-53is non-contributory and means-tested. Payments thereunder are made in cash. Its purpose is that of enabling recipients to meet basic needs. The scheme under which it is operated (which it is convenient to call “the CSSA scheme”) is an administrative scheme, not a statutory scheme. 149. There is a residence requirement for the receipt of assistance under the CSSA scheme. This requirement applies to adults. It is that they must have been a resident of Hong Kong for at least 7 years by the time of their application for CSSA. Question 150. Is that requirement constitutional or unconstitutional? That is the question now before this Court. The learned judges in the courts below (being Andrew Cheung J in the High Court and Stock VP and Lam and Barma JJ in the Court of Appeal) have concluded that the requirement is constitutional. Their conclusion is disputed by the appellant Madam Kong Yunming for whom Professor Johannes Chan SC and Mr Hectar Pun appear. It is supported by the respondent the Director of Social Welfare for whom Lord Pannick QC and Mr Abraham Chan appear. Such being the legal representation, the rival submissions prepared and presented have of course been of the highest quality. Facts 151. Shortly stated, the facts are these. Madam Kong was born in the Mainland in 1949. In 2003 she married a Hong Kong permanent resident. He had been a CSSA recipient since 1985. In November 2005 she was granted a one-way permit to come to Hong Kong in order to settle here. On 21 December 2005 she arrived in Hong Kong for that purpose. Tragically, her husband, who had been in ill-health, died on the following day. She tried to have herself registered as the new tenant of the public housing unit which had