Lawmakers are preparing a draft report asking the government to make sure social security recipients get enough benefits to maintain a basic living standard.

The request is one of the recommendations to be made by a Legislative Council subcommittee following its review of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance system (CSSA).

The results of the review will be submitted to the Welfare Panel, and upon permission by the House Committee, the findings will be discussed at a LegCo meeting on February 20.

If it earns the LegCo's consensus, the government will be asked to review the CSSA plan.

Yesterday, subcommittee members met to discuss the wording of the draft report.

The government has been using a lagging adjustment mechanism, and it cannot keep pace with the latest price changes, according to the report.

So, the report suggests that the price changes in recent months become the basis for the payout adjustment, instead of considering the average price change over the past year.

It was also noted that the wage-exemption level for recipients with jobs is too low, while the other related conditions are very harsh.

For instance, if a CSSA recipient has a paying job, he will have his payout deducted and the most he or she can take home each month is just HK$2,500.

Referring to a recent incident in which an 18-year-old man took his own life after his CSSA payout was cut, many legislators deemed such policy as not being conducive to the goal of encouraging recipients to become self-reliant.

The most controversial part of the report is whether the government should maintain the seven-year residence rule before new arrivals may apply for social security.

In the opinion of most subcommittee members, recipients should be assisted on a necessity basis rather than their length of stay in Hong Kong.

And a few members said the seven-year rule should stay, but they hope the government becomes more flexible allowing people who have not yet stayed in the city for seven years to obtain permanent resident status.

(HK Edition 01/05/2008 page1)