Budget 2025: Measures do not address poverty, Hong Kong NGO says
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s new budget does not do enough to support the city’s underprivileged, an NGO has said, citing meagre subsidy allowances and the scrapping of a HK$2,500 grant for students.
The Society of Community Organization (SoCO) said in a press statement on Wednesday afternoon that most of the livelihood measures in the budget were existing policies. The budget did little for the plight of the poor nor respond to Beijing’s wish for “targeted poverty alleviation,” it wrote.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan delivered the city’s annual budget address on Wednesday morning, outlining Hong Kong’s spending for the coming financial year. He estimated a deficit of HK$87.2 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, marking three consecutive years in the red.
The NGO said the budget’s relief measures for the low-income were “extremely limited,” with just an extra half month’s payment for those receiving monthly subsidies such as the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme and the Old Age Living Allowance.
“The authorities should increase the payment to at least a month’s worth, and conduct a long-term review of the subsidy schemes and significantly increase the quota for elderly services,” SoCO wrote in Chinese.
The NGO also highlighted the decision to end the HK$2,500 student grant, starting in the new academic year. Since 2019, the scheme has given all kindergarten, primary and secondary students a yearly, one-off grant of HK$2,500.
Chan said in the budget address that the city would abolish the scheme as it is not means tested.
SoCO said the government should not completely cut the scheme. Children from low-income families who are receiving government subsidies should continue to be able to benefit from the grant, the NGO said.
“The HK$2,500 subsidy is quite a big help to students who are poor,” it said, adding that the money assists them in purchasing books, participating in after-school activities, extra tuition, and others.
Civil service cuts
This year’s deficit was up from the HK$48 billion shortfall forecast in Chan’s budget speech in February last year. The minister has cited a hobbled property market that has taken a toll on government revenue from land sales and stamp duties.
Land-related revenue has conventionally been a main source of income for the Hong Kong government, but those figures have plunged in recent years. As of January, Hong Kong has brought in HK$4.3 billion in land revenue — 12 per cent of the HK$33 billion target set last year, according to Reuters.
Amid Hong Kong’s ongoing deficit, Chan announced a series of measures on Wednesday to help cut costs. Among them was civil service job cuts that would see the removal of about 10,000 posts by April 2027.
The Hong Kong government spent HK$156 billion on “staff-related expenditure on the civil service” in 2023-24, or 26 per cent of its total expenditure, according to official figures.
SoCO said that in reducing expenditure, the government should avoid affecting staff who work on the frontlines of providing public services.
The NGO added that while the budget emphasised developing talent in areas such as innovation and technology, there was little on how the city would support the grassroots in their employment.
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