The Government will review the eligibility criteria and scope of assistance of the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance (TAVA) Scheme to ensure the scheme’s integrity and proper use of public funds, Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun told lawmakers today.

Mr Sun said through this review, the Government wishes to ensure that traffic accident victims with genuine needs receive timely assistance while at the same time, preventing abuse and severely punishing criminals who commit fraud cases.

He noted that Police arrested a number of people suspected of submitting fraudulent TAVA claims using false medical certificates and other methods.

These arrests were indeed prompted by suspicious applications identified by Social Welfare Department (SWD) officers during the application vetting process, in accordance with the established working procedures, Mr Sun added.

Over the past three years, or from 2022-23 to end-September in 2024-25, the SWD referred a total of 575 suspicious cases to Police for investigation.

Among these cases, 275 people were arrested for allegedly providing false medical certificates to the department to fraudulently obtain TAVA payments.

To prevent abuse or fraudulent claims of TAVA, the SWD has reviewed its case vetting workflow and increased random checks of medical certificates submitted by applicants pursuant to the risk-based principle.

Furthermore, for cases with repeated applications by the same applicant, the SWD will require these applicants to provide more detailed information about the traffic accidents for investigations.

The SWD will also analyse whether the traffic accidents concerned share common features or suspicious elements.

For applications involving the Interim Maintenance Grant (IMG), depending on the circumstances of each individual case, such as the length of the period for obtaining the IMG, the SWD will check the applicant’s traffic violation records with Police to verify their eligibility for the grant.

The SWD will also clearly explain to the applicants that obtaining TAVA payments by deception is a serious criminal offence.

Mr Sun added that apart from losing their eligibility for assistance, applicants may also be prosecuted under the Theft Ordinance, and be liable on conviction to a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.