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■法官指婦人無申報代家姑保存的86萬元資產，雖未使用當中一分一毫，但技術上有騙取綜援，判囚18月緩刑3年。 資料圖片
嫁予智障港漢的新來港婦人，因被揭發沒有申報代家姑保存的86萬元資產，指其騙取33萬元綜援。法官上月判刑時指，被告雖然無動用過該筆款項一分一毫，但技術上有騙取綜援，故輕判入獄18個月，緩刑3年。法官同時質疑，為何社署在懷疑被告騙取綜援情況下，會扣減其女兒殘障津貼償還；又質疑社署2008年4月至去年1月期間，停發綜援及傷殘津貼。
首先必須肯定的是，濫用綜援增加社會福利負擔，是嚴重罪行。不過，本案被告是最弱勢社群的典型，遭遇值得同情，騙綜援只是「技術性犯案」，社署卻未審先判，對其一家實施株連懲罰，處事官僚冷漠。社署有必要認真檢討審批態度和機制，既幫助到最有需要的弱勢人士，又切實打擊詐騙綜援、佔用寶貴公帑的行為。
本案最受爭議之處是，社署在法庭作出判決前已扣起被告全家的綜援金及津貼，被告還要用女兒的傷殘津貼來扣除詐騙部分款項，不但令被告全家「斷糧」，還使其女兒的學業、生活一度受影響。社署「一人犯案，全家受累」的處罰方式，受到主審法官和輿論的非議，認為做法「涼薄」，毫不體恤民間苦況，不理弱勢社群死活。
Take good care of the underprivileged while combating CSSA fraud cases
A newly arrived woman was charged with defrauding HK$330,000 from the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance(CSSA) scheme of the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department. The woman, who is married to a mentally handicapped man in Hong Kong, was found failing to declare an asset of HK$860,000 that she held on behalf of her mother-in-law. The judge in giving the sentence last month said that the defendant had technically defrauded money from the CSSA scheme even though she had not spent a single cent of the asset she kept for her mother-in-law. She was sentenced to an imprisonment of 18 months but given three years* probation. The judge had questioned the rationale behind the move by the Social Welfare Department in withholding her daughter's disability allowance as reimbursement during the time when the defendant was being suspected of fraud. The judge also criticized the department's suspension of CSSA payment and disability allowance to the defendant from April 2008 to January 2010.
It is definitely indisputable that abusing CSSA and thus increasing the burden of social welfare is a serious crime. Nevertheless, the defendant in this case is a typical example of the most underprivileged people and her situation deserves sympathy. Her defrauding money from the CSSA scheme constituted an offence merely in technical terms. However, the Social Welfare Department used a cold and bureaucratic manner in dealing with the case. They made a judgment even before the trial and administered a series of punishments involving the entire family. The Social Welfare Department has to now seriously review their mentality and mechanism in verifying and approving CSSA applications. They should make sure that social welfare assistance is given to the neediest underprivileged people while effectively cracking down on CSSA fraud and misappropriation of precious public funds.
The greatest controversy in this case is that the Social Welfare Department withheld CSSA and other allowances payable to the whole family before the court made a verdict. The defendant had to repay part of the swindled sum by forfeiting her daughter's disability allowance. This not only cut the 烞ource of income* of the entire family but also for some time adversely affected the daughter's education and daily life. This approach of 烢unishing the whole family for the fault of a member* adopted by the Social Welfare Department was denounced by both the judge and also the public as a 涄old-hearted* move that showed no sympathy for the hardship of the common people and had no regard for the subsistence of the underprivileged. ■Translation by 東明 tungming23@gmail.com
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