The Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme is a welfare programme in Hong Kong that provides supplementary payments to Hong Kong residents whose income is not sufficient to meet basic needs.
History
Historical overview The first public assistance scheme was first introduced in 1971 as the foundation of Hong Kong's social security system. Prior to 1971 the social relief was largely confined and temporary. The Social Welfare Department only came into existence in 1958 and the government restricted its role and stressed the role of family in social welfare. As emphasised in the first White Paper on Social Welfare published in 1965, strengthened family support was the government's imperative in assistance. The paper notes "however generous we may wish to be, we cannot ignore the dollars and cents...In this connexion, Government's endorsement of the Chinese tradition of self-help and of treating relief measures as a family responsibility is correct in theory."Hong Kong Legislative Council. (May 1965). Official Report of Proceedings, p. 295,318. Retrieved from http://www.legco.gov.hk/1965/h650512.pdf. Long term plans in social welfare were introduced in the 1970s with double in social spending per capita between 1971 and 1974. Modeled from the British National Assistance Act, the 1971 public assistance scheme indicated the willingness of the government to take care the basic needs of those who are infirm and ill, which has not changed significantly throughout the years. Together with the Social Allowance Scheme (today known as Social Security Allowance Scheme) introduced in 1973, they have been the major components of Hong Kong's social security system. Throughout the 1980s, the total spending on social welfare was between 4.5 and 6.5% of the government's budget and the social security spending was about 0.57% of the gross domestic product.
As a result of the White Paper published by a Working Party in 1991 set up by Governor David Wilson, the public assistance scheme was renamed the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme in 1993 and its benefits were increased. The Working Party claimed to improve welfare "without creating the sort of dependency culture that has emerged in some industrial societies", it resisted to expand the welfare benefits along the lines of the Western welfare states. At the end of 1993, there were 92,000 CSSA cases compared with 79,700 public assistance cases in the previous year and expenditure on the scheme was $2,073.8 million, an increase of 54.9% over the previous years. In 1995, there were 140,000 people (2% of the population) receiving benefits from this scheme. and they were mainly old people and people with illness or disabilities. Nevertheless, CSSA cases rose from 92,000 in 1993 to 195,645 in 1997 in which the new unemployed cases were found increased significantly.
Public expenditure and policy
Post-1997 Handover The laissez-faire economic policy and the so-called "positive non-interventionism" are regarded two key cornerstones of Hong Kong's economic success in post-war decades. They continue to be the fundamental framework guiding state policy, and are a major obstacle to making major changes in the government's approach to launch new social policy initiatives.Wong, H. (2012) ‘Changes in Social Policy in Hong Kong since 1997: Old Wine in New Bottles?’ in W.M. Lam and P. L.T. Lui’s Contemporary Hong Kong Government and Politics, Hong Kong University Press. p. 277. In addition, the Article 107 in the Basic Law of Hong Kong stipulates that Hong Kong "shall follow the principle of keeping the expenditure within the limits of revenues in drawing up its budget, and strive to achieve a fiscal balance, avoid deficits and keep the budget commensurate with the growth rate of its gross domestic product". Increase in public expenditure is only possible when budget surplus is available, however the imperative to maintain a balance budget has resulted a government response to cut services and reduce social welfare benefits.Chiu, S. (2003) ‘Local Policy in Global Politics: The Limit of Anti-Poverty Policy in Hong Kong’, Journal of Social Policy and Social Work, 7(2): pp. 171–203. During the 1997 Asian financial crises, there was a tremendous increase in unemployment cases applying to CSSA, and at the time, was the only form of public measure and cash benefits available to aid the poor.Ngan, R., N. M. Yip and W. Duo (2004) 'Poverty and Social Security', in J. K. Kallgren's Social Policy Reform in Hong Kong and Shanghai: A Tale of Two Cities', The University of Chicago Press Journals. Since 1997, Hong Kong has had budget deficits from 1998-99 to 2004-05. Financial deficits during these years restricted the HKSAR government's new initiatives and expansion activities to welfare, health and housing. Although never claiming to be a welfare state, both the positive non-interventionist philosophy and the imperative to maintain a balanced budget have produced limited welfare provisions and a growing intensification of poverty for the elderly, unemployed and the working poor.
Figure 1: Statistics on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, 1997/98-2014/15 Statistics on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, 1997/8 -2014/15Year CSSAexpenditure($ billion) Government Budget of the GDP CSSAexpenditureas % ofgovernmentexpenditure Year Number ofCSSARecipients Number ofCSSACases1997-989.46.31997282,623186,9321998-9913.07.91998368,623227,4541999-200013.6+0.87.81999376,507230,6812000-0213.6-0.67.32000365,185228,0602001-02 14.4 -.4.8 7.4 2001 397,468 241,6732002-03 16.1 -4.8 8.1 2002 466,868 266,5712003-04 17.3 -3.2 8.8 2003 522.456 290,2062004-05 17.6 +1.6 9.2 2004 542,017 295,6942005-06 17.8 +1.0 9.5 2005 538,963 298,0112006-07 17.6 +7.3 9.3 2006 521,611 295,3332007-08 18.0 +0.1 9.0 2007 496,922 288,1452008-09 18.6 +1.5 8.7 2008 475,625 284,5692009-10 19.0 +4.1 8.6 2009 482,001 289,1392010-11 18.5 +3.8 8.3 2010 466,006 283,1762011-12 19.5 +3.1 8.0 2011 443,322 276,7102012-1318.7+1.07.12012418,768269,2392013-1418.4+3.26.52013394,907260,7742014-1519.5+0.66.42014381,307253,054 However, in Tung Chee-hwa's first policy address in October 1997, he announced that his 'Administration will work to improve conditions for the elderly' and set out strategies to provide a 'sense of security, a sense of belonging and a feeling of health and worthiness.'Tung, C. H. (1997) ‘Policy Address to the Provisional Legislative Council (8 October)’, paragraph 114; 19. Retrieved from https://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/pa97/english/light_e.htm. This included the establishment of the Mandatory Provident Fund and Carer's Support and Resource Centres as well as increasing the allowance under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. In 1997 to 1998, the number of CSSA recipients increased from 282,623 to 368,623 with government expenditure increasing from HK$9.4 billion to HK$13.0 billion.
A Steering Group was subsequently set up with the membership of all civil servants with the Director of Social Welfare as the chair. The Steering Group concluded the 146% increase of CSSA cases from September 1993 to September 1998, three-fold growth of expenditure, attractions of the social security than the slow growth of wages and CSSA payments for a family of four or more were higher low-end wages. The Group recommended to slash benefits at the unemployed and families which exceeded the wages of low-end workers, unpaid voluntary work and terminate CSSA benefits with recipient refused job, re-assessment and strengthening of the arrangements to prevent fraud. At the end of 1997, it was reported that about 111,000 older persons, or 15% of those aged 65 and over, were beneficiaries of the scheme, with the total number of CSSA cases increasing almost four times more from 59,900 household cases in 1985 to 233,000 household cases in 1999.Ngan, R., N. M. Yip and W. Duo (2004), p. 161.
What is of increasing alarm to policy makers in Hong Kong is the highest increase in CSSA expenditure from HK$1.408 billion in the 1992/93 financial year to HK$14.407 billion in 2001/02, an increase of 9.6 times in an interval of eight years. Government expenditure on CSSA had increased from 31.6% of the total social security expenditure in Hong Kong in 1992/93 to 72.8% in 2001/02.Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (2002). Although social welfare expenditure as a percentage of total public expenditure, as a whole, increased from 3.9% in 1992/3 to 7.25% in 2001/2, CSSA payments alone constituted the largest increase in social welfare expenditure, costing 2.6 of the total government recurrent expenditure in 1993/4 to 8.6% in 1999/2000.Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (2000). While the then Director of Social Welfare, Carrie Lam, remarked in 2001, "There is a consensus within the community that we do not wish to see Hong Kong become a welfare state relying on heavy taxes, that there is a limit to how much the Government can spend and that the virtues of self-reliance, family cohesion and community support should be preserved,Ngan, R., N. M. Yip and W. Duo (2004), p. 128. in Tung Chee-Hwa’s 2000 Policy Address, he stressed that while social policy only operates as a safety net function, he acknowledges that the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis did make an impact on the community and pledged that he would focus on the plight of low-income families in the coming years. From 1997 to 2003, the CSSA cases increased from 195,645 to 288,648 and the budget rose from $2.4 billion in 1993 to $9.4 billion in 1998 and to $16 billion in 2002 in order to compensate for the Asian Financial Crisis, arrivals of the mainland Chinese immigrants and the ageing population. From 1997-8 to 2003-4, expenditure on social welfare significantly increased from 1.6% to 2.7% of Hong Kong’s GDP.Wong (2012), p. 281.
As a result of the continual alarming increase in CSSA expenditure, the government released the CSSA Review Report titled ‘Support for Self-reliance’ for public consultation in December 1998 as well as published the Report on Review of the CSSA Scheme.Social Welfare Department (1998). The financial secretary, Donald Tsang, noted "we would only be able to meet the ever-growing demands within our overall expenditure constraints by re-examining policies and re-adjusting spending priorities. The modifications to the CSSA Scheme which aim at removing dependence on CSSA and encouraging able-bodied recipients to rejoin the workforce are introduced with this objective in mind. We cannot afford much longer double-digit growth in welfare spending each".Hong Kong Government (1999), p. 29. HKSAR's goal to increase self-reliance and wean off those who rely on CSSA parallels with a global trend of reforming social security with a ‘welfare-to-work’ strategy as initiated by the New Labour Government in the United Kingdom.Grover, C. and J. Stewart (2000) ‘Modernising Social Security? Labour and its Welfare-to-work Strategy’, 34(3): 235-252. The number of CSSA unemployment cases dropped by 23% from 32,335 cases in May 1999 to 24,998 in May 2000. Similarly, the share of unemployment cases among all CSSA cases dropped from 13.8 percent to 11 percent, and the ratio of unemployment CSSA caseloads to total number of unemployed persons in Hong Kong decreased from 15.5 percent to 14.8 percent.Social Welfare Department (2001).
Figure 2: Social Security Expenditure in Hong KongHKSAR, Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2002, www.info.gov.hk/swd/html_eng/index.html.