Portable Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (PCSSA) Scheme
Scheme Purpose
The PCSSA Scheme aims to provide cash assistance to eligible elderly CSSA recipients who choose to take up permanent residence in Guangdong or Fujian.
For details of the three-year ‘Pilot Scheme for Elderly Recipients of CSSA to Reside in Residential Care Homes in Guangdong’, please click here.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for PCSSA, an applicant must satisfy the following conditions﹕
- be a Hong Kong permanent resident and have lived in Hong Kong for at least 7 years;
- be aged 65 or above; and
- have received CSSA continuously for at least 1 year immediately before the date of application for PCSSA (breaks in payment totalling not more than 10 days during the one-year period are allowed).
Note:
*The applicant is required to declare the scheduled date of his/her departure from Hong Kong to take up permanent residence in Guangdong or Fujian, which must fall within 3 months of the date of application for PCSSA. Applicant who is a Public Rental Housing (PRH) tenant is required to surrender his/her PRH unit or delete his/her name from the tenancy before he/she departs from Hong Kong.
Amount Payable
Successful applicants are entitled to the monthly standard rate and the annual long-term supplement. No special grants or other payments (such as rent allowance, special diet allowance, travelling expenses) will be payable. A burial grant can be made to a deceased PCSSA recipient's relative or friend who is responsible for the deceased recipient's burial arrangement.
Method of payment
Eligible elderly persons may choose to receive their monthly assistance payments in Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) remitted by the SWD directly into their HKD Mainland bank accounts (“Type I account”) opened at the branches of the Bank of China or the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Guangdong or Fujian Provinces free of charge. For details, please click here.
Besides, SWD can also credit monthly assistance payments to recipients’ designated bank accounts in Hong Kong (Applicant/appointee is required to make his/her own arrangements to collect the payments from that account on the Mainland, for example, making arrangements to remit the payments to him/her in Guangdong or Fujian. Any expenses thus incurred have to be borne by him/her). Please refer to Q20 under (2) Effective Date of the Allowance and Payment Arrangements of FAQS on the website of Guangdong Scheme/Fujian Scheme: https://www.swd.gov.hk/gds/index_e.html#s6 or https://www.swd.gov.hk/fjs/index_e.html#s6 for details.
How to apply
An applicant may apply for PCSSA in person at the social security field unit which handles his/her CSSA case. Those who have mobility problems can apply by phone or by post so that home visits can be arranged to process their applications. All application procedures are processed in Hong Kong.