Filial support legislation in Hong Kong: A sensible and practical policy?

Abstract

Recently, there is controversy in Hong Kong whether the government should enact filial support legislation in Hong Kong so that the burden of caring for elderly dependent people could be shared between the government and the adult children. In this paper, we briefly discussed the theoretical framework for the relationship between family and state welfare and we reviewed how filial support legislation was implemented in other countries and their experiences in practising the law. The availability of family care in Hong Kong might be decreased due to the process of industrialisation and urbanisation in terms of the change of the family structure and household size; the increasingly aged population; more active participation in the labour force by women and the dying-out of traditional value of filial piety towards the elderly people. On the other hand, studies have shown that family care is still the major care providers for the elderly people in Hong Kong. Finally, we reviewed the pros and cons of the filial responsibility law and we considered that public education is a better alternative for filial support legislation.