Eligible Elderly Persons and Annual Voucher Amount

Elderly persons aged 65 or above and holding a valid Hong Kong Identity Card or Certificate of Exemption issued by the Immigration Department, except for those who obtained a Hong Kong Identity Card by virtue of a previous permission to land or remain in Hong Kong granted to him/ her and such permission has expired or ceased to be valid, are eligible to receive and use the vouchers to pay for private primary healthcare services.

At present, the annual voucher amount for each eligible elderly person is $2,000 while the accumulation limit of vouchers is $8,000. Elderly persons are provided with their annual amount of vouchers that will be automatically deposited in their voucher account on 1 January from the year in which they become eligible under the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme.

Any unused voucher amount can be retained for use in the following years. There is no restriction on the number of years that an elderly person may carry forward the unspent voucher amount, but the cumulated amount of vouchers in the voucher account of each eligible elderly person as at 1 January every year (i.e. the sum of the voucher amount received on 1 January for the year plus the total unspent voucher amount carried forward from previous years) cannot exceed the accumulation limit of vouchers for the year.

The annual voucher amount and the accumulation limit of vouchers for each eligible elderly person are listed as follows:

Year	Annual voucher amount	Accumulation limit of vouchers
2009	$250	-
2010	$250	-
2011	$250	-
2012	$500	-
2013	$1,000	-
2014	$2,000Note(1)	$3,000 (from 1 January to 6 June 2014) $4,000 (starting from 7 June 2014)
2015	$2,000	$4,000
2016	$2,000	$4,000
2017	$2,000Note(2)	$4,000
2018	$3,000Note(3)	$4,000 (from 1 January to 7 June 2018) $5,000 (starting from 8 June 2018)
2019	$3,000Note(3)	$5,000 (from 1 January to 25 June 2019) $8,000 (starting from 26 June 2019)
2020 and onwards	$2,000	$8,000

Note:

(1) In 2014, the voucher amount of $1,000 was deposited in the voucher account of each eligible elderly person on 1 January and an additional $1,000 worth of vouchers was deposited in their account on 7 June.

(2) For elderly persons aged 65 to 69 in 2017, the voucher amount of $2,000 was deposited in their voucher accounts starting from 1 July 2017.

(3) In 2018 and 2019, the annual voucher amount of $2,000 was deposited in the voucher account of each eligible elderly person on 1 January and an additional, one-off $1,000 worth of vouchers was deposited in their account on 8 June 2018 and 26 June 2019 respectively.