The Social Welfare Department () is a department of the Hong Kong Government responsible for providing welfare services to the community.

Responsibilities The department provides services to families and children, the elderly, recovering criminal offenders, drug abusers, street sleepers, persons with disabilities, the mentally ill, and the community at large. It administers social security schemes, including the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, which forms a large portion of its annual expenses. The department operates community and social centres, and also once operated libraries.

History

The forerunner of the SWD was the Social Welfare Office, which was set up in light of the influx of population from the mainland China, post-World War II destruction and poverty, and the post-war expansion in the provision of services to meet education, healthcare and social needs.

The Social Welfare Office was renamed Social Welfare Department from 1 January 1958. At the same time, the position of Social Welfare Officer was renamed Director of Social Welfare.

Several prominent current and former officials, including Anson Chan , Carrie Lam and Patrick Nip , had formerly served as Director of Social Welfare.

At various times, the department has been headquartered in Lee Gardens, the World Trade Centre (19th and 20th floors), and Wu Chung House in Wan Chai.

Size and composition

SWD is one of the 12 largest departments under the Civil Service in Hong Kong, with 6266 civil servants working under it in 2021. For the year 2021-2022, it is estimated that the total expenditure of SWD would be $104.3 billion.

SWD is organised into thirteen branches under the Director of Social Welfare. Among them, the Clinical Psychological Service Branch, Elderly Branch, Family and Child Welfare Branch, Planning and Development Branch, Rehabilitation and Medical Social Services Branch and Youth and Corrections Branch are under the Deputy Director of Social Welfare (Services). The other seven branches, namely the Administration Branch, Finance Branch, Human Resource Management Branch, Information Systems and Technology Branch, Licensing and Regulation Branch are under the Deputy Director of Social Welfare (Administration). There is also an Information and Public Relations Unit within SWD.

Responsibilities

SWD provides services to families and children, the elderly, recovering criminal offenders, drug abusers, street sleepers, persons with disabilities, the mentally ill, and the community at large. It administers social security schemes, including the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, which forms a large portion of its annual expenses. The department operates community and social centres, and also once operated libraries.

SWD provides service mainly in 12 aspects.

(1) Social Security

The SWD aims to provide social security support - including financial and material assistance, to the financially vulnerable. There are mainly four initiatives under this category, namely the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme , Social Security Allowance (SSA) Scheme, Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation (CLEIC) Scheme, Traffic Accident Victims Assistance (TAVA) Scheme and Emergency Relief.

CSSA Scheme

The CSSA Scheme consists of two components: the Employment Support Service and the disregarded earnings - meaning to disregard part of their income when assessing the amount of assistance.

SSA Scheme

The SSA Scheme provides a monthly allowance to Hong Kong residents who face special needs arising from disability or old age, covering residents who are severely disabled or are 65 years old or above. The Scheme includes Disability Allowance such as Normal Disability Allowance and Higher Disability Allowance (recipient not receiving care in residential institutions subsidised by the government), and Old Age Allowances including Old Age Allowance (age 70 or above), Normal Old Age Living Allowance and Higher Old Age Living Allowance (age 65 or above and has monthly income and assets not exceeding prescribed limits ). The aforementioned Allowances do not require applicants to go through a means test, yet the applicants must continue to reside in Hong Kong during receipt of payment. As at 31 March 2021, there were 896,802 cases of Old Age Allowances (including Old Age Allowance and Old Age Living Allowance), and 158,962 cases of Disability Allowances (including Normal Disability Allowance and Higher Disability Allowance ) .

The SSA scheme also covers the Guangdong Scheme and Fujian Scheme which provides monthly allowance to Hong Kong residents who choose to reside in Guangdong or Fujian. In 2020-2021, the government had spent $38,166Mn on the SSA Scheme.

CLEIC Scheme

The CLEIC scheme provides financial awards to persons (or to their dependents in cases of death) who are injured as a result of a crime of violence, or by a law enforcement officer using a weapon in the execution of his duty. It is non-contributory and non-means-tested. Applicants are required to attend an interview at the CLEIC Section to provide relevant information and documentary proof.

In 2020-21, a total of $ 8.39 million was paid out under the CLEIC Scheme to 303 cases, showing an upward trend throughout the years 2016 to 2021.

TAVA Scheme

The TAVA Scheme provides speedy financial assistance to road traffic accident victims (or to their dependents in cases of death). It is non-means tested, and does not consider the element of fault leading to the occurrence of the accident. Payments are made for personal injuries, yet loss of or damage to property is not covered. Applicants are required to attend an interview at the TAVA Section to provide relevant information and documentary proof. In 2020-21, a total of $409.09Mn was paid out under the TAVA Scheme to 14,826 cases, showing an upward trend throughout the years 2016 to 2021.

Emergency Relief

Emergency Relief (ER) can be divided into two components: ER Services and ER Fund. ER Services provide good, or cash-in-lieu of food and relief articles to victims of natural or other disasters such as fire, typhoon, flood, rainstorm, landslide and house collapse, and also for evacuees of buildings and premises considered to be dangerous under Closure Orders. ER Fund provides prompt assistance to persons in need of urgent relief as a result of natural disasters, and grants from the fund are intended for relief instead of compensation. The SWD is only responsible for grants regarding personal injury or death, and other departments are responsible for other categories of grants. The fund is vested in the director of Social Welfare Incorporated as trustee. The committee is chaired by the Director of social welfare and some members are non-officials.

(2) Family and Child Welfare

The family and child welfare provided by the SWD can be divided into several components, namely Family Services, Child Welfare Services, and Family and Child Protective Services.

Family Services

For Family Services, SWD has commissioned NGOs to operate short-term good assistance to help individuals and families with difficulty in dealing with their daily food expenditure since 2009 . In the year 2020-2021, there were 20,243 cases provided with food assistance. To help individuals and families temporarily affected by the pandemic (i.e., COVID-19), SWD has relaxed the asset limits of the service from 1 June 2021 to 31 May 2022 on a time-limited basis by pitching the asset limits to those of Working Family Allowance. As at 31 March 2021, 425,857 beneficiaries in total had received food assistance from the service projects.

Besides, operated by Caritas Hong Kong, a Family Crisis Support Centre (FCSC) is established to tackle family crises at an early stage by providing a package of services including a 24-hour hotline, emergency intervention with short-term accommodation and other support services. As at 31 March 2021, 88.5% of the service users indicated a positive response in overcoming their immediate family crises upon leaving the support centre. The SWD hotline has been operating on a 24-hour basis since October 2018, and in 2020-2021, the social workers of SWD (to listen to phone calls during normal office hours) had handled 49,123 calls with 6,758 of them requiring counselling service, while the social workers of HOST (to listen to phone calls outside normal office hours) had handled 13,276 calls with 11,650 of them requiring counselling service.

Support for Ethnic Minorities

In supporting ethnic minorities, the SWD has commissioned three NGOs to set up three outreaching teams to proactively reach out to ethnic minorities and connect those in need with mainstream welfare services, The Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council is one of the NGOs with outreaching teams. The SWD also launched a 3-year Ethnic Minority District Ambassador Pilot Scheme in October 2020 to enhance services provided by district service units in 9 districts with higher ethnic minorities population. There are currently 46 Ethnic Minority District Ambassadors in Hong Kong. In the year 2020-2021, 2,645 new service users were contacted through outreaching successfully.

Support for Street Sleepers

The SWD had organised three integrated services teams for street sleepers, and 1,580 street sleepers were approached in the year 2020-2021. However, there are critiques regarding the quality of such service, see below.

Child Welfare Services

Regarding children welfare, the SWD provides both Adoption Service and Residential Child Care Services. The former finds suitable and permanent homes for children who have lost their parents through death or desertion and those who were born out of wedlock and whose parents are difficult to find. As at the end of December 2021, 142 children were adopted by local homes, 25 were adopted by overseas families, and 24 were adopted by relatives through private arrangements. However, there are still 97 children awaiting adoption.

The Residential Child Care Services are provided for children and young persons under 21 who cannot be adequately cared for by their families. These services cover both non-institutional care such as Foster Care and Small Group Homes, and institutional care including Residential Child Care Centres and Boys'/ Girls' Home. In the year 2020-2021, there were 924 places for Small Group Homes and the average enrolment rate was 94%.

Family and Child Protective Services

The SWD had launched a Publicity Campaign on Strengthening Families and Combating Violence in the year 2020-2021, and 1,266 district-based public education programmes and activities with a total attendance of 24,086 had been organised by the District Social Welfare Offices.

There are also 11 units of Family and Child Protective Services Units located in different districts, and 7,002 cases were served in the year 2020-2021.

(3) Clinical Psychological Services