The Financial Secretary in his latest Government Budget Speech has pledged that he “will be responsive to social problems” and that “we need to help those with new and added burdens so that they can overcome the present difficulties”. Yet, the recurrent allocation for social welfare is decreased in real terms by -6.4%, over the original estimates of 2008/09. It is the only policy area that has negative growth in recurrent expenditures. This has never happened in the hardest of times when Hong Kong was hit by SARS.

Social welfare is there to help solve and prevent social problems. It is needed to help families that have to care for the frail elderly, the disabled and the infirm. These families are facing double hardships in such difficult times of unemployment and wage reduction. 《.....More》