LCQ9: Elderly Hong Kong residents on the Mainland
17.6.2020

Following is a question by the Hon Wilson Or and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Dr Law Chi-kwong, in the Legislative Council today (June 17): Question: Regarding the elderly Hong Kong residents (i.e. aged over 60) on the Mainland, will the Government inform this Council: (1) Of the number, and the number of person-times, of elderly Hong Kong residents travelling to the Mainland through the various boundary control points in each year from 2016 to 2019; (2) Whether it knows the number of elderly Hong Kong residents, in each year from 2016 to 2019, who had fixed abode on the Mainland and resided on the Mainland for more than six months in that year, and the top three provinces with the largest numbers of such persons residing therein; (3) Whether it knows the current number of elderly Hong Kong residents holding Residence Permits for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Residents; (4) Of the respective numbers of Hong Kong residents who received Old Age Living Allowance or Old Age Allowance under the Guangdong Scheme and the Fujian Scheme in 2019; (5) Whether it knows the respective numbers of person-times of elderly Hong Kong residents in each year from 2016 to 2019 who, due to urgent medical needs, were conveyed to the public hospitals in Hong Kong by (i) private cross-boundary transport services from the Mainland, and (ii) pre-arranged ambulances at the boundary control points after entering Hong Kong from the Mainland; (6) Of the number, and the number of person-times, of Hong Kong residents who used elderly health care vouchers at the University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital, the amount of money used each time on average, and the total amount of money involved, in each year from 2015 to 2019; and (7) Of the number of cases of elderly Hong Kong residents seeking assistance of the Hong Kong Government's offices on the Mainland in each year from 2016 to 2019, and among the issues involved in such cases, the top three issues most commonly raised by the people seeking assistance? Reply: President, Having consulted the relevant policy bureaux, my reply to the Member's question is set out below: (1) According to information provided by the Security Bureau (SB), the number of departures of Hong Kong residents at various immigration control points between 2016 and 2019 are tabulated as follows: Control Point / Year 2016 2017 2018 2019 Airport (Note 1) 11 285 453 12 127 560 12 681 474 12 968 194 Lo Wu 29 438 738 29 835 452 30 446 046 29 382 940 Hung Hom 849 249 841 956 832 307 549 198 Lok Ma Chau Spur Line 21 832 671 19 361 550 17 137 983 16 766 773 West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (Note 2) Not applicable 867 913 3 355 166 Lok Ma Chau 8 683 619 9 068 237 8 998 322 8 248 387 Man Kam To 1 063 070 1 174 178 1 166 042 1 088 613 Sha Tau Kok 1 022 877 1 070 416 1 048 816 977 130 Shenzhen Bay 10 014 409 10 600 406 11 160 462 11 089 436 Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port (Note 1 and 3) Not applicable 934 552 5 246 388 Harbour Control (Note 1) 3 488 3 051 5 144 4 402 Macau Ferry Terminal (Note 1) 5 164 137 4 964 704 4 718 284 3 478 064 China Ferry Terminal (Note 1) 1 708 535 1 491 919 1 416 030 895 153 Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal (Note 1 and 4) 277 514 319 157 336 236 244 884 River Trade Terminal (Note 1) 4 12 16 9 Kai Tak Cruise Terminal (Note 1 and 5) 414 567 445 052 464 205 420 224 Total 91 758 331 91 303 650 92 213 832 94 714 961 Note 1: The control point is not confined to travelling to and from the Mainland. Note 2: Officially commissioned on September 23, 2018. Note 3: Officially commissioned on October 24, 2018. Note 4: The Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal, upon suspension of operation since July 1, 2012, resumed its cross-boundary passenger ferry services on January 28, 2016. Note 5: The number of inbound and outbound passenger trips also included trips made by passengers of cruise liners berthing at other anchorages, as well as trips made by passengers on board Hong Kong-based passenger liners running regular daily high seas trips. The Immigration Department does not maintain the breakdown statistics mentioned in the question. (2) and (3) According to information provided by the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB), the Government currently does not have comprehensive statistical information on Hong Kong people residing on the Mainland. Nevertheless, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) has been making use of the movement records of Hong Kong permanent residents to compile the estimation of "Hong Kong residents usually staying in the Guangdong Province" since 2016. These residents refer to Hong Kong permanent residents who may have stayed in Guangdong for six months and above cumulatively during the six months before and after the reference time-point. Since C&SD generally assumes that Hong Kong permanent residents departing from Hong Kong via land control points and the China Ferry Terminal are travelling to Guangdong, statistics on destinations outside Guangdong are not available. Besides, the estimation cannot ascertain whether these persons have in fact stayed in Guangdong or have a fixed place of residence in Guangdong. The relevant statistics for the age group of 60 or above from 2016 to 2018 based on the above-mentioned estimation are tabulated below. The corresponding figure for 2019 is not yet available. Reference time-point Statistics on Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above who are usually staying in Guangdong End-2016 109 900 End-2017 113 600 End-2018 119 800 According to information provided by CMAB, since September 1, 2018, Hong Kong and Macao residents who have stayed in the Mainland for more than six months and are able to show proof of either a legitimate and stable job, a legitimate and stable residence, or ongoing school attendance can choose to apply for residence permits in accordance with the Regulations for Application of Residence Permit for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Residents. Although applications were made on a voluntary basis, the number of applicants may serve as a rough indicator of the number of Hong Kong residents staying in the Mainland. According to CMAB, based on information from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, more than 230 000 Hong Kong residents had applied for residence permits as at May 2020. (4) The Social Welfare Department (SWD) launched the Guangdong Scheme (GD Scheme) and Fujian Scheme (FJ Scheme) on October 1, 2013 and April 1, 2018 respectively to provide the Old Age Allowance (OAA) (currently at $1,435 per month) for elderly persons residing in Guangdong and Fujian. As at end-December 2019, there were 16 108 and 1 622 persons receiving OAA under the GD Scheme and FJ Scheme respectively. Meanwhile, SWD launched the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) under the GD Scheme and FJ Scheme on January 1, 2020, which includes the Normal OALA (currently at $2,770 per month) and Higher OALA (currently at $3,715 per month). (5) According to information provided by SB, under normal circumstances, upon receiving emergency ambulance calls, the Fire Services Department (FSD) ambulance will, based on the established arrangement, convey the patients from the Hong Kong side of various boundary control points (BCPs) to the Accident and Emergency Departments of hospitals under the Hospital Authority for treatment. From 2016 to 2019, FSD ambulances handled about 3000 patients aged over 60 per annum on average among the emergency ambulance calls handled at the Hong Kong side of land BCPs, including patients who were transferred to BCPs by the Mainland ambulances and patients who called for ambulances after arriving at Hong Kong. FSD does not have the breakdown of the relevant patients' nationalities. The Government does not maintain other statistics mentioned in the question. (6) According to information provided by the Food and Health Bureau, the Pilot Scheme for use of the Elderly Health Care Vouchers at the University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) was launched on October 6, 2015 and has been regularised since June 26, 2019. Currently, each eligible Hong Kong elderly person aged 65 or above is provided with a voucher amount of $2,000 annually for them to choose the private healthcare services that best suit their health needs in Hong Kong and at HKU-SZH. Breaking down by year, the cumulative number of elderly persons who had used the vouchers at HKU-SZH from 2015 to 2019 was around 500, 1 200, 2 100, 3 400 and 4 600 respectively. The annual number of voucher claim transactions involved and the annual amount of vouchers claimed, as well as the average amount of vouchers claimed per transaction are tabulated below: Year Number of voucher claim transactions Amount of vouchers claimed (in $'000) Average amount of vouchers claimed per transaction ($) 2015 2 287 537 235 2016 5 667 1,471 260 2017 (Note 6) 6 755 1,855 275 2018 (Note 7) 11 418 3,492 306 2019 (Note 8) 13 562 3,997 295 Note 6: The eligibility age for the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme was lowered from 70 to 65 on July 1, 2017. Note 7: On June 8, 2018, each eligible elderly person was provided with an additional voucher amount of $1,000 on a one-off basis, and the accumulation limit of vouchers was increased to $5,000. Note 8: On June 26, 2019, each eligible elderly person was provided with an additional voucher amount of $1,000 on a one-off basis, and the accumulation limit of vouchers was further increased to $8,000. (7) According to information provided by CMAB, the number of requests for assistance from Hong Kong residents received by the five Mainland Offices of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (namely the Beijing Office and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in Guangdong, Chengdu, Shanghai and Wuhan) in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 were 466, 550, 593 and 653 respectively. The Mainland Offices do not have the number of requests for assistance from Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above. In 2019, the top three types of requests for assistance in terms of the number of cases received were accidents, injuries or other incidents on the Mainland; loss of travel documents or money; and cases relating to property transactions on the Mainland. The Mainland Offices had followed up on and handled the requests for assistance having regard to the actual circumstances.