Dr Chui, Ernest Wing Tak
Associate Professor, Honorary Research Fellow
Department of Social Work and Social Administration
The University of Hong Kong
Research Interests: Elderly, social policy, housing, community development,
social work education, politics, etc.
Q: We find that the elderly still working even in their 70s or 80s is relatively common in Hong Kong. According to a report on working elderly by SoCO in 2014, the three main supports from HK government for the elders (MPF, OAA and CSSA) cannot well guarantee the life of the elderly. Therefore, they have to start to work again to support themselves. Has this phenomenon lasted for a long time? Recently has it been getting better or worse?
Dr. Chui: Sorry that I don’t have updated research on this topic and so cannot provide updated information esp. statistics to verify the trend. But my impression is that yes such ‘elderly poverty’ has lasted for decades. You may refer to the government’s Commission on Poverty annual reports to keep track of the ‘elderly poverty rate’. If I remember correctly, the ‘elderly poverty rate’ has not improved or even worsened over the last 2-3 years.
Q: Based on some reports and our observations in daily life, we find that most of the elderly are doing low skilled and low paid jobs. Some elders actually are not doing the paid job but share responsibility for their children to take care of other family members like their grandchildren. Can you share some understanding on HK’s present situation of working elderly?
Dr. Chui: Of course, there is a wide diversity of different types of older people in HK. If we only focus on those low-income or no-income elderly, I would say that most of them were immigrants from mainland China during the 1940, 50 and 60s – due to war, China’s change of regime and then various natural disasters & social movements. During that time they could not have education (free & compulsory primary education only started in 1971 in HK) and so many could only work on non- or low-skilled jobs and thus had low pay.
There had not been retirement protection scheme set up in HK – the current Mandatory Provident Fund was only set up in 2000. Thus many of these older people cannot save up enough $$$ (money) for retirement. Given that they did not have high education, the ‘inter-generational poverty’ might happen to their children who also had not got good enough education and thus continued working in low-skill low-paid jobs and so their adult children now cannot support them. resulting in either their having to continue working in low-paid jobs like cleaners, security guards, or more accurately watchman (i.e. non-trained nor non-licensed), etc. or rely on government welfare i.e. CSSA.
Yes, some of them, if physically still fit, can help their adult children to take care of children (i.e. their grandchildren), either due to traditional cultural belief/norm or due to consideration of relieving the $$(money) burden of hiring a domestic helper.
Q: We are interested in the psychological need of the elderly. In Hong Kong, the elderly choosing to work is forced by their living situation or because of their life value? We feel that Hong Kong society emphasizes much on such an idea of “make one's way in life by one's own efforts”, which is also the reason for some elders who are not willing to take money from the government. Do you think this kind of idea should be changed? (Because we know that the elderly indeed hope the policy can help them to guarantee their life, but at the same time, they don’t want to have the feeling of being given the charity. It’s like they will feel shame if they accept free things from others.)
Dr. Chui: Yes, there are older people who believe in the tradition virtue of self-reliance instead of relying on others, esp. as they are not yet familiar with the ‘modern’ concept of ‘civil right’ in getting welfare from the government. They might still have negative connotation of ‘reliance’ on others as being a failure. The HK government and HK people might also have stigma against people relying on welfare. Of course, now that the family is not so able as before to continue taking care of the older family members, and people also pay taxes to the government, and so there can be heightened awareness that welfare is not merely a ‘charity’ but a ‘right’. But of course, it takes time for people to change their attitudes.
