Social Welfare Department ("SWD") is purchasing suitable private premises for the provision of welfare facilities to help meet community needs.  Government Property Agency ("GPA") is assisting SWD to identify suitable non-domestic premises  [including commercial premises/offices (excluding Grade A office buildings in central business districts) or premises of revitalised industrial buildings] for sale through various channels. Information on the premises to be purchased for accommodating welfare facilities is provided on GPA’s website as open invitation for sale proposals from owners.

Interested owners may click here to visit GPA’s website for details on submission of sale proposals.

Recipients/Appointees of the Portable Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, Guangdong Scheme and Fujian Scheme may not be able to return to Hong Kong as usual to withdraw Comprehensive Social Security Assistance/Old Age Allowance/Old Age Living Allowance due to the novel coronavirus epidemic.  To facilitate the withdrawal of monthly assistance/allowance outside Hong Kong by the recipients/appointees, retail banks in Hong Kong have put in place a special arrangement, supporting the use of the ATM cards (including debit cards and those credit cards with cash withdrawal function) issued by banks in Hong Kong to withdraw cash outside Hong Kong, and allowing recipients/appointees of the above schemes to activate the cash withdrawal function of their ATM cards on the Mainland through different bank channels (including bank hotlines) without the need to return to Hong Kong in-person, for the convenience of withdrawing assistance/allowance outside Hong Kong.   Furthermore, some of the banks in Hong Kong have also put in place arrangements for authorizing the banks through remote channels including by post to arrange remittance, so as to facilitate the recipients/appointees of the above schemes to establish standing instructions for banks to remit monthly assistance/allowance to their designated bank accounts on the Mainland without the need to return to Hong Kong in-person. For details, please click the links below:  

(The Hong Kong Association of Banks website - ATM cash withdrawal service outside Hong Kong)
https://www.hkab.org.hk/DisplayArticleAction.do?sid=5&ss=7&lang=en

(List of banks providing ATM cash withdrawal service outside Hong Kong)
https://www.hkab.org.hk/download.jsp?isTemp=N§ion_id=5&file_name=Activation of Capability of ATM Cash Withdrawal Outside HK.pdf

(The Hong Kong Association of Banks website - authorizing banks through remote channels to arrange remittance)
https://www.hkab.org.hk/DisplayArticleAction.do?sid=5&ss=23&lang=en

(List of banks supporting authorization through remote channels to arrange remittance)
https://www.hkab.org.hk/download.jsp?isTemp=N&section_id=5&file_name=Standing Instruction.pdf=

In view of the latest situation of novel coronavirus outbreak, the Director of Social Welfare will give consideration to disregard absences from Hong Kong of applicants/recipients of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme and the Social Security Allowance Scheme (including Old Age Allowance, Old Age Living Allowance and Disability Allowance) who fail to satisfy the residence requirement or the permissible limit of absence from Hong Kong owing to the epidemic.

For those CSSA cases due for review while the recipients fail to return to Hong Kong, they should contact their respective Social Security Field Units (SSFUs) as soon as possible for appropriate arrangement.

In the light of the epidemic development, applicants for the Guangdong Scheme and Fujian Scheme can submit their applications by post, instead of doing so in person in Hong Kong.

For enquiry, please contact staff of the SSFUs during office hours.

Enquiry telephone numbers of the SSFUs


 Acrobat Document