ENG-1972 — Page 151

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SOCIAL WELFARE

Home provides similar facilities for girls. Plans have been made for a bigger home in Ho Man Tin to replace the existing girls' home. There is a probation hostel in Kwun Tong for young men aged from 16 to 21 who are placed on probation by the courts with a special condition of residence for a maximum period of one year.

Although probation and correctional services are statutory responsibilities of the department, valuable supporting services and facilities are provided by voluntary welfare agencies such as the Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys Centres which give residential training to those in need of special help.

Public Assistance

The Public Assistance Scheme is designed to provide cash assistance for indi- viduals and families who cannot manage on their existing resources. A review of the scheme was undertaken during the year and improvements were approved in March 1972. These improvements included a 60 per cent increase in the scales of assistance, higher allowances for rents and more generous allowances for recipients requiring a special diet. As from April 1972 the monthly scale of assistance was raised from $70 to $110 for a single person and for members of a family, from $50 to $80 for each of the first three members, from $40 to $65 for each of the next three, and from $30 to $50 for each additional member. Under the revised criteria the number of cases which became eligible stood at 17,728 as compared with 12,553 last year. Expenditure on public assistance payments for the financial year 1972-3 is estimated to be $30.4 million as compared with $11,987,749 in the financial year 1971-2.

As a complement to the public assistance scheme which is designed to help those who are the worst off financially, consideration is being given to the extension of this assistance to the next most vulnerable groups who are least able to support themselves but who are not necessarily covered by the public assistance scheme. The first groups envisaged are the severely disabled and those over 75 years of age. Should this new scheme prove to be successful, it is proposed that it should be extended to other groups such as widowed mothers with young children and the chronically sick.

Emergency Relief

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The worst natural disaster of the year was a landslide at Sau Mau Ping and a house collapse at Kotewall Road on June 18 following heavy rainstorms. A total of 5,006 families, or 23,830 individuals registered for aid after the rainstorms. On this occasion, as on all such occasions, the department provided temporary accommoda- tion to those in need, and distributed hot meals, eating utensils, blankets and clothing. The public responded at once to the needs of the victims and a total of $16,941,167 was received from the public in donations to the Community Relief Trust Fund. Payment from the Community Relief Trust Fund for burial, re-accommodation, damage to crops, the replacement of vessels, etc, amounted to $11,347,158.

There were 96 minor natural disasters during the year which rendered 5,821 people homeless, all of whom were given assistance by the Social Welfare Department.