Able-bodied offenders can only apply for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance after they have been discharged and must wait at least a month before receiving their first monthly payment, according to documents submitted to the Legislative Council by the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau.

Deputy Director of Social Welfare Nancy Law Tak-yin said the government will not grant a blanket exemption to all prisoners applying for CSSA.

Only three discharged prisoners received discretionary waivers of the one-month waiting period last year from the director of social welfare.

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Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong Ka-wah said he was shocked that so few received assistance on their release.

"Only three were granted a discretionary waiver for the whole year? It's hard to imagine. These people have urgent needs," he told the Legislative Council's panel on welfare services meeting Thursday.

Also testifying to the panel was former offender Ah Chung, 39, who had received help after his release, from the Society for Community Organization and joined as part of its delegation.

He told the panel that he lived alone before being jailed for six months for selling counterfeit CDs last year. He was released two months ago and had only HK$300 he earned from compulsory labor while in jail.

"I didn't know where to go. Without a place to live, who is going to hire you?"Ah Chung said.

He slept rough in public parks while awaiting his application for CSSA to be approved. He borrowed HK$500 from a loan shark to get him through his first month.

The SoCO delegates also told legislators that according to research they conducted last year, discharged offenders received an average HK$300 after their release. The nongovernment organization found that 35 percent of discharged offenders slept on streets, 84 percent borrowed money from friends and 25 percent said they would commit crimes again.

Welfare panel chairman Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, who also represents the welfare sector in Legco, said the application process for CSSA should be more made flexible. "With no home and no money, the first month out of jail for discharged offenders is the most difficult period for them," he said.

Simon Chan Fu-sai, business director of the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, told the meeting that not all discharged offenders need long- term economic assistance such as CSSA, except in extreme situations.

The society receives HK$60 million in government funding. It offers 130 accommodation places and processes 4,000 cases every year.