-46The Director has laid down guidelines 117 for the exercise of the 128. discretion in the following terms: (a) In general, financial hardship alone does not merit exceptional treatment, especially in the case of able-bodied adults. (b) The [relevant officer] can exercise discretion to exempt a Hong Kong resident from the [seven-year] rule if the applicant can satisfy all [emphasis supplied] the following criteria: (i) having no or insufficient income to meet his/the family’s basic needs; (ii) having no relative or friend to turn to for assistance; (iii) no other forms of assistance being available to him/his family; (iv) having suffered a substantial and unexpected change in circumstances beyond his/her family’s control;118 (v) having genuine difficulty in returning to his country of origin or the place where he came from; (vi) the total resources available to him/his family, including any savings and other assets held by him/his family and any CSSA payable to his family members, are not sufficient to meet his/his family’s recognised needs under the CSSA Scheme for two months.” 129. As paragraph (a) makes clear, the discretion is only intended to operate in exceptional cases and financial hardship alone generally does not qualify as “exceptional” even if the applicant is destitute. He or she must satisfy all six of the listed conditions. Two of those conditions stand out. 130. First, as we have seen, the Director has made the argument in these proceedings that, if denied CSSA, new arrivals are able to seek help from charitable institutions. If that is the view generally taken by social welfare officers, applicants for a waiver are likely to find condition (iii) – the possible availability of other forms of assistance – an important obstacle in many cases. 131. Secondly, condition (v) – refusal of a waiver if the applicant is able to return to where he or she came from – is important. Although the discretion is held out as a measure mitigating hardship caused by the seven-year residence 117 In the Social Security Manual of Procedures, paragraphs C52 and C53. 118 Failure to find or keep employment not usually being regarded as such.