Replies to LegCo questions
Legislative Council Question No. 17 (Written Reply)
Date of Sitting: 3 May 2000
Asked by: Dr. Hon. David Li
Replied by: Secretary for Health and Welfare
Question:
It was reported that the number of cases abusing the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") system rose from 88 in 1998-99 to 200 in the first nine months of 1999-2000. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it will consider stepping up prosecution against CSSA abuses?
Reply :
Madam President,
Prevention of fraud has always been one of the primary considerations when CSSA applications are considered and investigated by the Social Welfare Department (SWD). In the past two years, the SWD implemented various measures to strengthen the prevention and investigation of social security fraud, namely –
(a) in addition to reinstating the Special Investigation Team in 1996, another team was set up in 1999 increasing the total number of investigating officers from 14 to 28. This has enabled the Special Investigation Teams to make more random checks on existing social security cases and carry out more in-depth investigations on suspected fraud cases;
(b) setting up a Report Abuse Hotline for the public to report suspected fraud cases; and
(c) stepping up publicity against social security fraud.
With strengthened prevention efforts, the number of social security fraud cases detected in 1999-2000 increased from 88 in 1998-1999 to 201 in 1999-2000. The number of cases referred to the police for investigation and consideration of prosecution increased from 43 to 106 during the same period.
The SWD has set up an Internal Committee on Fraud Cases to decide whether a social security fraud case detected should be referred to the police. Each case will be considered on its individual circumstances, including the recipient’s intention to cheat, amount of overpayment involved and presence of mitigation factors e.g. the age and health conditions of the recipient, his attitude and willingness to repay, etc. Among the 106 CSSA fraud cases referred to the police in 1999-2000, the police have so far prosecuted 20 cases and they are all convicted. Three cases have been dropped due to inadequate evidence and the remaining cases are still under investigation.