Hong Kong had a poor population of nearly 1.5 million last year. Members of the Poverty Alleviation Committee: Low wages are the source of the problem

  [Global Times Reporter Yang Weimin] The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government released the "2019 Poverty Situation Report" on the 23rd. The latest poor population in Hong Kong reached 1.491 million, a 11-year high, 85,000 more than in 2018, and the poverty rate reached 21.4%. One out of every five Hong Kong people is poor; if the CSSA, old age allowance and old age living allowance and other regular cash allowances are intervened, there are still 1.098 million poor people, and the poverty rate is 15.8%, which is an increase from the previous year. More than 70,000 people.

  Oriental Daily reported on the 23rd that the latest poor households in Hong Kong reached 649,000, which also set an 11-year high.

The poverty line is the income threshold used to define poor households and population. Households whose income is lower than the poverty line are considered poor households.

The poverty line in Hong Kong is divided by the number of households and is set at 50% of the median monthly household income (before policy intervention) for the household group.

The poverty line in 2019 is HK$4,500 per month for 1 person, HK$10,000 for 2 people, HK$16,600 for 3 people, HK$21,400 for 4 people, HK$22,000 for 5 people, and HK$23,000 for 6 people and above.

  Shi Lishan, a member of the Poverty Alleviation Committee, believes that low wages are the root cause of poverty. The government relies on subsidies to help the poor and it is difficult to eradicate the problem.

Earlier, the Minimum Wage Committee did not reach a consensus, the minimum wage may be frozen for two years, "the poverty situation in the future will be even worse."

Some analysts say that about half of the increase in the poor population is due to the reduction in the number of working families and jobs; coupled with macroeconomic impacts, social events last year, and the Sino-US trade war, which have hit the local economy; changes in Hong Kong’s demographic structure have caused growth The number of participants increased.

  The Hong Kong government has intensified its poverty alleviation efforts in recent years. The “Permanent Cash Project” has been launched to provide individual households with cash subsidies, such as social security payments and cash education allowances. Non-permanent cash projects are non-recurring cash assistance provided by the government, including one-off measures and Advanced projects under the care fund, etc.; non-cash projects are in-kind, income/asset-tested benefits, and mainly refer to public housing.