Up to 300,000 to benefit from unemployment subsidy

The government said on Monday that a planned pandemic-related unemployment subsidy scheme will benefit up to 300,000 people who’ve lost work since the end of December.

To be eligible for a one-off payment of HK$10,000, applicants must have been jobless for at least a month. Their monthly salary before they became unemployed must have been less than HK$30,000.

The government is planning to inject another HK$27 billion into its Anti-Epidemic Fund and will seek approval from the Legislative Council’s finance committee during an online meeting on Tuesday.

In a paper to Legco, officials said the “stringent” social distancing measures brought in to curb the Omicron outbreak are hitting businesses and the labour market.

Given the “unprecedented” scale and intensity of the measures, the government said it decided to launch a “Temporary Unemployment Relief” (TUR) scheme for lower- to middle-income workers.

“The TUR is not meant to be an unemployment or social security safety net for supporting recipients to meet their basic household needs,” the document said.

“Instead, it aims to reduce the financial stress on workers who were laid off due to the fifth wave, before they find another job.”

Applications are expected to be taken from March and officials are aiming to release the payments from April.

The government said it is planning 48 measures in all, to help about 67,000 businesses, 750,000 individuals and transport operators.

It said the subsidy rates for premises that were ordered to close or were restricted by social distancing measures will be double those under the previous round of relief measures.

For example, depending on the size of a restaurant, each licensee can get a one-off payment of up to HK$500,000, compared with HK$250,000 in the last round of funding.

Hair salons that were recently ordered to close will be eligible for a one-off subsidy of up to HK$50,000, depending on how many workers they employ.