Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ9: Social Security Assistance Index of Prices
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Tang Siu-tong and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (March 19):
Question :
The Social Security Assistance Index of Prices ("SSAIP") is compiled monthly by the Census and Statistics Department on the basis of the expenditure pattern of households receiving the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") and the prices of the items of goods and services covered under the CSSA standard rates. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council :
(a) of the monthly average retail prices of individual items of goods and services covered by the SSAIP in the past 36 months, as well as their year-on-year rates of changes;
(b) on the basis of the expenditure pattern of CSSA households adopted in compiling the SSAIP, of the respective amounts of money that different categories of CSSA recipients can spend on various items of goods and services per head each month; and
(c) of the views that the social welfare sector has submitted in this financial year to the Administration regarding the compilation of the SSAIP, and the follow-up measures taken by the Administration in this regard?
Reply :
The Social Security Assistance Index of Prices (SSAIP) is compiled by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) to provide a measure to reflect the changes in the price level of consumer goods and services generally purchased by Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) households. The SSAIP tells us what changes are taking place in the purchasing power of the CSSA households, and measures the relative change over time in the total cost of a specified basket of consumer goods and services. To ensure that up-to-date expenditure patterns of CSSA households are accurately reflected in the compilation of the SSAIP, it is an established practice to rebase the SSAIP once every five years based on the data collected from the Household Expenditure Survey on CSSA Households (HES). The latest set of SSAIP has been compiled based on the results of the 1999/2000 HES.
(a) As explained above, the SSAIP reflects the impact of price changes on CSSA recipients insofar as the items of goods and services covered under the CSSA standard rates are concerned. Therefore, it is the price change (not the prices) which serves as a reference for the Social Welfare Department in proposing adjustments to CSSA standard rates. The year-on-year changes of the overall SSAIP and its sub-index by section of goods/services over the past three years is provided at Annex.
(b) The current set of SSAIP is compiled based on the expenditure patterns of CSSA households as reflected by the 1999/2000 Household Expenditure Survey on CSSA Households(HES) . The HES collected information on expenditure on a household basis and as such we do not have statistics on the expenditure of individual types of recipients.
(c) We have not received submissions regarding the compilation of the SSAIP. The SSAIP has been accepted and not been questioned as the basis for reflecting price changes for the purpose of rate adjustments.
End/Wednesday, March 19, 2003
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