The Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) said yesterday that the government still needs to carry out of string of tasks over the next few year before the government will be able to implement a scheme to pay subsidies to caregivers, such as coming up with official definitions of “caregiver” and those who are looked after by a caregiver, formulating tools to assess the different levels of need by those who depend on a caregiver, and formulating the official requirements that caregivers receiving the subsidy will need to follow.
The bureau hosted a press conference on its premises yesterday to brief the media about the findings of a study on the feasibility of the implementation of such a subsidy in Macau. The local government last year commissioned a research team on social services from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to carry out the feasibility study. The research team studied the implementation of the caregiver subsidy in nine countries and regions, and also collected opinions from different segments of civil society in Macau, such as the elderly, disabled, pupils with special needs who need to be looked after by others, caregivers, scholars, and lawmakers.
Choi Sio Un, who heads the bureau’s Social Solidarity Department, said during yesterday’s press conference that the findings of the feasibility study show Macau could implement the caregiver subsidy in the future, but Macau still did not have the necessary foundations and conditions for the implementation of such a subsidy, meaning that now was not the right time for getting the system off the ground.
Choi Sio Un (left), who heads the Social Solidarity Department of the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS), speaks during yesterday’s press conference about the findings of a feasibility study on the implementation of a caregiver subsidy in Macau, as University of Hong Kong (HKU) Social Work and Social Administration Department Associate Professor Lou Wei Qun, who leads the study, looks on. Photo: Tony Wong
