R isk or O pportunity? A Study on Building an Age-friendly Consumption Environment 1
WORLD POPULATION AGEING By 2050, projected to be 1.6 billion aged 65+ in the globe, 16.7% of world’s population. People aged 65 and over will OUTNUMBER children under age 5 for the first time before 2020 2 Source : An Aging World: 2015, United States Census Bureau, 2016 (p.4,5)
WHAT ABOUT HONG KONG ? Longest life expectancy in the world, ahead of Japan; 81.7 (male), 87.7 (female) in Hong Kong Those aged 65 or over 100+ 3.6 17.4 In 2043, 90 - 94 In 2016, 47.1 105.2 1.16M 2.5M 80 - 84 167.0 (30.6%) (16.6%) 206.4 70 - 74 220.8 395.1 30.4% 60 - 64 493.3 The baby-boomers 617.5 Age group 50 - 54 625.6 1 in 3 = elderly person 538.9 40 - 44 521.3 489.8 30 - 34 496.7 462.0 The vulnerable ones need 20 - 24 436.0 protection. 340.8 10 - 14 259.2 291.8 0 - 4 279.5 The emergence of Silver Market means 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 economic impact. No. of persons (thousands) Hong Kong population (excluding foreign domestic helpers) by age group, 2016 Source : Population By-census 2016: Summary Results, C&SD, Feb 2017 3
HONG KONG’S ELDERLY POLICY DIRECTION AND KEY PROGRAMMES • Care for the Elderly as a strategic policy objective since 1997 • Provision of long term care services to actualise Ageing in Place • Encouragement of pursuit of Active Ageing, and building an age-friendly community Effect of Active Ageing on Effect of welfare benefits on elderly consumption elderly consumption • Old Age Allowance (OAA)/ Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) • Transport Fare Concession Scheme • Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (EHCVS) • Senior Citizen Card Scheme • Pilot Scheme on Community Care Service • ICT training programme Voucher for the Elderly (CCSV) and Pilot Scheme on Residential Care Service Voucher for the Elderly (RCSV) 4
LOCAL SILVER MARKET How does consumer protection be strengthened in elderly policy? Does Hong Kong have the right consumption environment in place for the elderly? Age-friendly measures remain fragmented and on a voluntary nature. • Industry-wide code of practices are not common • Some age-friendly initiatives in the general practice of some industries • Initiatives by individual traders but not industry-wide practices 5
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Gauge the Hong Kong elderly’s consumption attitude and behaviour, their 1 For the purpose of this susceptibility to unfair trade practices and access to support study, ageing consumers are defined as those aged 55 or over . Understand the consumption problems commonly encountered by 2 ageing consumers HK People aged 55-79 are included in this study. Gain insight from the experience of overseas countries in protecting 3 and promoting the interests of ageing consumers Develop recommendations for building an age-friendly consumption 4 environment Survey Desktop Report Analysis of Focus (Street & Research on Preparation Complaint Groups On-site Overseas Cases Discussion and Release interviews) Experiences Jun 2017 Oct to Dec 2016 2017-18 6,334 cases from 22 participants Australia, France, • 1,779 respondents Oct 2015 to Telecom (12) Ireland, Japan, • Jun 2018 Medical (10) Singapore, UK, US 6
Findings Ageing consumers are not homogeneous Soon-to-be-old group = Aged 55-64 Elderly group = Aged 65-79 7
The Profile and Spending Power of the Ageing Consumers The soon-to-be-old group is more educated, more likely to be still in employment , have higher personal income and spend more . 8
Ageing consumers are generally active and socialised 9
CONSUMPTION ITEMS Ageing consumers are actively engaged in social activities, as reflected by their top 3 most popular recurrent consumption items being transportation, dining out and telecommunications; and non-recurrent items being entertainment/leisure activities, festive/birthday expenses and other gifts. Non-recurrent 2 Recurrent 1 Transportation Entertainment/ hobbies/ 94.7% 47.8% leisure/ refresher courses Dining out 79.8% Festive/ 45.5% birthday expenses Telecommunications 67.3% (including web surfing and mobile phone) Other gifts 41.9% Foodstuff 66.9% Donation 36.1% Household necessities 60.1% Monetary gifts Utility charges 55.0% 32.9% for celebration Personal care 53.8% (including haircut and manicure) Travel 30.0% Clothings 47.0% Household electrical appliances 20.1% Housing 47.0% Burial expenses and/ or funeral gifts 19.0% Medical care 39.4% (excluding Health Care Voucher) Insurance Household maintenance 13.7% 16.8% (excluding travel insurance) Health food products 16.0% Fitness/ massage 13.5% Beauty/ skin care products 14.4% Expenses in support of family members 13.0% (parents, children, grandchildren, etc) 2 Purchased by ageing consumers in the 12 months preceding survey Laundry services 5.2% Domestic helper 4.1% (including part-time helper) 1 purchased by ageing consumers in the month preceding survey 10
SHARE OF AGGREGATE EXPENDITURE Their aggregate share of expenditure reaffirms their rather active lifestyle . • Dining out and foodstuff constituted 35.7% on recurrent items, followed by housing (14.8%). • For non-recurrent items, travel constituted the largest share (20.7%); other major non-recurrent items are on social items, e.g. festive/birthday expenses, gifts and entertainment/leisure activities. Non-recurrent Recurrent Individual recurrent consumption item over the total expenditure on all those Individual non-recurrent consumption item over the total expenditure on all items consumed by ageing consumers in the month preceding survey and those items consumed by ageing consumers in the 12 months preceding expenditure excluding those paid by family members survey and expenditure excluding those paid by family members 11
SATISFACTION TOWARDS THE MARKET Insufficient choices Yes 17.8% Majority (71.7%) of ageing consumers No fifty-fifty found that choices of goods/services 10.5% 71.7% suitable for the elderly in the market were insufficient Satisfaction towards industries vary • More satisfied with public transportation, banking and medical services, but satisfaction rates for all other industries were below 50%. • Telecommunications and catering are among the top 5 rated with highest dissatisfaction. Tourism, as a major non-recurrent expenditure, ranked 4 th in terms of dissatisfaction. • Telecommunications 9.0% 30.6% 54.7% Insurance 8.9% 46.7% 18.2% Catering 33.9% 6.4% 57.4% Tourism 5.3% 52.1% 23.3% Medical 5.0% 40.1% 52.0% Banking 4.6% 35.2% 58.8% 3.8% Supermarket 53.1% 41.4% Public transportation 3.1% 66.0% 30.5% 3.0% 24.2% Elderly home design services 37.0% Emergency call & care 1.6% 23.9% 44.4% Dissatisfied Average Satisfied 12
KEY AREAS OF COMPLAINTS Major Complaints lodged by those aged 55+ with the Council (Oct 2015 - Jun 2018) Nature of complaints Others Price/Charge 16.1% Dispute 25.8% Sales Practices 10.9% Repair/Maintenance Quality of Services 13.3% Services 18.7% Quality of Goods 15.2% 13
COMPLAINT CASES - TYPICAL PROBLEMS & BARRIERS Medical Products/Services and Telecommunication Services Elderly Care Inability to make use of new Confusion on price information and technologies resulting in digital necessity for undertaking medical exclusion depriving them from options services when paying by Health Care with better price efficiency Voucher Sales promotion of products not Suspected misleading sales tactics on suitable for ageing consumers health related products From focus group discussion • • Lack of notification prior to contract Service quality not up to expectation and renewal insufficient information about the availability of nursing home services • Knowledge gap brought consumer • confusion Balance in Health Care Voucher Account was taken into account in the provision of • Poor customer service medical advice • • Hard-to-read leaflets and contracts Inadequate knowledge on complaints handling mechanism 14
SHOPPING ENVIRONMENT – KEY FACTORS TO CONSIDER Proper physical facilities and information provision are recognised as the two most important aspects. 15
Responses and attitude towards situation with implication on consumer interests 16
ENCOUNTERED UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE DURING CONSUMPTION IN PAST 12 MONTHS Events leading to the Experience Over one-third (38.7%) had at related to unfair trade practices least 1 unpleasant consumption encountered during consumption experience Retailers being 21.4% dishonest Provision of 11.8% Insufficient information about goods/services 28.9% even Sudden close-down 4.8% encountered unpleasant of retail stores experience related to or might be related to Deceit leading 4.6% to loss unfair trade practices No … Yes Intimidation by 0.4% 38.7% retailer 17
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