HK$640 million spent on Hong Kong ‘baby bonus’ scheme as city seeks to boost birth rate
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong has spent around HK$640 million on a “baby bonus” scheme that hands out HK$20,000 to families having children, part of an initiative to boost the city’s low fertility rate.
A total of 32,811 applications have been received from last October, when the scheme was announced, to the end of November, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk told the Legislative Council in a written response published on Wednesday.
Money has been disbursed to almost 98 per cent of the applicants, Cheuk said.
Called the Newborn Baby Bonus scheme, the initiative was announced during Chief Executive John Lee’s Policy Address last year. The three-year scheme offers a one-off HK$20,000 allowance for each child to families in which at least one parent is a Hong Kong permanent resident, and whose babies are born between last October and October 2026.
Hong Kong, like other developed societies, has seen its fertility rate fall. In 2023, there were 751 births per 1,000 females, compared to 1,125 a decade ago.
Some Hongkongers, however, said the handout was not enough to encourage couples to have children. Critics pointed to insufficient childcare options as well as the high cost of raising a child in the city.
Housing incentives
As part of its goal to increase the city’s low birth rate, Lee also announced during last year’s Policy Address that the government would give families with newborns priority in buying flats under the Home Ownership Scheme.
Around 3,000 families have applied for priority access, accounting for 10 per cent of family applicants during this year’s application cycle, Cheuk said.
This year, the government said the housing initiatives would be extended to public rental flats. Around 3,000 families have had their wait times for a public flat reduced by a year, he added.
A survey by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) in October found that those who did not want children cited the city’s education system, political environment and living space as among their reasons.
Personal factors such as family and career development were ranked lower, PORI said.
In November, lawmaker Bill Tang suggested that Hong Kong could combat the city’s low fertility rate by boosting the birth-giving sentiment among government employees.
In a Legislative Council meeting, Tang said the government should display baby photos in offices to encourage civil servants to go home and “be with their wives” instead of working overtime.
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