Partly refund of renewal fee for renewal application within the “Renewal Window”

[28/11/2017]

If RSWs wish to continue using the title “social workers”, according to Section 20 of the Social Workers Registration Ordinance, it is their duty to apply for renewal of registration to the Registrar in the specified form every year not earlier than 3 months and not later than 28 days prior to the expiry of the current registration. The aforesaid statutory period is named “Renewal Window” for sake of simplicity.

Taking the expiry date of 31 January 2018 as an example, the diagram below illustrates the opening of the Renewal Window to fall on 1 November 2017 for accepting renewal applications for registration until the closure of window on 3 January 2018. On the next working day after the Renewal Window is closed (i.e. 4 January 2018), the Board is required by law to issue a 28-day-deadline notification by registered mail to those social workers who have not submitted their application for renewal of registration. Upon the expiry of the final deadline, for those RSWs who have not applied for renewed on time, the Registrar will remove their names from the Register. If RSWs wish to resume their registration status, they are required to re-apply for registration.

For the purpose to save the administrative cost, the Board will introduce an incentive scheme to encourage RSWs to apply for renewal within the “Renewal Window”. RSWs who have submitted their renewal application successfully within the “Renewal Window”, the Board will refund HK$20 by cheque to RSWs together with the new registration card. This incentive scheme is applicable to renewal applications with registration to expire on 31 January 2018 and afterwards. The refund cheque will be sent to the eligible RSWs on 1 January 2018 and thereafter.