Sizing up poverty in Hong Kong
Carrie Lam says setting Hong Kong's first official poverty line is only the start of the massive work of providing targeted, effective help to ensure the fruits of economic growth are shared by all
Publication of Hong Kong's first official poverty line at the Commission on Poverty summit on Saturday marked a significant step forward in poverty-alleviation work. As chairwoman of the commission, I am indebted to members for their hard work in the past 10 months.
As the chief executive has said, the government has a duty to assist the poor. To ensure we do a proper job, he gave the commission the task of drawing a poverty line which is credible and generally accepted, locally and internationally. The consensus reached reflects a wish to better understand the poverty situation and an earnest desire to provide clear policy direction for poverty-alleviation measures.
The official poverty line has three functions: it measures and analyses poverty here; facilitates evidence-based policymaking; and, assesses the effectiveness of policy intervention.
The poverty line is defined as half of the median monthly household income of all domestic households in Hong Kong, prior to government intervention like tax and social benefits transfers. This approach is based on the concept of relative poverty, as opposed to absolute poverty expressed in terms of basic subsistence.