Gov offers up to $45k incentive for CSSA recipients to return to work

Starting October, the government will launch a pilot scheme aiming to encourage Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients to return to work.

Under the three-year programme supported by the Community Care Fund, CSSA recipients who secure a job can receive cash incentives of up to 45,000 dollars.

To encourage employable CSSA recipients to remain in -- or return to the workforce, the government will introduce the three-year pilot scheme.

Under the programme, those who quit CSSA benefits and applied for the Working Family Allowance will be eligible for cash rewards if they remain in employment.

To qualify, they must receive the allowance for two consecutive payment cycles -- and be approved for the allowance in at least 10 of 12 months.

They will receive 10,000 dollars in the first year -- and 45,000 dollars cumulatively over three years.

For a family of four receiving CSSA support, they receive a monthly handout of nearly 20,000 dollars.

If the same family apply for monthly working family subsidies instead, assuming the parents work a total of over 192 hours a month, and earn a monthly income of 25,000 dollars, they can receive slightly more than 4,800 dollars in handouts.

Lawmaker Peter Douglas Koon says the first-year incentive of 10,000 dollars may not be attractive enough as leaving the comfort zone of being a CSSA beneficiary is not easy.

Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of Society for Community Organisation, says going back to work comes with extra costs including transport, work clothes and training courses.

She believes financial support as such can make returning to work more appealing.

But she says the Working Family Allowance is now tied to working-hour requirements which can be difficult for some applicants to meet.

With that, Sze urges the government to relax eligibility criteria and also include a mechanism in the pilot scheme to allow participants to return to the CSSA safety net if the needs arise.