200 a month, each extra $ would be deducted in full from the public assistance allowance: but only 50% per dollar would be deducted for any amount under $200. This arrangement would not apply, however, to earnings received by a person aged between 15 and 60 who was fit and available for work or already in work. To apply it to the able bodied would mean, in effect, an improvement in the scale of allowance for those capable of being self-supporting.
4.19 The Government does not consider that it is necessary to review the amount of disregarded income and other resources as often as the public assistance scale rate is reviewed. Increasing the amount of "disregards" does not help those who are worst off and have no disregarded resources. In general, additional funds available for the public assistance scheme are better spent on improving the level of assistance, either generally or for specific groups of beneficiaries, than on those who, because they have disregarded resources, have an income above basic public assistance. Nonetheless, the Government accepts that there is a need to review the level of disregarded resources from time to time.
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