Ernest Chui PhD, EdD(Bristol) Associate Professor

1. Conference on Social Inequality and Social Mobility in Hong KongPoverty & 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

2. prosperous HK, but … • Hong Kong is prosperous by world standard: • per capita GDP (US$27,679) is 27th in the World, 4th in Asia (after Australia, Japan and Singapore, as at June 2006) (C&SD 2007, IMF 2007) • but there is considerable extent of poverty conceived in the absolute and relative senses

3. 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)

4. 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, 1997:8)

5. 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., 1998:22; cited in Byrne, 1999:2).

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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 C&SD Household Expenditure Survey (1999/2000), estimated 449,000 households with expense per head <poverty line = 28% of the total households

9. 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’ (C&SD 2007): • 124 (1991) • 168 (2006) • 428 (2030)

10. Exclusion from adequate income • C&SD 2004: 73% of 901,000 elderly who had stable monthly income (from various sources, including family members, work, etc.) had < 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 <$6,000 (C&SD 2008) • HKCSS & Oxfam (1996): 87.5 % of 16,000 singletons living in ‘abject poverty’ were aged 60+

11. 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

12. 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) (C&SD 2008)

13. 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 C&SD 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

14. 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

16. 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 Kong’s 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

17. Poor living condition in private housing in old urban districts • low elderly home ownership rate 17% (as at 2001; C&SD 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

18. 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)

19. 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 (C&SD 2001) • high incidence of chronic illness: 72% have =/>1 chronic diseases (including 56% hypertension, 35% rheumatism, 42% frequent medical consultations (C&SD 2004) • 64,000 elderly people had difficulty in activities of daily living (C&SD 2004) •   social participation  exclusion

20. 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

21. 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)

22. 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

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

24. 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