Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ15: Disability Allowance

Following is a question by the Dr Hon Fernando Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 1):


Question:


At present, persons certified to be severely disabled by the Director of Health or the Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority are entitled to the Normal Disability Allowance. If they are found to be in need of constant attention from others, they will be entitled to the Higher Disability Allowance. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:


(a) of the respective numbers of recipients of the Normal Disability Allowance and Higher Disability Allowance at present, together with a breakdown of the figures and their percentages by types of disability; and


(b) whether doctors of public hospitals and the Department of Health have been issued guidelines on assessing whether an applicant for disability allowance is severely disabled; if so, of the details of the guidelines; if not, the criteria based on which assessments are made and how the Administration ensures that the assessments by doctors are objective and fair?


Reply:


Madam President,


A person is eligible for Disability Allowance (DA) if he/she is considered to be "severely disabled" within the meaning of the Social Security Allowance Scheme, which requires the applicant to be certified by a medical practitioner of the Department of Health (DH) or the Hospital Authority (HA) as being in a position broadly equivalent to a person with a 100 per cent loss of earning capacity. To qualify for Higher DA, a severely disabled person must be in need of constant attendance from others in his/her daily life but is not receiving such care in a government or subvented institution or a medical institution under HA. My answers to the specific sub-questions are as follows:


(a) As at the end of April 2005, 95,901 and 14,297 persons were receiving Normal DA and Higher DA respectively. Table 1 and 2 below show the number of recipients and the respective percentage by types of disability.


(b) A medical practitioner will make reference to the following criteria when assessing an applicant's eligibility for DA:


A. Disabling physical condition or blind


According to the criteria in the First Schedule of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282), definition of disabling physical condition or blind covers:


(1) loss of functions of two limbs

(2) loss of functions of both hands, or all fingers and both thumbs

(3) loss of functions of both feet

(4) total loss of sight

(5) total paralysis (quadriplegia)

(6) paraplegia

(7) illness, injury or deformity resulting in being bedridden

(8) any other conditions resulting in total disablement


B. Disabling mental condition, including:


(1) organic brain syndrome

(2) mental retardation

(3) psychosis

(4) neurosis

(5) personality disorder

(6) any other conditions resulting in total mental disablement


C. Profoundly deaf


It means that a person suffers from a perceptive or mixed deafness with a hearing loss of 85 decibels or more in the better ear for pure tone frequencies of 500, 1,000 and 2,000 cycles per second, or 75 to 85 decibels with other physical handicaps such as lack of speech and distortion of hearing.


Eligibility to DA is assessed according to the degree of disability of the patients. Patients of any disease who are in a position broadly equivalent to a 100 per cent loss of earning capacity will be eligible for DA. Examples are: erythematosus, epilepsy, stroke, kidney disease, diabetes, carcinoma or any multi-illnesses. To ensure medical practitioners make the medical assessment in an objective manner, the Social Welfare Department has adopted a "Medical Assessment Form" which sets out the above criteria for assessing severe disability. In order to standardise the assessment, a checklist for assessing disability formulated by HA and DH is also attached to the "Medical Assessment Form" for their reference. Medical practitioners will assess the degree of disability of applicants in accordance with the established criteria and guidelines as well as their professional knowledge and judgment. Applicants may appeal to the independent Social Security Appeal Board if they are not satisfied with the final decision on their application.





Ends/Wednesday, June 1, 2005

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