Caring and Inclusion
Women Development
174. Women's contribution to family and social and economic development is enormous. The provision of more opportunities to help women achieve a sense of self‑fulfilment and bring their potential to the fullest is essential to the development of our society. I will set aside $100 million to strengthen support for women's development and the related tasks, which include helping women take up different roles in the job market, providing them with training on child and elderly care, promoting work and family life balance as well as mental health, and organising sharing and learning activities.
Enhance Support for Pre-school Children with Special Needs
175. The Government has been committed to providing appropriate support for pre-school children with special needs. Currently, about 80 kindergartens and kindergarten‑cum‑child care centres provide on-site training through a pilot project for children awaiting assessment of their physical and intellectual abilities or assessed to have borderline developmental problems, as well as support for their parents and teachers (i.e. "Tier 1 Support Services"). Since the launch of the pilot project nearly three years ago, over 70 per cent of the children who have received Tier 1 Support Services have smoothly bridged over to mainstream primary schools for education. This shows that early intervention in their prime learning period not only contributes significantly to their rehabilitation and growth, but also benefits their families. In view of this, I will step up efforts to support these pre‑school children by allocating additional resources to regularise Tier 1 Support Services and extend them to cover nearly 900 pre‑primary institutions. Such services will also be integrated with on‑site pre‑school rehabilitation services, which support pre‑school children with mild disabilities, to offer comprehensive and timely assistance to pre‑school children with different levels of special needs through inter‑disciplinary service teams under a school‑based and integrated approach. The above measures will incur an annual recurrent expenditure of about $174 million.
Support Ageing in Place
176. The Government provides the elderly with various types of care and support services at the community level to help them age in place. In addition to the provision of services such as personal care, nursing care and rehabilitation exercises at day care centres and homes of the elderly, we will regularise the Pilot Scheme on Community Care Service Voucher for the Elderly in the third quarter of this year and increase the number of beneficiaries from the current 8 000 to 12 000 in 2025‑26, involving an annual recurrent expenditure of about $900 million. The Government will also set up 16 new neighbourhood elderly centres in the next five years and expand the service scope of a total of over 200 district elderly community centres and neighbourhood elderly centres in the fourth quarter of this year to cover retirement planning and promotion of gerontechnology.
177. The Government is also concerned about the post‑treatment care and rehabilitation needs of elderly persons. The Hospital Authority's Integrated Discharge Support Programme for Elderly Patients offers six to eight weeks of support services for discharged elderly patients with a higher risk, which include rehabilitation exercises, meal services, environmental risk assessments and recommendations on home modifications, in order to facilitate their recovery at home and reduce their re‑admission risk. The Government will expand the programme starting from the third quarter of this year by increasing the number of beneficiaries from about 33 000 to 45 000 per annum, and the number of beneficiaries who can be referred to receive home support services will increase from about 9 000 to 11 000. This measure will involve an annual recurrent expenditure of about $74 million.
Enhance Support for Carers
178. Carers devote much time and energy to support elderly persons and persons with disabilities, so that they can continue to live in a familiar community. They deserve credit for building a caring and inclusive society. In recognition of their sacrifices and contributions, the Government will step up its efforts to cater for carers' various needs. On financial support, the Government will regularise two financial assistance schemes for carers from low-income families and raise the amount of monthly allowance starting from October this year, involving an annual expenditure of about $430 million. The Government will also set up a dedicated carer support hotline in the third quarter of this year, with professional social workers rendering emergency support, emotional counselling, and outreaching services.
Encourage Further Employment of Elderly Employees
179. With an ageing population and a declining birth rate, Hong Kong's workforce is expected to shrink. At present, there are about 1.5 million elderly persons aged 65 or above. Many of them are still capable of working beyond traditional retirement age and are willing to stay in employment. I propose to increase the tax deduction for the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) voluntary contributions made by employers for their employees aged 65 or above, from the current 100 per cent to 200 per cent in respect of such expenditure. This will encourage employers to continue to hire mature employees, while helping the silver‑haired increase their retirement savings.
Encourage Provision of More Quality Private Residential Care Homes for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities
180. As proposed in the 2022 Policy Address, more incentives should be provided to developers for the construction and operation of residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) in private development projects. Upon review, we have decided to, in addition to continue to exempt the gross floor area (GFA) of these private RCHEs from payment of premium, raise the GFA of RCHEs that can be exempted in each development project. Furthermore, we propose to exempt such GFA from the calculation of the maximum GFA of the relevant projects. It is hoped that these enhanced measures will increase the supply of quality private RCHEs. We will launch the enhanced measures in the second quarter of this year and will conduct a review after a three‑year trial period. In addition, the DEVB and the LWB will formulate a similar scheme for residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs) so as to encourage the market to provide more quality private RCHDs.
Encourage Installation of Separate Water Meters for Subdivided Units
181. To encourage landlords' participation in the Scheme for Installation of Separate Water Meters for Subdivided Units launched by the Water Supplies Department, payment of the water fee deposit and the charge for providing a meter for each separate water meter installed under the scheme will be waived. Every such water meter account will have a separate water bill for paying water charge, and the first 12 cubic metres of water consumed for each four-month period will be free of charge.
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