Hongkongers aged 60 and over will need personalised cards to benefit from HK$2 fare JoyYou scheme fr

Hongkongers aged 60 or above will need to apply for personalised transport cards starting in August next year to keep benefiting from elderly concessionary fares, as the government steps up efforts to combat misuse.

Authorities on Thursday said that only JoyYou card holders could enjoy the HK$2 (26 US cents) fare subsidy from August 25, while benefiting from the scheme through anonymous elderly and ordinary personalised Octopus cards would be phased out on the same day.

The government’s move is the latest in efforts to tackle abuse of the scheme, which earlier had its financial stability questioned by politicians and economists.

Under the scheme first introduced in 2012, passengers aged 60 and above, as well as eligible people with disabilities, can travel on the MTR, franchised buses, ferries, trams, kaito private ferries and red and green minibuses at the concessionary rate.

The government lowered the eligible age for the HK$2 scheme from 65 to 60 in 2022, but required those aged between 60 and 64 to apply for JoyYou, which carries a personal photo of the user.

At present, those aged over 65 can apply for JoyYou or use the anonymous elderly or personalised Octopus cards to benefit from the scheme.

Hong Kong passengers cheating HK$2 fare scheme face arrest, officials warn

Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun said he was supportive of the HK$2 scheme, which encouraged elderly residents to travel around in their golden years, but accused the government of taking too long to eradicate a long-term blatant subsidy misuse.

“There are still many of these anonymous elderly Octopus cards circulating for people to use,” the former chairman of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation said.

“By requiring personalised cards that have photos of the applicant, at least that acts as a deterrent when conductors check. Now, there’s nothing stopping abusers.”

Tien urged the government to introduce the measure as early as next month rather than in August.

Earlier this year, former transport minister Anthony Cheung Bing-leung reignited public debate over the future of the scheme after he accused the previous government of being “too hasty” in including those aged between 60 and 64 in the policy.

Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee also earlier called on the government to scale back the subsidy scheme, fearing it would become financially unsustainable.

A Legislative Council Secretariat report in 2021 found that the number of beneficiaries had increased by 35 per cent over eight years, reaching 1.5 million in 2020.

Official figures showed government expenditure on the scheme had quadrupled to HK$1.2 billion in 2020 from about HK$296 million in 2012.

A Labour and Welfare Bureau-commissioned consultancy study from 2020 projected that costs could reach HK$8.6 billion by 2031 from an estimated HK$6.9 billion in 2026, with the figures accounting for about 5.5 per cent and 5.3 per cent of each respective year’s social welfare expenditure.

Hong Kong’s MTR to raise fines for HK$2 fare scheme abuse with crackdown on way

Acknowledging the fiscal concerns over the scheme in May, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu refused to say whether a review of the policy was needed and argued the priority should be on investigating cases of abuse.

Transport authorities in summer stepped up ticket inspections on public transport as they warned that passengers caught abusing the subsidy scheme would face arrest on top of the HK$1,000 fine on heavy rail and HK$290 on light rail.

Official figures showing suspected cases of fare abuse reached 314 last year, two times more than the 156 recorded in 2020.

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