ENG-1979 — Page 153

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Social Welfare

福社

新藥

A COMPREHENSIVE White Paper on Social Welfare into the 1980s covering the direction and development of Hong Kong's social security and welfare services was published in 1979. The publication of the White Paper was a significant event because it spelt out the guide- lines for the future expansion and progress of many of the territory's social welfare services.

As Hong Kong moves into the 1980s, the government is planning to implement important programmes aimed at the elderly, young people, and those in need of social security benefits. While it has concentrated on these groups, the White Paper also has updated the govern- ment's policies in other social welfare fields with the exception of rehabilitation, which was covered by the White Paper on Rehabilitation published in 1977.

The White Paper on Social Welfare into the 1980s has its broad base in the 1977 Green Papers on Social Security, Personal Social Work Among Young People, and Services for the Elderly. However, it has taken into consideration comments and suggestions made by voluntary_welfare organisations and the public following the publication of the Green Papers. -

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The White Paper's major proposals are:

The introduction of a disability supplement under the Public Assistance Scheme to provide increased support for the partially disabled and their families;

The extension of the non-means-tested disability allowance under the Special Needs Allowance Scheme to the profoundly deaf;

• The improvement of services for the elderly. Plans include the provision of 3,000 addi- tional places in homes for the aged and in care-and-attention homes by 1982–3, 5,000 places in hostels built by the Housing Authority by 1987-8, and a wide range of community and health services;

• The expansion of family life education, school social work and outreaching social work to provide help and guidance to young people from the ages of six to 20 years. Soon after the White Paper was tabled at the Legislative Council, one of its proposals, a Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Scheme, was introduced in May. This scheme provides immediate cash relief for traffic accident victims or their families, irrespective of which person is at fault.

The accomplishment of the White Paper proposals and other social security and welfare programmes will necessitate greater recurrent and capital expenditure by the government. Some $631 million in recurrent expenditure and $10 million in capital expenditure is being spent on social welfare in the 1979-80 financial year. This is an increase of $103 million in recurrent expenditure and $3.2 million in capital expenditure over the 1978-9 levels.

Responsibility for carrying out government policies on social security and welfare rests with the Director of Social Welfare who heads the Social Welfare Department. The depart- ment was reorganised on a regional basis in April, 1979. Four regions were established with