The new Employment Support Supplement will offer HK$1,060 (US$136) per month, without conditions attached, to new welfare applicants aged 60-64 – the exact difference between the rates that adults and those over 65 will be getting under the changed policy taking effect on February 1.

Senior citizens already receiving the monthly CSSA allowance will not be affected.

Lam’s estranged traditional allies in Legco, whom she met to mend fences after they voted on Thursday in favour of a non-binding motion calling for an overhaul of the CSSA scheme, appeared to have been won over.

“It is a right correction after listening to the voice of the legislature and the people,” said lawmaker Leung Che-cheung, of the city’s largest pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.

The New People’s Party, Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and Business and Professionals Alliance all welcomed the move, with lawmaker Alice Mak Mei-kuen of the FTU describing it as “a demonstration of the government’s sincerity”.

Activists call for overhaul of CSSA, with Hongkongers on welfare struggling to get by

But Lam’s peacemaking efforts were not enough to satisfy opposition lawmakers, who remained sore over being shut out of the discussions.

Academic and welfare specialist Nelson Chow Wing-sun dismissed her remedial offer as a “joke” and a “face-saving measure”.

Chow, a retired University of Hong Kong social welfare professor, said he could not see how the new Employment Support Supplement could help the CSSA recipients find jobs, as suggested by the government, when that was the crux of the problem preventing them from sharing Lam’s vision of people working well beyond the age of 60.

“As the new allowance comes with no conditions attached, probably 90 per cent of those receiving it will be unemployed,” he said. “It is obviously a compromise after the backlash among the political parties and the public. It’s like going back to square one, without achieving anything.”

Chow suggested a much better solution would have been to shelve the policy change for three years and use the transitional period for a full review of the CSSA scheme.

In addition to the new allowance, Lam also offered to push back planned cuts to the number of teams of social workers helping people find jobs to the end of March next year.

And she proposed bringing forward improved labour protection plans for unskilled staff hired by government contractors. Anyone employed from December 10, 2018 to March 31, 2019 – when new contract terms announced last year are expected to take effect – will now be covered.

Reflecting on the past week of public outrage over the CSSA changes, Lam conceded the matter could have been handled better, although she insisted the policy change itself had sound justification, given the improved life expectancy of Hongkongers.

9 in 10 Hong Kong primary school children on welfare not having basic needs met

“Had I known this two months ago, before all these issues caused public concern, I would have probably done the same thing,” she said. “But, unfortunately, and you have to appreciate that, as a chief executive of Hong Kong, it is now no longer possible for me to be so hands-on in every detail of policy implementation.”

Responding to the pan-democrats’s complaints about being sidelined, she said: “If the chief executive does not enjoy the freedom to meet particular lawmakers or organisations, I don’t know how I could effectively act out my duties.

“If some pan-democrats have certain feelings, maybe they get a little bit jealous or uncomfortable … I will try my best to free my time and meet them for important issues.”

But the opposition camp remained unimpressed, accusing Lam of damaging their relationship.

Welfare sector representative Shiu Ka-chun said: “I asked Lam for a meeting purely based on business needs but not any feeling of jealousy. She has failed to demonstrate her so-called new style of governance in reaching out to the pan-democrats.”