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■若房署和社署等部門積極與入境處合作，建立一套每年更新人口生死狀況的通報機制，可有效掌握各種公共福利受資助人的最新狀況。 資料圖片
一名七旬婦人隱瞞房署丈夫死去20多年，並冒亡夫簽名繼續住在公屋單位，早前承認欺詐罪名，被判囚4個月，緩刑18個月。隱瞞資料佔用公屋屬嚴重罪行，本案判罰較輕，有一些特殊情由，其他人切勿誤讀而以身試法。事件反映房署疏於調查公屋住戶家庭變化，檢查制度形同虛設，造成濫用公屋的漏洞。
根據現行法例，公屋租戶作出明知的虛假陳述即屬違法，一經定罪可判最高罰款50,000元及監禁6個月。本案的老婦獲判緩刑，法官表示是考慮到其年老的因素。然而，虛報資料佔用公屋是欺詐罪行，法律絕不會姑息。過往較為典型的案例有退休高院法官隱瞞多個海外物業及股票等資產，申請綜援及公屋，被判即時入獄4個月，並須交出公屋單位。公眾應以此為鑒，勿因為佔公共資源的便宜而以身犯險。
目前本港公屋、綜援等福利制度中，受資助人士離世多年資助仍未終止的情況相當普遍，造成公共資源的極大浪費。其實，要杜絕此類浪費在技術上並不困難，只要房署和社署等掌管福利的部門積極與主管人口生死登記的入境處合作，建立一套每年更新人口生死狀況的通報機制，房署和社署便可掌握到受資助人的最新狀況，從而作出福利分配的合理調整，達到善用公共資源的效果。
Monitor tenant status and guard against abuse of public housing
A seventy-year-old woman was found to have concealed the death of her husband from the Housing Department for more than twenty years and forged his signature so that she could continue living in a public housing unit. She earlier pleaded guilty to fraud, was sentenced to 4 months imprisonment and given 18 months' probation. Withholding information in order to obtain a public housing unit is a serious crime. The lenient sentence given in this particular case was on condition of special reasons. Others must not misread the situation and attempt similar offences. The case reflects the negligence of the Housing Department in monitoring changes in the status of public housing tenants. The inspection system, which virtually has existed in name only, leaves many loopholes for people to abuse the public housing system.
According to the present legislation, it is an offence in law for any public housing tenant to make a false statement knowingly. Once convicted, the maximum punishment will be a fine of HK$50,000 and a 6 months' imprisonment. The old woman in the case was given probation because the judge took her old age into consideration. However, withholding information for the sake of occupying a public housing unit is a serious crime which will definitely not be pardoned under the law. A typical past case concerned a retired High Court judge who did not declare assets including overseas properties and stocks while he applied for comprehensive social security assistance. He was sentenced to immediate imprisonment for 4 months and was ordered to surrender the public housing unit. People should learn from this lesson and refrain from committing criminal offences for abusing public resources.
At present, under the public housing and social security systems in Hong Kong, it is quite a common phenomenon that the assistance remains in effect even when the recipient has died for many years. This has caused great waste to public resources. Technically, it is not difficult to stop this waste of resources. Social welfare functions such as the Housing Department and the Social Welfare Department should work closely with life and death registration functions like the Immigration Department, and establish a report mechanism for updating life and death figures annually. Then, the Social Welfare Department and the Housing Department will be able to monitor the latest status of welfare recipients and make reasonable adjustments to welfare distributions accordingly. This will help achieve the aim of optimizing the use of public resources. ■Translation by 開明(chi.ming818@gmail.com)
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