Food Stamp Living in Low Budget Free Essay Example, 750 words

ï » ¿Food Stamp: Living in Low Budget Food is a basic necessity for all living organisms. Where animals have to hunt for food, humans get the liberty to go to a convenient store and just buy what they want. Food and eating have evolved a lot since the prehistoric times. From eating raw to what is now called fast food, people have come a long way in changing their eating styles. All types of food are available in most places across the world. But the problem arises when people cannot afford to buy food and have to sleep on empty stomachs. The richer section of the society enjoys food like there is no tomorrow and end up wasting a huge amount of food, whereas the poor have to go hungry without proper meals for days. Such a miserable lifestyle leads to malnutrition, which in turn leads to several diseases and ultimately death. This assignment focuses on giving us a first hand experience of the more unfortunate group of people. By engaging in such a project we are sure to understand the pain of living in low budget. We will write a custom essay sample on Food Stamp: Living in Low Budget or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The assignment requires for us to spend only $5 a day for four consecutive days. That amounts to a total expenditure of only $20 during the course of the project. As is expected as a commitment to this assignment, I did not accept any food offered by my family members, friends or relatives. I made all the purchases from stores nearby my residence or college. I have not traveled very far. Following is what food I consumed during the course of the assignment. However, I have not included water among these items. It has been quite a hard experience actually and I missed out on many of my favorite foods due to this. However, on the flipside, the exercise has definitely been a rewarding experience, as I have learned how to make the best use of my money on food, eating what is tasty but at the same time keeping nutritional values in mind. Day 1: Breakfast: One cheese burger - $1, biscuits – 50 cents Lunch: One Sandwich- $1 Supper: Starbucks coffee - $1, One muffin – 50 cents Dinner: Plain yoghurt- 50 cents, two bananas- 50 cents Day 2: Breakfast: Bowl of Kellogg’s Cornflakes– 50 cents, one egg- 50 cents Lunch: One Hamburger- $1.50 Supper: One glass of milk- 50 cents Dinner: Vegetable pasta - $2 Day 3: Breakfast: One glass of milk – 50 cents, one apple - $1 Lunch: Bread and bacon- $2 Supper: One cupcake – 50 cents Dinner: Instant noodles- $1 Day 4: Breakfast: One cheese burger - $1 Lunch: One Sandwich- $1 Supper: Starbucks coffee - $1 Dinner: Chappati and curry - $ 2 My source of protein and fiber were from bread, fruits etc and proteins from milk, egg and bacon. The fast food I have consumed has contained fats and carbohydrates. I have not taken any vitamin supplements. Usually, I take two capsules of Omega-3 daily. I do not think that I have been able to completely meet the nutritional needs of my body as major part of my diet consisted of fast food, within the constraint of a limited budget. I think I could have kept the provision for some fruits and more vegetables, if I have had the leeway of spending some more instead of relying merely on fast food. I have found that my routine has totally changed due to this challenge. I have felt hunger some of the times. I also have felt like my food needs have not been fulfilled. The times when my stomach did feel full, I did not feel good mentally. I have come to notice that my diet included mostly fast food. This is different from my usual diet as I am always keen on eating more fruits and vegetable s of my choice rather than a limited array a restaurant provides. The limited budget in this challenge has also resulted in reduced intake of meat. My consumption of fast food has increased during the course of the assignment and the level of fruits and vegetables has decreased. As mentioned earlier, I have really come to understand the situation and lifestyle of the lesser fortunate groups. I always felt tired and under nourished during the course of these four days. However, I have noticed that I drank more water than I usually take, which helped my stomach feel fuller and, hence, I have been able to hydrate my body amply. This experience has also made me understand the difficult life the poor people have to lead. I have really come to appreciate this assignment as it has made me realize how lucky I actually am to have a family that can provide me enough food of my choice. I have grown to understand more about the seriousness of the assignment as at first I did not really find any need for this kind of a challenge. As far as I am concerned I think this experience would benefit all the participants in such a way as to encourage them to appreciate what they have and be grateful for the life they currently lead. I felt the urge to be more compassionate and donate more for the needy. So, I think, my fellow participants may have felt the same. Another fact is that this assignment must have definitely made them realize the need to have a balanced diet daily. I am sure after this assignment the participants will be more careful about the food they consume and be more charitable as well.

Inventory System Thesis - 1692 Words

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Networking is an essential skill for most business people, but especially for entrepreneurs. The strong association between the entrepreneur as a person and his or her business demands that entrepreneurs should get out into the world and create and maintain business relationships. AIM Global INC. is a marketing company conceptualized to provide unmatched quality distribution of exceptional products and services to local, regional and global markets. A harmony of advanced technology, distinct marketing strategies and excellent product lines, together with the guidance of exemplary leadership secures the success of AIM Global. Knowing for its success Mr. Richard Cabautan joined the team of†¦show more content†¦Our proposed system (Advance Sales and Supplies System) has the capability to track, monitor and gives an alert if a specific product reaches the minimum allowance stock amount. A search index is also added for the users to easily track items from the warehouse that needs to be replenish which include the product location, availability, description and price of the item. Login account for different users will be created for database security purpose. The users that can access the system are Store Manager and the Owner itself. The system will have a database that includes adding of new product and modifying and deleting existing product. The system will compute for mark-up prices. The system can also provide a hard copy of daily, monthly and yearly reports. The Advance Sales and Supplies System can be integrated with other add-on products like bar code scanners, receipt printers, and can also be integrated into the main accounting software. This helps to keep all financial records up to date and available for analysis by management. The benefits to this type of system are obvious. First it is easier to maintain and utilize than a manual system. Entry of sales information is often as simple as scanning in the bar coded merchandise when it is delivered, and scanning the item at the check out counter when it is sold. This scanned information updates inventory records and also records cost and sale price. ProfitsShow MoreRelatedBilling and Inventory System Thesis Proposal5411 Words   |  22 PagesOverview The computerized system has a big contribution in our society such as they can do very detailed work and follow precise instructions without error. In order to know the problem encountered by the staff, the researcher conducted an interview in the Rehabilitation Center located at Sto Nià ±o, Magalang Pampanga. These are some problems in our chosen local like no proper record of the staffs, patients, billing, and retrieval  of data is time consuming and more chances of human error. The basicRead MoreSales and Inventory System Thesis Sample1488 Words   |  6 Pagespeople—smart, timesaving tools that help them be more productive to increase quality and contain costs. That’s where Microsoft ® Office 2010 comes in. It’s not intended to replace your EMR or hospital information system; rather it bridges the gap between these and your other core systems to play a vital role in helping all your staff connect with information, people, and processes—when, where, and how needed. Microsoft Office 2010 Today everyone inside the healthcare provider organization is responsibleRead MoreSales and Inventory System of a Pharmacy6546 Words   |  27 Pagespaper materials and pens to process the sales and inventory. In this new era, there are establishments using automated transaction such as sales and inventory systems while other still depend on the manual procedures like Maureen Edisel Pharmacy. It is owned by Ms. Maureen Edisel C. Igmen, it was established on April 28, 2007. And it is located at Avenida Veteranos St. Tacloban City. The researchers observed that the current aforementioned system allocates a lot of time and effort in generating receiptsRead MoreForeign and Local Studies3842 Words   |  16 Pages[1]According to the Right Pharmacy Management System, the key benefits of the pharmacy management system-automating processes, streamlining workflow and thereby enhancing the customer base-are attracting enough to draw retail pharmacy chains competing in a world of growing challenges. However, the choices are tough with a handful of products and the high cost of customized solutions. This Infosys paper outlines some ideas on selecting the right option. [2] Inventory, to many small business owners isRead MoreSales and Inventory Thesis1775 Words   |  8 PagesCHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Sales and Inventory Control is an inventory tracking system that gives you up-to-the-minute detailed information on each item in your inventory. Youll know exactly how much inventory comes in, how much is on-hand now, and where it goes. While manual methods may have their place, most entrepreneurs these days find that computerizing gives them a far wider range of information with far less effort. Sales and inventory programs now on the market let you track usage, monitorRead MoreInventory Management System of a Printing Press in Dagupan City13913 Words   |  56 Pagesproduction. Focusing in the production process, one aspect to consider is its proper inventory management. The need for proper inventory management system is indispensable nowadays especially in coping up with global competition. As firms deal with their inventory systems, problems still arises and most of which are experienced worldwide. For instance, Bhattacharjee (2012) attributed the pickup in sales to inventory flow getting back on track, as they did not flow product appropriately.† This wasRead MoreThe Effect Of The Bullwhip Effect On Your Model1403 Words   |  6 Pagescharacterized†¦.†. What is your evidence that fast production increases the generation of defective items (scrap)? (2) Your demand is deterministic and the bullwhip effect has no place in your thesis. The bullwhip effect has no effect on your model, why it was mentioned twice? What is its relevance in the thesis? (3) You assumed a single raw material to produce a single product. This makes Table 2.1 not representative of the literature review. For example, Jaber and Goyal (2009) assumed a single productRead MoreRfid And Its Impact On The Supply Chain Management System1707 Words   |  7 PagesRFID has had the largest impact on the supply chain management system. RFID that stands for Radio Frequency Identification provides a real time tracking information of parts and products and is capable of maintaining it throughout the supply chain. This technology has proved itself as an efficient method to track the inventory and has a great potential in improving the supply chain management system as a whole. The information system of any supply chain should be effective and fluent; any communicationRead MoreCompany Analysis : Pb And The Erp Re Engineering Project1365 Words   |  6 Pages1 Introduction This chapter aims to provide an overview of the thesis topic including: an introduction to the problem Pitney Bowes (PB) want to solve and the related business topic; the company summary of PB and the ERP re-engineering project which they are undergoing; the objectives and scope as well as the structure of this thesis project. The problem definition will show its importance and rationale to this topic as well as PB. The company summary will provide contextual and valuable backgroundRead MoreEmissioning Model Case Study1297 Words   |  6 Pagescomprehensive modal emission models (CMEM and MOVES) to estimate the environmental measures in real time. The estimation methodology based on OpMode bin provided far more dynamic and accurate environmental information compared to static emission inventory estimation models. The OpMode bin emission rates for each vehicle technology in the MOVES default database represent a base scenario of conditions for temperature, humidity, air conditioning load, fuel properties, and other factors. In this case

Language Background and the Speech Community Free Essays

Being born in Russia, Russian is my native language. According to the Refugee Council, Russian is extensively used as a language for communication of all the Slavic languages. Statistically speaking, most people in the Russian Foundation and other independent federations are speakers of the Russian Language. We will write a custom essay sample on Language Background and the Speech Community or any similar topic only for you Order Now (Refugee Council, 2008) Moreover, the Russian language is distinguished by the United Nations as one that belongs to the list of six official languages all over the world. (Today Translations, 2008) To illustrate the far-reaching influence of the Russian language, let us enumerate the countries with major Russian speaking populations, such as Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, not to mention Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Russian is not considered as the official language in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, however it is popularly used in, most especially in business and government communications. Other countries, like Finland for example, also have a Russian speaking population composed of the minority inhabitants. (Infoplease, 2008) The Russian language does not follow a formal system or rules. It concentrates on the reproduction of sounds and stress that is stated in variation with the attached denotative or connotative meaning of the words in a statement. Russian language, together with the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages have emerged from the Slavonic language that originated from the East. (Today Translations, 2008) Since the Russian language is more focused on the phonetic aspect of speaking, the language is primarily based on the Russian alphabet or what historians call the Cyrillic Alphabet. Apparently, the alphabet originated not from Russia, but from Greece. The onset of Greek missions who happened to arrive at Istanbul proliferated the use of the Cyrillic alphabet that is primarily based on the Greek alphabet. Needless to say, the Russian language traces back its influences from Greece. (Orbislingua, 2008) I belong to a community that upholds discipline within the self and as a citizen of Russian and the maintenance of the good of all the citizens, not just oneself. Just like our political system, everything is organized and judged in our every day life according to what is good for all. Close relationships between others is evident in how we deal with others and our way of welcoming them with affectionate actions and gestures. In addition to this, most of us are cynical and distrustful. The uniqueness of the Russian language may be traced to the distinct sentence patterns and sounds and stress produced in speaking Russian. The structure of the sentences does not follow a particular rule or pattern, but is dependent on how the speaker wants to say it. For instance, to emphasize an adjective, it goes first in the sentence. On the other hand, if the noun is emphasized in the sentence, then it goes first. (Orbislingua, 2008) In addition, the use of articles, transitional or connecting phrases and words (such as is, are, a, an, the, etc.), does not really apply in speaking the Russian language. Therefore, if a native Russian speaker attempts to speak in English, then it would be difficult for native Russian speakers to create a complete and a grammatically sound and correct English statement due to certain deficiencies.   Furthermore, most consonants in the Russian language produce sounds that are almost similar to the â€Å"s† sound and utilizes the movement of the tongue in speaking. This greatly contributes to the unique nature and phonetic aspect of the use of the Russian Language. (Orbislingua, 2008) The similarities of the Russian language to the English language, for instance, is evident in the three tenses of English verbs that also applies to the verbs of the Russian language. At times, it also follows the order and structure of the sentences in the English language, however the Russian sentence order and structure is more accommodating to the situation in which two Russian speakers are talking. (Orbislingua, 2008) References Infoplease. (2008). Languages by Countries. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from HighBeam Orbislingua. (2008). Russian language. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Orbislingua.com. Website: http://www.orbislingua.com/eaha.htm Refugee Council. (2008). Language background of major refugee groups to UK. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Refugee Council. Website: http://languages.refugeecouncil.org.uk/top_navigation/Language_profiles.htm Today Translations. (2008). Russian Language History. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Today How to cite Language Background and the Speech Community, Essay examples

Critically Examine the Trend and Size of Poverty in Hong Kong Society free essay sample

This city has not only the 6th highest per capita GDP, but also the highest Gini coefficient in the world (World Bank, 2011). Fortunately, the Hong Kong government isn’t turning a blind eye towards this dilemma but are instead actively looking for a trade-off between economic performance and social welfare. One notable example is the re-establishment of the Commission on Poverty, it is hoped that a clearly-defined poverty line will shed a new light into the poverty situation in Hong Kong. Another important policy in recent years is the implementation of minimum wage law, which has been in effect for two years aiming to guarantee a basic wage for low-income workers, however its effect on overall employment level in Hong Kong is still to be determined. In this essay, I will first examine the overall trend and size of poverty in Hong Kong, then move on to assess the effectiveness of the present social security system, as well as the minimum wage in eradicating poverty in Hong Kong. Poverty, is an ambiguous term especially in Hong Kong. The United Nations places the benchmark for poverty as living under a monthly income less than or equal to half of the median household income of equal size households. This is the definition that the Commission on Poverty is likely to adopt. But before the launch of official poverty line people are considered poor only if they apply for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), which eligibility is largely determined by nominal income. As a result, the number of people applying for CSSA decreased after minimum wage law has been imposed. In this essay therefore, I will adopt the UN definition of poverty in examining its trend and size in Hong Kong. Poverty rate up to the year 2011 was the lowest since that of 2001. Before 2011, there had been an overall increasing trend in both the number of households living in poverty as well as the poverty rate. In this sense, 2011 can be seen as a watershed year; the poverty rate plummeted to 17. 1% when compared to 17. 9% in the previous year, which meant a reduction of 55000 people suffering from poverty. Additionally, the total number of poor households had been rising from 2001 to 2007, but this trend started to decline from then on. The total number of poor households in 2011 was 444,000, when compared with that of the years 2007 and 2010; there had been a reduction of 11,000 and 7000 households respectively. In spite of the declining poverty trend and size, income disparity in Hong Kong has been worsening. In the year 2001, the median monthly income of high-income group was $31,000 while that of low-income group was $10,000, which meant that the former was 3. 1 times that of the latter. However, this disparity continued to grow and in the year 2011, the median monthly income of the high-income group increased to $35,000, while that of the low-income group plunged to $9000, which meant that the high-income group had a monthly income 3. 5 times more than that of the low-income group. In brief, it is undeniable that the declining trend and size of poverty has been promising, but that was largely due to the thriving economy instead of governmental efforts, at the same time, the income gap has been widening despite the implementation of minimum wage law. These statistics all indicate that the current social policies are inadequate in eliminating the imminent threat of poverty. The social security system in Hong Kong is a three-tier system consisting of social assistance and social allowance in the form of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and Old Age Allowance, mandated occupational pension in the form of Mandatory Provident Fund as well as private saving. In the remaining part of the essay, the effectiveness of the above social security policies in lifting poverty will be assessed one by one. The Comprehensive Social Security Assistance was renamed after the Public Assistance Scheme in 1993 has the sole purpose to provide â€Å"a safety net for those who cannot support themselves financially. It is designed to bring their income up to a prescribed level to meet their basic needs. † (Social Welfare Department, 2012) It is a non-contributory and means-tested scheme financed wholly by the government. CSSA payments can be broadly classified into three categories: standard rate, supplements and special grants. Standard Rates from 2012 is divided into 5 types: elderly person aged over 60 or above, ill health adult under 60, disabled child, able-bodied adult aged under 60 and able-bodied child. The amount of standard rates payable to each type differs, but they are under the same guiding principles; the standard rates for children and seniors are higher than those of the adults, rates for single individuals living alone are greater than those of family members, and rates will increase with levels of severity of disability. Tsoi, 2002) Additionally, there are five types of supplements. Long-term supplement is an annual payment to recipients who have been receiving assistance for at least 12 months for the replacement of household and durable goods. Single parent supplement is a monthly payment to single parent families with special difficulties in bringing up their families. Community living supplement is a monthly payment to old, disabled and certified ill-health CSSA recipients living in th e community instead of any institutions. Transport supplement aims to promote social integration and geographical mobility by providing monthly assistance to certified 100% disabled as well as population between 12 to 64 years of age. Last but not least, the intention of the residential care supplement is to relieve the accommodation burdens of old, disabled and certified ill-health CSSA applicants who are not living in subsidised housing estates. Besides, a range of special grants are also set up to meet applicants’ special needs including school fees, school-related expenses, essential traveling expenses and so on. Famous English philosopher Midgley once commented that redistributing wealth in the form of social assistance has the â€Å"most direct potential impact on the poverty problem. † She identified three necessary conditions in order to fully realize this potential, first, social assistance must be financial by progressive taxation, second, the level of benefit provided must be sufficient to raise recipients out of poverty and third, needy people must have easy access to social assistance schemes and that these schemes would not deter them from applying for help. Tsoi, 2002). With applies the above mentioned three principles to Hong Kong, it is worthy to highlight that Hong Kong only fulfilled the first condition out of the three. In the following paragraphs, the low effectiveness of the CSSA will be discussed with respect to its level of benefits, process of application as well as incentives for its recipients to reintegrate into the job market. The level of benefits by the standard rates of the CSSA cannot reflect the actual needs of its recipients, but are in fact set arbitrarily. At the oment, the standard rates of CSSA recipients are reviewed and adjusted annually by the Legislative Council to reflect the changes in Price Level by the Census and Statistics Department. The Consumption Price Index however, is a reference to the household expenditure of the 25% of the population with the lowest income. It is highly dubious as to whether the household expenditures of the poor households would be an authentic indicator and correspond to what they actually need to support their daily living. In addition, some CSSA recipients described the process of application as humiliating and intimidating. According to a joint project by the Department of Applied Social Sciences in Polytechnic University and Oxfam Hong Kong on Perception and Utilization of the CSSA in 2007, it was found that some recipients felt that their applications were always delayed and mishandled. Some applicants even accused the social security officers as having bad manners and lack empathy. These findings were found out after in-depth interviews and group discussion, although it is questionable as to the representativeness of the sample size, the critique to the â€Å"humiliating† application procedures must point to some bearing of truth that the CSSA recipients feel. Besides, some social workers in the study also complained that â€Å"some officers tend to insult and threaten the applicants by making unreasonable requests†. Going back to Midgley’s third condition in order to eradicate poverty which concerns the access to social security must not deter the needy from applying; the Social Services Department could clearly do a better job. Furthermore, there is always an unspoken concern that receiving CSSA would encourage a â€Å"dependency culture†, especially when the CSSA mechanisms do not encourage able-bodied recipients to attain economic independence. Contrary to common misconception that only able-bodied lazy people and new immigrants would apply for CSSA, most CSSA applicants, amounting to 60% (Oxfam, 2007) treat social security as the last resort to alleviate their dire financial circumstances. However, due to a lack of support services, only 8%-10% of able-bodied CSSA recipients are able to re-enter the competitive job market (Ming Pao Daily News, 2000) through the Special Job Attachment Programme. In addition, the additional cost for attempting to re-enter the job market may ut an extra toll on the families receiving CSSA, let alone some single parent’s families with insufficient child-care facilities may choose to keep on receiving welfare instead of working. In short, CSSA do not provide sufficient incentive for its recipients to re-join the work force, which is the only way to escape poverty. Another aspect of the social security system in Hong Kong is mandated occupational pension, which is in the form of Mandatory Provident Fund in Hong Kong. It is a compulsory, occupation-related scheme with defined monthly contribution by both employers and employees. The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance was passed in 2000 with the hope of strengthening the safety net and retirement protection. Contribution to the MPF is mandated to be 10% of the employee’s income with which 5% is contributed by his/her employer. Besides, the mandatory contribution is adjusted with relevance to employees’ income. After the implementation of minimum wage, the monthly relevant income is readjusted, for employees with monthly income less than $6500, only their employers are mandated to contribute 5% of relevant income, this becomes the minimum contribution. On the other hand, for employees with income higher than $25000, both employers and employees are required to contribute $1250, this becomes the maximum contribution. All MPF contributions will be injected into registered MPF trustee in the market chosen by the employers, but now, employees will be able to choose new MPF scheme annually based on their performance. In the following paragraphs, the limitations of the MPF scheme will be discussed including its limited coverage as well as inadequate retirement protection which undoubtedly hamper its effectiveness. As aforementioned, MPF is an employment-related protection scheme, which means that only people with long-term employment contract will receive retirement protection. The MPF only have limited coverage and do not have universal protection as people excluded from the workforce including the sick, the disabled, housewives, hawkers, domestic employees and so on are unprotected, this amount to quite a sizable portion in the population. Besides, the employers might try to evade from the mandated contributions by altering the terms of employment contract. Employers are legally bound to contribute to MPF for their employees if they are employed for more than 60 days, therefore, some employers may deliberately change the employment contract to 59 days or terminate the contract and re-employ the employees. In brief, the MPF scheme does not provided for universal protection in the sense that a significant portion of the population is left unprotected, let alone some canny employers attempt to alter the employment contract in order to avoid contributing to their employees’ retirement protection scheme. Furthermore, the predicament of the MPF Scheme is that despite its objective is to provide retirement protection and reinforce the safety net, the protection is in fact far from sufficient. MPF is a define-contribution scheme but it is not a defined-benefits scheme, which meant that employees’ contribution is contingent upon many factors including the duration of contribution, returns from investments by the trustees after deducing the high administrative and transaction costs incurred, as well as the amount of contribution. This led to the inevitable unpredictability of benefits which is neither guaranteed by the trustees nor protected by the government. Besides, the scheme was introduced only in 2000, which meant that people around retirement age at that time would receive either little or no protection at all due to the short contribution period. At the moment, elderly poverty was one of the severest forms of poverty in Hong Kong. In short, contrary to its initial intention, the MPF does not guarantee retirement protection, instead only added more uncertainties and unpredictability to lives after retirement. The statutory minimum wage was passed in 2010 and fully implemented Labour Day of 2011. It aims at â€Å"striking an appropriate balance between forestalling excessively low wages and minimising the loss of low-paid jobs while sustaining Hong Kong’s economic growth and competitiveness (Labour Department, 2011). The initial minimum wage rate was set at $28, but the commission set up by the government to review the minimum wage rate biannually has agreed to increase to $30 an hour. From a theoretical standpoint, setting up a wage floor would upset the balance of the labour market by forcing some low skill workers to be laid off. Nevertheless, the government estimated that 273800 grassroot workers would benefit from the law and could sustain a basic level of living by avoiding from being underpaid. After about two years since the law has passed, however, it seems that reports about employers trying to cut the fringe benefits of employees were not uncommon and the actual effect and repercussion of minimum wage on the labour market is yet to be unravelled. In the following essay, I will examine the implementation of minimum wage law with regard to its effectiveness in eradicating poverty in Hong Kong. In order to assess the effectiveness of minimum wage, the first indicator is changes in monthly income of the lower income groups when compared with higher income groups in the lower half year of 2011. If we divide the whole population equally into ten decile groups with the first decile group being the poorest 10% of the people and the tenth decile group being the wealthiest 10%, it was found that in the first three decile groups all experience increase in monthly income ranging from 6. 9% to 9. 3%, while the last three decile groups experience either no change or negative growth in their monthly income (HKCSS, 2011). However, looking at income alone would not be a comprehensive assessment of the effect of minimum wage law given that the economic began to boom around the time minimum wage was implemented. Therefore, a much more reliable assessment would be to compare the living standards of low income households before and after the minimum wage came into force. A study commissioned by Oxfam Hong Kong adopted a two-stage stratified surveys that interview impoverished households with at least one family member receiving minimum wage and compare their livelihood from March 2011 to January 2012. In the following paragraphs, findings from this study will be further analysed. In terms of monthly income, the minimum wage law has indeed increase the nominal household income. About 70% of interviewees, representing 131125 families reported an increase in household income after the introduction of minimum wage. Moreover, 72. 6% of them also reported a rise in individual workers’ income. In spite of an increase in monthly income and in fact, hourly income as well, working hours of workers decreased. The average hourly wage of respondents who stayed in the same job before and after implementation of minimum wage increased, 56. 8% of them even receive an hourly wage that exceeded $28. However, the same group of people who remain in the same job also experience an average cut of about 13. 9 working hours. This reduction of working hour is more often than not, at the expense of the workers’ benefit such as cancelling paid lunch hour or meal break and no overtime payment and so on. 46. % of respondents complained that the previously paid rest days were cancelled since the enforcement of minimum wage law. Taking into account of the loss of paid rest days as well as other fringe benefits, coupled with the reduction in working hours, over half of the respondents, 55. 8% of them experienced a drop in individual income despite the apparent increase in nominal monthly income. In the paragraph above concerning CSSA recipients, it was briefly mentioned that they treat social assistanc e as their last resort to mitigate their financial situation. In fact, most of them felt â€Å"perceivable prejudice† against them. The introduction of minimum wage has a wide application, but it affects most significantly low-income jobs that CSSA recipients crave. About half of the respondents receiving CSSA in the Oxfam study affirm the effectiveness of wage floor as an impetus to quit receiving social assistance. This in brief, could address the need of CSSA recipients to self-reliance and eliminate the stigmatization or label that they feel attached to them by re-entering the job market. Nonetheless, increase in income to a certain extent does not mean or signify poverty alleviation. The most pivotal finding in the Oxfam study is that it reveals 40. 5% of households still live in deprivation despite the minimum wage law. This is because they define â€Å"deprivation† as the inabilities to afford at least three items that are dubbed essential by most Hong Kong residents including dental check-ups, leisure activities, afford to go to private clinics when sick and tea house and so on. According to Townsend (1979), â€Å"a person is considered to be in poverty if he or she does not have enough resources to enable him or her to participate in normal activities commonly engaged by ordinary members in the community and therefore cannot become fully integrated into the mainstream of society. † Therefore, when 40. 5% of respondents, representing 531354 households are still deprived of a chance to engage in social activities simply due to the fact that they still could not afford the items they need highlighted just how ineffective minimum wage legislation has been in eradicating poverty. In conclusion, lifting people out of poverty is a difficult problem that could not be solved by any social policy alone, let alone the many flaws and limitations that are embedded in social policies. However, it is only through identifying the imperfection in social welfare policies could we make improvement on them and hopefully attain the final goal of eradicating poverty at the end.