Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ12: CSSA cases of the unemployment category

Following is a question by the Hon Chan Kwok-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (November 27):

Question :

Regarding cases of unemployed persons receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ('CSSA') payments, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) a breakdown of such cases by

(i) recipients' age profile, in groups each covering five years,

(ii)the trades, types and positions of jobs held as well as the monthly salaries they earned (in groups of $500 apart) prior to becoming unemployed; and

(iii) their household size;

(b) the average domestic expenses of the recipients, broken down by household size;

(c) details of the assistance the Social Welfare Department and relevant agencies provided to the recipients last year in seeking employment, including the numbers of job interviews arranged and job placements provided, the trades to which such jobs belong and the average monthly salaries of such jobs; and

(d) the number of recipients who stopped receiving CSSA payments last year after securing employment, and its percentage in the total number of CSSA cases of the 'unemployment' category at the end of last year?



Reply:

According to statistics of the Social Welfare Department (SWD), information regarding unemployed Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients as requested is as follows:

(a) (i) As at the end of September 2002, of the unemployed CSSA recipients, the group aged 45-49 has the highest percentage at 20 per cent. The next two highest groups are the groups aged 50-54 and aged 40-44 which represent 18 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. For details, please refer to the table at Annex I.

(ii) As all unemployed CSSA recipients are required to join the Active Employment Assistance (AEA) Programme under the Support for Self-reliance (SFS) Scheme, information on these participants indicates that 42.5 per cent were employed in elementary occupations such as cleaners, office assistants and domestic helpers, etc., while 23.3 per cent worked as service workers and shop sales workers before they were unemployed. For details, please refer to the table at Annex II. We do not have information on the income they earned in their last employment.

(iii) As at the end of September 2002, among the CSSA unemployment caseload, 48 per cent are singleton cases while the next two highest groups are cases with four eligible members and three eligible members which represent 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. For details, please refer to the table at Annex III.

(b) Households with one, three and four eligible members account for the majority of the CSSA unemployment caseload. According to the results of the 1999-2000 Household Expenditure Survey on CSSA Households, their average monthly household expenditures* are $3,500, $7,100 and $8,400 respectively.

(c) All unemployed CSSA recipients are required to participate in the SFS Scheme. Under the AEA Programme, Employment Assistance (EA) Co-ordinators provide personalised service and act as facilitators to help the participants get access to up-to-date labour market information, including employment related information, training/retraining opportunities and other support services. Over 100,000 CSSA recipients have participated in the AEA Programme since June 1999.

The EA Co-ordinators also refer those needy participants to join the employment assistance programmes run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (namely the projects funded by the Intensive Employment Assistance Fund (IEAF) and the Special Job Attachment Programme (SJAP)). The services provided by these programmes include intensive counselling, job matching and placement and post-placement service, aimed at assisting the participants to overcome barriers to work, enhance their employability and rejoin the workforce. As at the end of September 2002, 2,736 CSSA recipients have participated in IEAF projects and 1,897 recipients participating in SJAP. According to the information provided by NGOs, the total number of job interviews arranged by them as at the end of September 2002 is 4,200, and the number of job vacancies identified is 8,500. However, information regarding the job nature and salaries of the job vacancies is not routinely collected.

In addition, we have referred about 19,900 AEA participants to seek employment services from the Labour Department since June 1999.

(d) As at the end of September 2002, the number of participants of the AEA Programme who have taken up paid employment is about 12,800, representing 13 per cent of the total AEA participants. 5,050 of them or 5 per cent of the total AEA participants have left the CSSA Scheme after securing employment. The other 7,700, constituting about 8 per cent of the total AEA participants, have moved from the CSSA 'unemployment' category to the 'low-earnings' category due to paid employment.

Note *: The result should be interpreted with caution because the sub-sample sizes for CSSA unemployed households are relatively small as compared with the sample size of the whole Household Expenditure Survey on CSSA households and would be affected by extreme values.
















Annex I

Percentage of unemployed CSSA recipients by age group

Note: There were about 36,000 unemployed CSSA recipients as at the end of September 2002.

Annex II

Percentage of Active Employment Assistance Participants'
Occupation before Unemployment by Category

 Note: there were about 41,000 persons participating in the AEA programme as at the end of September 2002.

Annex III

Percentage of CSSA Unemployment Cases
by Number of Eligible Members

 16


Notes : Figures do not add up to 100% due to rounding




END/Wednesday, November 27, 2002
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