Photo: From August 25 this year, all Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above must use the “Royal Card” to enjoy the $2 travel discount.

Starting from August 25 this year, all Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above must use the “Royo Card” to enjoy the 2-dollar bus discount. The existing bearer elderly Octopus and general personal Octopus will no longer be applicable. To facilitate eligible persons to apply for the “Royo Card” as soon as possible, a total of eight “Royo Card” temporary application service centers in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories will be put into operation from next Monday (24th) to August 31st. \Ta Kung Pao reporter Liu Shuoyuan

There are still 110,000 elderly people who have not changed their cards

Seniors aged 60 and above will need to use the “Royo Card” to enjoy the $2 bus discount starting from August 25. The Deputy Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Ho Kai-ming, said on the radio yesterday that more than 90% of seniors have exchanged for the “Royo Card”, but there are still 8%, or about 110,000 seniors who have not exchanged, reminding them to exchange as soon as possible, otherwise they will not be able to use the Green Octopus to enjoy the $2 bus discount.

Ho Kai Ming said that more than 1.3 million applications have been received so far. As there are 40,000 elderly people living in nursing homes and rarely go out, the authorities will arrange staff to go to the nursing homes to assist the elderly in exchanging cards; there are also about 6,000 eligible disabled people who want to change their cards, and the authorities will contact district centers and self-help organizations for assistance. As for eligible disabled people under the age of 60, they can still use their personal Octopus with “disabled identity” added to continue to enjoy the two-dollar discount plan without having to apply for the “Happy Card”.

To assist those in need to submit applications or supplement application materials as soon as possible, Octopus will set up eight temporary application service centres (see table for details), which will operate from June 24 to August 31. Citizens who need assistance in applying for the “Local Card” can visit the service centre during office hours.

Ho Kai Ming: Helps combat abuse

The “Royo Card” is printed with the personal photo and name of the eligible beneficiary. Each eligible person can only hold one “Royo Card” as proof of eligibility to enjoy the two-dollar discount. The Government will accept applications for the “Royo Card” from Hong Kong residents aged 65 or above in phases starting from June 1, 2022.

The two-dollar bus fare discount was extended to people aged 60 or above the year before last, and the number of beneficiaries increased from more than 1 million to more than 2 million, resulting in a significant increase in expenditure. The government estimated earlier that the budget for next year would be about 6 billion yuan, nearly 50% more than this year. At the same time, due to problems such as abuse of discounts and short rides, the authorities are reviewing the relevant arrangements and are expected to have results this year. Ho Kai Ming believes that the full use of the “Leyou Card” will help combat abuse.

Ho Kai Ming said that a few years ago, there were more than 3.6 million green Octopus cards in circulation, but there were only more than 1.4 million senior citizens over the age of 65. He believed that it was a reasonable measure to provide public fare discounts through the real-name system. He also said that the two-dollar fare discount would greatly help increase the activities of the elderly in the community and society, and the government would consider different directions and continue to maintain the policy.