The excluding effects of inclusive measures - the case study of welfare to work measures in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper studies the excluding effects of the pro-market welfare-to-work programmes adopted by the Hong Kong Government. It focuses on the New Dawn Project which is designed to help single parents and child carers on the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme (CSSA) to cope with social exclusion. In this paper we argue that the Hong Kong Government under-estimates the significance of the defects of the labour market as the main cause of the social exclusion faced by many single parents and child carers. Hence, instead of launching structural reforms to deal with the defects of the labour market, it focuses on increasing the ability and willingness of the single parents and child carers on the CSSA to sell their labour in the labour market through the New Dawn Project. As a result, this project has two negative effects on its targets. Firstly, it wrongly blames the single parents and child carers for the unemployment faced by them. Secondly, the project further excludes those who find it difficult to meet the training requirements.