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Survey Findings on Views about the 2014 Policy AddressReleased by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 21 to 24 January 2014 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to gauge public views on the 2014 Policy Address. 760 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 45.6%. The sampling error is + or –3.55% at a confidence level of 95%.
Major findings are summarized as follows:
In the current survey, the respondents were asked about their views on housing and welfare issues addressed in the 2014 Policy Address. Concerning the new target to provide a total of 470,000 units in the coming ten years with public housing accounting for 60 percent, while 17.9% of the 760 respondents had confidence in this target, over two-fifths (43.6%) lacked confidence. 36.3% answered ‘in-between’. In addition, less than one-fifth (17.6%) believed that the new target could solve the local housing problem and 42.9% thought otherwise. 35.8% said ‘in-between’.
With regard to the newly introduced Low-income Working Family Allowance which gives at least HK$300 to eligible families per month, over two-fifths (41.8%) of our respondents said it could help working poor families and 17.8% thought the opposite. 36.7% reported ‘in-between’. Being asked if regularisation of several Community Care Fund programmes could benefit disadvantaged groups, two-fifths (39.3%) agreed and one-fifth (19.9%) disagreed. 37.3% of the respondents said ‘in-between’.
It is estimated that the HKSAR government would need to spend more than HK$10 billion in the coming year for the newly introduced poverty alleviation measures announced in the 2014 Policy Address. Therefore, the respondents were asked if they thought the government could afford this amount of expenditure. Half (49.1%) of them answered yes, 16.6% reported no, and 6.6% thought it could be affordable in the short run only. 22.6% said ‘in-between’. Furthermore, when the respondents were asked if they would accept a tax increase for the expenses on these poverty alleviation measures, 16.5% gave a positive answer and over half (56.4%) showed opposite views. 23.5% reported ‘in-between’.
