-2462. Where such a reunited family is poor, having means-tested income which does not cover the basic needs of its members, one would expect the social security scheme to operate in harmony with the OWP scheme and so make CSSA benefits available. While it may be that the one-year residence requirement has to be accepted as the basic right to social welfare historically defined, it would be wholly irrational, when viewed from the perspective of the OWP scheme, to raise it to a seven-year requirement. Although the Task Force Report contains considerable discussion of the OWP scheme, it provides no rational basis for adopting the seven-year rule. On the contrary, its logic demands the disapplication of that rule in relation to OWP arrivals. 63. That logic has only partly been respected. In line with encouraging younger immigrant children to come, new arrivals under 18 years of age have been exempted from the seven-year restriction, but – illogically – there is no such exemption for Mainland parents who come to take care of them. It follows that unless the operative restriction is waived as a matter of discretion – a matter discussed further below63 – such parents have to find some way to cope over a seven-year period even though a means test has shown that they are without sufficient income to meet their basic needs. 64. That counter-productive aspect of the seven-year requirement has not escaped members of the Welfare Panel. At its meeting held on 10 March 2003, Ms Li Fung-ying is recorded as having stated that: “... the seven-year residence requirement for the CSSA Scheme [was] a policy marred with contradiction, as its having the effect of deterring potential new arrivals to settle in Hong Kong was at variance with the policy of family reunion.”64 65. And after the seven-year requirement had been in place for some four years, the Sub-Committee appointed to review the arrangements for CSSA 63 In Section L.3 below. 64 Minutes Welfare Panel Meeting on 10 March 2003, LC Paper No CB(2)1738/02-03, §14.