ENG-2012 — Page 218

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Social Welfare

Social Security Appeal Board

The Social Security Appeal Board considers appeals against the SWD's decisions on CSSA, SSA and TAVA and ruled on 367 appeals in 2012.

Prevention of Fraud and Abuse

To preserve the integrity of the social security system and ensure the proper use of public funds, the SWD's Special Investigation Section prevents and combats fraud and abuse of social security assistance. The public can make reports via a special hotline. At year-end, 264 abusers had been jailed, bound over, ordered to perform community service, fined, or given warnings.

Services for the Elderly

The Government encourages and assists elderly people to lead active and healthy lives. The SWD provides various community care and support services for them to continue living in their homes or familiar surroundings. For elderly persons who have long-term care needs but cannot be adequately taken care of at home, the SWD provides subsidised residential care services.

The SWD continues to subsidise the Opportunities for the Elderly Project run by community organisations to make life more meaningful for elderly people. During the year, 239 programmes were subsidised by government grants amounting to $3 million.

SWD has issued almost 1.4 million Senior Citizen Cards to elderly persons in Hong Kong over the years, allowing them to enjoy concessions, discounts and priority service provided by various companies, organisations and government departments.

Community Care and Support Services

At year-end, the SWD was supporting 126 service teams (including integrated home care services teams, enhanced home and community care services teams, support teams for the elderly and a home help team) and 64 day care centres or units for the elderly to provide support services to those living at home. Other SWD programmes supporting the elderly and their carers include the Home Environment improvement Scheme for the Elderly and a Pilot Scheme on Home Care Services for Frail Elders. The SWD also supports 210 elderly centres (including District Elderly Community Centres, Neighbourhood Elderly Centres and Social Centres for the Elderly) and a holiday centre for the elderly.

Residential Care Services

At year-end, there were 26,277 subsidised residential care places in Hong Kong, including 1,551 self-care hostel places and home-for-the-aged places, 21,769 care-and-attention (C&A) places (of which 7,337 were purchased from private residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs)), and 2,957 nursing home places (of which 161 were purchased from self-financing nursing homes).

RCHES are licensed under the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance. The SWD helps RCHES to improve their capability, ensuring that elderly residents will receive proper care. To improve drug management in residential homes, the Government launched a three-year pilot scheme in June 2010 to provide RCHES with visiting pharmacist services. The objectives are to strengthen the knowledge and capability of RCHES and their staff in drug management,

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