Tag

Poverty Line

How to break the cycle of child poverty in Hong Kong, where one in five children are poor

By | Experts' Opinion, Paul's Channel | No Comments

Children who grow up in low-income households tend to have less access to opportunities and therefore are more likely to remain poor in adulthood. The fact that poverty often crosses generational lines makes the problem much harder to tackle.

According to the Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report, there were some 180,000 children (aged below 18) living in poverty in 2015. The child poverty rate was 18 per cent, which meant that nearly every one in five children were living in poverty. Compared with other developed economies, the child poverty rate in Hong Kong is relatively high. It stands at 3.7 per cent in Denmark, 9.8 per cent in Britain, 15.1 per cent in Australia and 21.2 per cent in the US. Read More

Redirect Hong Kong’s welfare spending to reach its most needy

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Paul Yip

The Commission on Poverty provides detailed figures on the situation in Hong Kong and has just released the fourth update to the poverty line since it was set in 2013. The poverty line is set at half the median household income, according to household size. Those living below it are considered poor. As it is in relative term, there will always be a certain proportion of the population below the threshold. Read More