Vietnam Women's Union

The city administration would also provide 2,000 poor households with VND30 billion (US$1.7 million) to improve their dwellings, he said.

It had also been decided to provide 75,000 households with incentive credit loans; 480,000 poor people with free medical insurance and vocational training for another 1,200 people who were poor and disabled.

The estimated cost for the yearly poverty-alleviation programme was VND491 billion ($27.7 million).

Of this, VND20 billion ($1.12 million) would be mobilised from the public.

The committee’s newly-introduced measure for poverty shows the city has more than 406,000 poor people in almost 118,000 poor households.

They make up 8.43 per cent of the capital’s total households.

Ha Noi Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs deputy director Le Tuan Huu said the new methodology had increased the number of poor households by 39,000.

The new standard deems urban households with a total monthly income of no more than VND500,000 ($29) as poverty stricken.

The monthly figure for rural households is VND330,000 ($18).