Sham Shui Po, one of Hong Kong’s poorest areas. (Laurel Chor)
The Commission on Poverty has released its report on poverty among Hong Kong’s disabled for 2013, finding that 29.5 percent of Hong Kong’s 147,400 disabled people live below the poverty line.
Though there is clearly much improvement to be made, previously, almost half (45.3 percent) of the disabled were living in poverty. However, new policies giving households with disabled members monetary aid reduced that rate by 15.8 percentage points.
Almost 70 percent of poor people with disabilities are aged 65 or over.
On the other hand, the poverty rate for children with disabilities (20.5 percent) was found to be only slightly higher than the poverty level of the overall Hong Kong population (18.6 percent).
Of the poor people with disabilities, 27.3 percent were of working age (18 to 64 years old). The unemployment rate was much higher than that of the general population, at 6.7 percent compared to 3.7 percent.
You can read the full “Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report on Disability 2013” report here.
Reader Interactions