The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s recurrent spending on social welfare in 2025-26 is estimated to be HK$130.4 billion, accounting for 22.2 percent of the year’s total government recurrent expenditure and an increase of about 9.8 percent year-on-year, the city’s welfare chief revealed on Wednesday.

Compared with the revised estimate for 2024-25 of HK$118.7 billion, this is an increase of about HK$11.7 billion in recurrent spending on social welfare, Chris Sun Yuk-han said while talking on welfare, poverty alleviation and children policy at a special meeting of the Legislative Council Finance Committee.

The key programs that the resources will be used for include public transport fare concession, elderly and rehabilitation services, social security payments, support for persons with disabilities, online youth emotional support platform, child protection, and assisting working families in childbearing, according to the government.

As announced in the 2025-26 Budget, the government will change the concessionary fare for the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities to "HK$2 flat rate cum 80 percent discount". For trips with full adult fare above HK$10, the beneficiaries will have to pay the amount after an 80 percent discount of the full fare.

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The proposal can be implemented in April 2026, which is around five months earlier than the original estimate, and HK$260 million can be saved additionally, the secretary for labour and welfare said.

“As for the ‘concessionary trips limit’ (240 per month) proposal, we expect that it will be implemented about one year after the implementation of the ‘HK$2 flat rate cum 80 percent discount’ proposal,” he added.

This year, the recurrent government expenditure on elderly services, meanwhile, is estimated to reach about HK$17 billion, an increase of about 50 percent over about HK$11 billion five years ago.

“We will add 1 000 residential care service vouchers for the elderly (RCSV) and 1,000 community care service vouchers for the elderly (CCSV) starting from the second quarter this year, so that the numbers of RCSV and CCSV will reach 6,000 and 12,000 respectively,” the secretary said, adding that the annual expenditure involved is about HK$1,710 million and HK$900 million respectively.

As announced by the chief executive in his 2024 Policy Address, the District Services and Community Care Teams - Pilot Scheme will be extended to support elderly persons and carers in all 18 districts in Q2 of 2025. This involves an expenditure of about HK$111.9 million, he said.

The government will increase the number of rehabilitation (including day, residential and respite care) service places from about 37,300 in 2023-24 to about 39,900 by 2028-29 and provide about 1,040 additional day care, residential care and pre-school rehabilitation service places in 2025-26, involving an annual expenditure of about HK$186 million, Sun added.

As per the Budget proposal, recipients of social security payments will receive a one-off extra half-month allowance this year. About HK$2,988 million will be spent for this and about 1.71 million persons are expected to benefit from it, he said.

Around 56,000 households will benefit from similar arrangements for recipients of the Working Family Allowance Scheme, incurring an expenditure of about HK$96 million, he added.

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The government will regularize the Pilot Project on Enhancing Vocational Rehabilitation Services in the third quarter of this year. The initiative involves an annual expenditure of about HK$100 million, and is expected to benefit about 10,000 people.

Total 14 integrated community rehabilitation centers will be set up across the city to provide persons with disabilities requiring medium to high-level care with flexible and integrated community support services. Also, 1,280 additional day community rehabilitation and home care service places will be provided for persons with severe disabilities, involving around HK$160 million, the secretary told the meeting.

“The government will enhance the services of the five existing Cyber Youth Support Teams in the second quarter of 2025 by providing an online youth emotional support platform,” he said, adding that it will require around HK$150 million in additional expenditure.

Starting in 2024, the HKSAR government is setting up 11 more aided standalone child care centers, increasing the number of such centers from 15 to 26, and increasing the service places from about 1,000 to about 2,000.

The Social Welfare Department will also further enhance the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project by increasing the number of service places from 2,000 to 2,500, with the estimated number of beneficiaries to be increased from 20,000 to 25,000, according to the secretary.

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With the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance coming into effect on Jan 20, 2026, the government will provide an additional annual provision of HK$186 million to increase the number of emergency places for residential childcare services and strengthen professional support for child abuse victims and their families.

“To strengthen the prevention of child abuse at its source, the government will allocate an additional provision of HK$96.9 million from 2025-26 to 2029-30 for setting up four Community Parents and Children Centers on a pilot basis,” added Sun.