Conditions for the benefit from and need for social welfare in Hong Kong

The benefit from and need for social welfare, as provided by the state, are of longstanding research concern, especially in the aura of retrenching state expenditure. Social welfare, to the person, consists in the experience of welfare reception and attitudes about welfare adequacy and welfare recipients. These attitudes register the person's demand and support for social welfare. On the one hand, the criterion for assessing the benefit from social welfare, according to the utilitarian perspective, is the person's life satisfaction. On the other hand, the basis for assessing the need for social welfare is the person's socioeconomic status, on a humanitarian or socialist account. A two-wave panel survey of 343 Chinese residents in Hong Kong provided data for the study. Results showed that social welfare experienced, demanded, and supported generally did not benefit the resident's life satisfaction and respond to the resident's socioeconomic needs. In addition, further exploration indicated several sporadic conditions in the resident for realizing the benefit from and need for social welfare. The results imply that social welfare is not universally justifiable and treasurable. As such, selective provision of social welfare with respect to some personal conditions would be reasonable.