Financial Assistance Schemes for Primary & Secondary Students
Method of Assessment
The Means Test
The SFO will use the "Adjusted Family Income" (AFI) mechanism as the means test to assess the eligibility of a family for student financial assistance and its assistance level.
The AFI mechanism is based on the following formula:
Gross annual income of the family includes the annual income of the applicant and his/her spouse; 30% of the annual income of unmarried child / children residing with the family if applicable; and the contribution from relatives / friends if applicable.
The members of a family normally refer to the applicant, his/her spouse, unmarried child / children residing with the family and the dependent parent(s) who are supported by the applicant and/or his/her spouse. Read More
Please refer to the “Notes on How to Complete and Return Household Application Form (SFO 75B(2)) for definition of “Dependent Parent”.
For single-parent families of 2 to 3 members, the “plus 1 factor” in the divisor of the AFI formula will be increased to 2.
Level of Assistance
The AFI eligibility benchmarks for various levels of assistance in the 2020/21 school year are listed in the table below. Please note that the AFI is not the average monthly income of a family.
AFI eligibility benchmarks
2020/21 school year - AFI Between (HK$)
Level of Assistance
0 – 41,568
Full*
41,569 – 80,378
Half
> 80,378
Ineligible (applications not successful)
* AFI thresholds for full level of assistance for 3-member and 4-member families are $50,323 and $46,297 respectively in the 2020/21 school year. For 2-member single-parent families and 3-member single-parent families, they are regarded as 3-member families and 4-member families respectively for determining the AFI thresholds for full level of assistance and calculation of AFI.