Expenditure on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance has drastically increased in the last decade, the Census & Statistics Department says, with $18.6 billion spent in 2008-09, up 43% on 1998-99.

The August issue of the Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics published today said the scheme's expenditure in total recurrent government expenditure increased from 7.5% in 1998-99 to 8.6% in 2008-09.

As at the end of last year the total number of cases was 284,569, up 25.1% on 1998. Average yearly growth is 2.3%.

The proportion of cases involving able-bodied recipients of working age rose from 27.4% to 29.5% during the period. This means cases involving able-bodied adults have been increasing much faster than other categories.

The proportion of single-parent cases rose from 10.8% in 1998 to 12.7% in 2008, and low-earning cases grew from 3.2% to 5.7%. But the share of unemployment cases fell from 13.3% to 11.2%.

Despite a downward trend since the second half of 2005, single-parent cases still registered a disproportionate increase from the end of 1998 to the end of 2008, from 24,595 to 36,192, up 47.2%.

The median length of receiving assistance for single-parent cases was 5.6 years. About 56.4% of the cases have been receiving assistance for more than five years. About 68.1% of cases relied entirely on assistance with no other income.

For single-parent recipients, 83.2% were female, mostly in their 30s and 40s. A total of 64.8% were divorced or separated, 13.1% were married or cohabited, and 17% were widowed.

Among all low-earning recipients, 50.8% were male. The median age for male and female low-earning recipients was 43 and 44. The median employment income in December 2008 was $4,800 whereas the median monthly working hours was 195.

For new-arrival recipients, major case categories as at December 2008 were single-parent (31.7%), old-age (19.4%) and low-earning (16.3%).

Download the digest here.