A grassroots organisation on Sunday called on the government to reconsider the applications of thousands of unemployed workers who were deemed ineligible for its Temporary Unemployment Relief scheme.

Authorities earlier said the applications of some 100-thousand applicants were rejected because they didn’t meet the necessary requirements.

To be eligible for the HK$10,000 subsidy, applicants must have worked for at least a month from October to December last year and must have been jobless for 30 straight days.

The Society for Community Organisation's deputy head, Sze Lai-shan, said among 375 grassroots people it surveyed last week, around 40 percent of them said they'd applied for the subsidy.

She said some of them believed they should be eligible for the money but their applications were rejected and they couldn’t understand why.

Sze said they should be allowed to appeal their cases, adding that the government should also relax the application criteria to benefit more struggling workers.