TNAG-0788-FCO40-992-Development-of-social-policy-in-Hong-Kong-proposed-contribut-1978 — Page 93

ASSESSMENT OF BENEFIT: THE SCALE RATES

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LONG-TERM SCALE RATES

37. The long-term scale rates apply to the following:

(i) people who are entitled to a supplementary pension (i.e. men aged 65 and over and single women and widows aged 60 and over. For a married couple living together a pension is only payable where the husband is over 65, regardless of the wife's age);

(ii) people who have received a supplementary allowance for a con- tinuous period of two years (paragraph 40) and whose allowance

is not, and was not at any time during that period, subject to the condition of registration for employment.

38. The special rules for the treatment of claims from residents in accommodation provided under Part III of the National Assistance Act 1948 in England and Wales or, in Scotland, under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, (paragraph 113), and in other similar accommodation do not make any distinction between long-term and other cases; and the long-term rates only partially apply to the treatment of patients in hospital (paragraph 134) and boarders (paragraphs 116-20).

39. The long-term scale rates include a margin of 50p (75p for the over 80s) for special expenses (see paragraph 66).

40. The Act* lays down that the two-year qualifying period for people under pensionable age is to be continuous, but where there are breaks of 13 weeks or less or breaks where a person is in hospital the Commission use their discretionary powers, in effect to discount the period of the break in entitlement and aggregate the periods of benefit for purposes of the two-year period. These powers are also used when a man dies and his widow is under pensionable age and is not required to register for work, to enable her in effect to include in her qualifying period for the long-term scale rate the period for which her husband received supple- mentary benefit, provided that she was then living with him. They are also used in the same way where a wife claims benefit on separating from her husband. Thus in either case if he had received supplementary benefit for two years or more and had not been required to register for work she qualifies immediately for the long-term scale rate.

41. Once applied, the long-term scale rate remains in force until the person is required to register for employment as a condition of receiving supplementary benefit or in other circumstances when benefit is reassessed on a different basis which excludes the application of the long-term scale rate, e.g. on admission to Part III accommodation. If a person under pensionable age who has qualified for the long-term scale rate ceases to

*First Schedule, paragraph 6.