Helping the Needy

40. To help the needy we have an established social security safety net, including the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme. Early this year, to further address the poverty problem, the Government set up the Commission on Poverty to co-ordinate relevant policies and implement district-based poverty alleviation measures. Our policy thinking is to help people to help themselves, with a focus on increasing employment and reducing inter-generational poverty. Dedicated, district-based organisations have been formed in many districts. These are chaired by the respective District Officers to oversee the co-ordination of cross-department and cross-sector poverty alleviation work. District-based work programmes have also been drawn up. We will provide additional resources to support them where appropriate.

41. The Government will emphasise helping people capable of work to move from welfare to self-reliance. We will promote co-operation with all parties to further develop social enterprise, enhance the employability of the unemployed and consider how our employment services and training programmes can supplement one another to tie in with this development.

42. The Government will continue to implement various social policies, including mobilising the strengths of the community to provide an opportunity for healthy and balanced development for our children and youth. The Government will continue to provide extra support to children and youth of poor families or with special needs, to ensure they have a proper opportunity to develop.

43. Some poor families are ethnic minorities. They have to overcome many obstacles such as language barriers and different customs. We have provided suitably designed language courses for children of ethnic minorities in schools to help their early integration into our society. We have also provided specialist vocational training for those who have left school to help them find employment. The Government will continue to study the needs of the ethnic minorities and render appropriate assistance.

44. We will strengthen community support services to people with disabilities and their families. To facilitate disabled people’s early return to the community, we will provide severely disabled people, including tetraplegia patients, with transitional residence, day training, nursing and support services. At the same time, we will provide discharged patients suffering from mental, physical or neurological impairments with continuous day rehabilitation and infirmary care services. For the disabled residing in rehabilitation facilities, we will introduce a new scheme for visiting doctors to take care of their medical needs. The Government has all along strived to provide people with disabilities with a barrier-free environment. In this connection, we have completed a relevant review. We will conduct public consultation on the outcome of the review and start the necessary legislative process as soon as possible to ensure the provision of barrier-free access to buildings for the disabled.