The overall Comprehensive Social Security Assistance caseload rose to 224,895 in December, up 0.2% from November, the Social Welfare Department announced today.

The total number of recipients stood at 319,200.

Low-earnings cases registered a month-to-month decrease of 1% to 2,520 cases while old age cases were down 0.2% to 130,647.

Ill-health cases rose 0.8% to 26,056 cases. Single parent cases were up 0.4% to 24,760 cases while permanent disability cases increased 0.1% to 17,377 cases.

Unemployment cases continued to increase, rising 2.2% on a monthly basis to 19,506 cases. The figure is also an increase of 55.2% compared with December 2019.

The number of applications of unemployment cases increased 12.2% to 1,045 cases in December, representing a 65.1% year-on-year increase.