ENG-1970 — Page 177

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SOCIAL WELFARE

Children will be counted as adults in the assessment of assistance. The assistance given will be in the form of cash instead of dry rations and will be calculated in accordance with a sliding scale which varies from $30 to $70 per person per month (based on the size of the family) to bring the income of the family up to the appropriate level in the scale. It is estimated that the number of cases will increase from 7,500 to 15,000 when the new scheme is fully implemented and that the new scheme may cost an additional $20 million.

Following the decision to introduce a revised public assistance scheme a Public Assistance Division with eight field units was set up in the Social Welfare Department in August. This division is responsible for dealing with applications, investigations, assess- ments, authorisation of payments and periodic review of cases. In addition, there is an Administration Division responsible for payments, inspections and audit of the public assistance cases.

The staff of social workers will be strengthened to cope with the substantial increase in cases, as a considerable proportion of those families taken on for public assistance will also require other social welfare services such as family counselling, rehabilitation,_institu- tional care, etc, to help them towards self-support and independence. In view of the much expanded organisation required for the new arrangements and the time needed for the recruitment and training of new staff, it will be necessary to proceed by stages. It is anticipated that the scheme will be implemented early in 1971.

During the year 63 major and minor disasters, resulting from rainstorms, typhoons, fires, shipwrecks and the closure of dangerous buildings, etc, rendered some persons homeless and destitute. The department provided emergency relief in the form of hot meals and temporary shelter as well as financial aid under the Community Relief Trust Fund, from which payments amounting to $471,850.00 were made.

TRAINING

The development of effective social welfare services depends a great deal on the employment of trained workers. Professional training at the academic level is available at the two universities. This is supplemented by training programmes directly organised or sponsored by the Social Welfare Department for staff employed in