Conference on Social Inequality and Social Mobility in Hong Kong Poverty

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Conference on Social Inequality and Social
Mobility in Hong Kong  Poverty social
inclusion of elderly in Hong Kong 

• Ernest Chui PhD, EdD(Bristol)Associate
  Professor
• Department of Social Work and Social
  dministrationThe University of Hong Kong

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prosperous HK, but

• Hong Kong is prosperous by world standard
• per capita GDP (US27,679) is 27th in the World,
  4th in Asia (after Australia, Japan and
  Singapore, as at June 2006) (CSD 2007, IMF 2007)
• but there is considerable extent of poverty
  conceived in the absolute and relative senses

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Poverty in Hong Kong

• Gini Coefficient a measure to capture income
  discrepancy in working population and thus
  reflecting relative poverty in society has been
  increasing over the years
• 0.43 (1971)
• 0.45 (1981)
• 0.476 (1991)
• 0.525 (2001)
• 0.533 (2006)

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Social exclusion conceptualized

• the dynamic process of being shut out, fully or
  partially, from any of the social, economic,
  political or cultural systems which determine the
  social integration of a person in society. Social
  exclusion may, therefore, be seen as the denial
  (or non-realization) of the civil, political and
  social rights of citizenship (Walker Walker,
  19978)

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Social exclusion conceptualized (2)

• a multi-dimensional process, in which various
  forms of exclusion are combined participation in
  decision making and political processes, access
  to employment and material resources, and
  integration into common cultural processes. When
  combined, they create acute forms of exclusion
  that find a spatial manifestation in particular
  neighborhoods (Madanipour et al., 199822 cited
  in Byrne, 19992).

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Social exclusion conceptualized (3)

• Townsend Centre for International Poverty
  Research, University of Bristol 4 aspects of
  exclusion (Patsios, 2000)
• exclusion from having adequate income
• exclusion from labour market
• exclusion from service consumption
• exclusion from social relations

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The lack of examining social exclusion in local
studies on poverty

• most local researchers adopt either the relative
  poverty approach or income proxy approach in
  conceptualizing or measuring the magnitude of
  poverty, e.g.
• Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS)
  Growing Seriousness in Poverty and Income
  Disparity study (2004) used 50 median income as
  benchmark
• ?trend in overall poverty rate
• 11.2 (1991) ? 18.0 (2002)
• ?trend in elderly poverty rate
• 24.8 (1991) ? 32.6 (2002)

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Local poverty studies (2)

• City University of Hong Kong Study of Hong Kong
  Poverty Line (Wong Li 2002) used the income
  proxy approach by defining the poverty line with
  the inflection point of the Engel curve
• set poverty line at 3,750 per person in 2002
• with reference to CSD Household Expenditure
  Survey (1999/2000), estimated 449,000 households
  with expense per head ltpoverty line 28 of the
  total households

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Ageing population

• proportion of elderly people in the population
  aged 65
• (1986) 7.6
• (2006) 12.4 (853,000)
• aged (60) 16.2
• elderly dependency ratio (CSD 2007)
• 124 (1991)
• 168 (2006)
• 428 (2030)

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Exclusion from adequate income

• CSD 2004 73 of 901,000 elderly who had stable
  monthly income (from various sources, including
  family members, work, etc.) had lt half of median
  monthly income of the general population
  (10,000) vs. median for the elderly population
  3,000
• 2006 by-census 57,500 working elders
  (excluding unpaid family workers) median income
  6,500 vs. 10,000 of overall working population
  and 41 of working elders had monthly income
  lt6,000 (CSD 2008)
• HKCSS Oxfam (1996) 87.5 of 16,000 singletons
  living in abject poverty were aged 60

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Exclusion from adequate income (2)

• HKCSS Social Development Index study (2000) ? of
  elderly people living in low-income households
  22.4 (1981) 24.8 (1991) 25.9 (1996) 33.7
  (1998)
• Gini coefficient of households with a head of
  household aged 65 has increased 0.508 (1996) ?
  0.515 (2001) ? 0.526 (2006) (HKCSS 2006)
• Chui, Ko Chong 2005 219,000 households with at
  least one household member aged 60 are poor
  elderly households, total number of elderly
  persons living in poverty 289,600

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Exclusion from employment

• ?job opportunities for elders due to economic
  restructuring ? high unemployment amongst elderly
  people
• labor force participation for people aged 65 has
  remained low 9.8 (1996) ? 7 (2006) (CSD 2008)

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Lack of viable retirement protection

• MPF only set up in 2000 ? cannot serve the
  present cohort of elders who have already reached
  60
• low contributory rate (5 of monthly income)
  short duration of contributions ? low protection
  45 of the elderly population will live below
  subsistence level in 2020 (Law 1997) ? elderly
  are worried about insufficient retirement
  protection (Lingnan College 1997)
• 2001 CSD Special Topic Report No27 83.3 of the
  elderly people had no form of pensions or
  retirement protection
• 69.9 made no arrangements for future financial
  needs

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Reliance on welfare

• since 1990s ? in both absolute number and the
  percentage of elderly population receiving CSSA
• 2007 187,000 elderly persons living on CSSA (SWD
  2007) 16.3 of the aged (60 or more) population
• 71,500 elderly people aged 65 (8.2) relied on
  means-tested normal Old Age Allowance as major
  source of income

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(No Transcript)
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inadequate income ? reliance on public housing

• 2006 407,000 elderly (aged 60) living in Public
  Rental Housing (PRH) 20.4 of the total
  1,996,000 PRH tenants, or 38 of HK total elderly
  population
• 58,800 singleton tenants 46.5 of Hong Kongs
  126,600 singleton elderly population
• 37,500 non-singleton elderly households residing
  in PRH 76,000 elderly people who were largely
  elderly couples living on their own
• 7,900 elderly applicants on waiting list

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Poor living condition in private housing in old
urban districts

• low elderly home ownership rate 17 (as at 2001
  CSD 2004) vs. 53 of general public (Ramesh
  2004)
• those who cannot afford to own private housing
  have to rent rooms, bed-spaces or cocklofts in
  private tenements in old urban areas ? poor
  living conditions
• Commission on Poverty (2006) 2.8 (30,000) of
  the elderly population lived in private temporary
  housing or private shared units i.e. deprived of
  independent private living space

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Spatial exclusion resulted from urban renewal and
gentrification

• urban renewal of old urban districts ?
  gentrification ? physical social dislocation
• elders are physically, psychologically and
  socially bound by the locality in which they
  live and they derive their sense of familiarity
  and security from it
• if elders are deprived of environmental resources
  ? misfit and strain
• ?jeopardize their perceived and exerted
  independence ? threaten their sense of security
  physical safety and peace of mind
• local studies have vividly portrayed these
  problems e.g. Wanchai District Board 1999 HKYWCA
  1998 SoCO 2002)

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Poverty deteriorating health aggravating
social exclusion

• 2006 average life expectancy 85.1 years
• poor general health (both physical and mental)
• 106,700 elderly had various degrees of cognitive
  impairment, especially serious amongst the 75
  group (CSD 2001)
• high incidence of chronic illness 72 have /gt1
  chronic diseases (including 56 hypertension, 35
  rheumatism, 42 frequent medical consultations
  (CSD 2004)
• 64,000 elderly people had difficulty in
  activities of daily living (CSD 2004)
• ? ? social participation ? exclusion

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Normative exclusion and ageism

• in capitalistic, materialistic HK, people in
  general have put slanted emphasis on immediate
  economic rewards
• ? elders are perceived to be economically
  unproductive (Phillipson 1982)
• Changing family structure function
• ? less respect care to elders in family
• ? less attend to the needs of the older
  generation
• gradual ? ageism i.e. attitude that despises
  older people

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Self disempowerment exclusion of elders

• a vicious cycle of self-denial and disempowerment
  in elders ? depression, withdrawal or even
  self-destructive inclination
• e.g. depression particularly prevalent among
  institutionalized elderly people 38 (Hospital
  Authority, 2005)
• high elderly suicide rate (1981-95) 31.1 and
  (2006) 28.2 per 100,000 (age 60), 53.0 (age 75)
  (Chi, Yip and Yu, 1998) vs. 12.1 for the overall
  population (HKCSS 2007)

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recommendations

• The government may consider tapping upon the
  substantial financial reserves to finance some
  immediate measures ? to provide the material base
  for enabling the elders to enjoy social inclusion
  by the community at large
• This can avoid resorting to a radical revision of
  the low tax system and thus preserving a
  favorable business environment
• These stop gap measures are expected to be
  temporary as the future cohort of elders are
  better prepared in having gradually maturing
  existing / upcoming contributory schemes, and are
  having growing awareness of better preparation
  for retirement

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• Careful gentrification
• Promotion respect for the elderly
• Service to improve health condition of elderly
  people

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Acknowledgement

• The paper is based partly on Poverty and social
  exclusion of elderly in Hong Kong (2007)
  (HKU7407/06H) funded by the Research Grant
  Council of Hong Kong and on a consultancy
  project. I acknowledge with thanks the client's
  permission to cite from the report of the
  consultancy study