Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether the Ministry tracks the financial situations of Comcare's short- to medium-term assistance recipients after they gain employment; and (b) how many recipients of such Comcare assistance reapply for assistance within a year after the end of their assistance.

Mr Desmond Lee (MSF): ComCare is part of the multiple layers of assistance provided by the Government to support low-income individuals and families. Other programmes include Workfare, medical and education subsidies, and housing assistance. Households that require help to tide over periods of difficulty are provided Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA), which provides financial assistance for daily living expenses, help with household bills, and other forms of support such as referrals to Workforce Singapore’s Careers Connect for employment assistance or to Family Service Centres for casework and counselling.

SSOs keep track of clients’ situations while they are receiving ComCare assistance. Those who have gained employment while on ComCare assistance may still receive assistance for a period of time, as they work towards financial stability in their new jobs. SSOs may also continue to provide assistance if their clients’ incomes from work are assessed to be insufficient for their household living expenses (e.g. those who are in part-time jobs).

There are various reasons why clients reapply for assistance, such as when they face new challenges in their family, work, or health circumstances. We do not have readily available data for households that gained employment while they were on SMTA, and subsequently reapplied for ComCare within a year after the SMTA ended.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development in each of the past five years (a) how many ComCare Short-to-Medium Term Assistance recipients are first-time applicants; (b) what is the median monthly payout for first-time applicants; (c) what is the median number of months the first-time applicants have received the assistance; and (d) what percentage of first-time applicants have reapplied for assistance within 12 months of receiving ComCare.

Mr Desmond Lee (MSF): Mr Speaker, ComCare is part of the multiple layers of assistance provided by the Government to support low-income individuals and families. Households that require help to tide over a period of financial difficulty are provided with ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA). Depending on the needs of the household, our Social Service Offices (SSOs) may provide financial assistance in cash, help with household and medical bills, and refer them to agencies such as Workforce Singapore for employment assistance, or Family Service Centres (FSCs) for further support. As the needs, profile and size of each household is different, the quantum and duration of assistance they require may also vary.

Between 2015 and 2017, the number of households that received SMTA at any point in time was between 14,000 and 16,000 households. We do not have readily available data on how many of these were first-time SMTA applicants. The median monthly assistance quantum that a household on SMTA received was about $400, and the median duration of assistance in a year was about six months. These figures exclude other forms of Government assistance and subsidies that households could be receiving, such as MediFund for medical expenses, subsidised rental housing, financial assistance for school fees or childcare subsidies and so on.

Among households whose SMTA ended in 2016, about 25% households reapplied and received SMTA within 12 months. These families may have faced new challenges or changes in their family, work, or health circumstances. We do not have five-year data available.

Beyond these statistics, it is important to understand the challenges families face in overcoming their issues and the support that will help sustain their self-reliance. MSF will continue to study these trends in close partnership with stakeholders in the community, particularly those who are working directly with families in need.

Louis: I thank the Minister for the reply. I have two clarifications, the first being, how can we ensure that we have a social safety trampoline, as Deputy Prime Minister Tharman has suggested, rather than a social safety net? So, how can we reduce this 25% repeat applicants? The second clarification is whether MSF has studied whether if we increase the duration of providing support during the first application, whether it would lead to a reduction in the number of times they will re-apply again? Which means, if we help them longer the first time, the chance of them coming back to re-apply for ComCare would be reduced. So, maybe not six months, which is the median; but whether we have studied giving them nine months, and perhaps these applicants will not come back to apply for ComCare again.

Mr Desmond Lee: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for his abiding interest in seeing how we can establish a trampoline as well as a social safety net. Trampoline to help families with the potential to overcome the challenges to be able to stand on their feet and be able to support their own selves. Safety net to catch those who fall through temporarily or even for a longer duration of time.

The Member may be aware that last year, we announced efforts to develop, all across the island, SG Cares Community Networks. These are networks of social and healthcare agencies within each town. We seek to integrate the support that all these organisations – both government and people sector – can provide so that we can give more holistic assistance to families, especially those who face complex needs. We also announced last year our intentions to launch hubs in rental housing estates so that we can bring together the agencies and the Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) that have been working very intimately and closely with families living in rental housing. As the Member may know, rental housing families tend to face a plethora of complex difficulties. With that integration, coordination and support amongst different agencies, we hope to better able to partner these families, tackle their issues holistically, chronologically, systematically. Empower them, partner them, support them. So, that is what we hope to achieve.

As I said earlier in my reply, ComCare is but one of a suite of assistance schemes that help to stabilise a family's needs, meet their basic needs, whilst working with them to address other upstream issues. 

On the Member's second point, I think what he meant was whether we should consider increasing the duration as opposed to what he said "reducing the duration". Certainly, six months is the median. There are some families whose needs may be more short-term, for example, they may need, say, two to three months of assistance before they transit to a new job which they can secure with or without assistance; or they may require longer term assistance because they may be undergoing more structural training, for example. So, median is median. There are those who get fewer than six months and those who get longer than six months.

The SSOs, together with our agencies, such as Family Service Centres, would assess the needs of the families holistically, and then, make the necessary decisions as to what that appropriate duration would be. But going forward, we need to work together in a more integrated fashion with the community, with our VWO partners and with other Government agencies so that we provide assistance in a way that empowers, in a way that supports more effectively.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Prime Minister (a) whether the National Climate Change Secretariat has conducted a study on the impact and mitigation factors of climate change on low-income groups; (b) if so, what are the results of the study; and (c) if not, whether it will consider conducting such a study.

Mr Teo Chee Hean (for the Prime Minister): Our strategies for climate action take into account the needs of all stakeholders, including the low-income and the vulnerable.

Our range of adaptation and mitigation measures is designed to be inclusive. The measures aim to minimise the adverse effects that climate change could have on the economy, society and on our daily lives.

For example, the Government has been improving the liveability of our public housing estates through novel ways of weaving greenery into our estates and towns, which reduces temperatures while improving air quality. HDB flats are also designed to maximise cross-ventilation, thereby reducing reliance on air-conditioning which is a large contributor to household utility bills. The recently announced HDB Green Towns Programme will further enable reduction in energy consumption and cool our HDB towns. These sustainability measures ensure that the impact of climate change on all residents, including low-income groups, are minimised.

The Government also ensures that cost of mitigation measures is minimised for households. As recently announced, the Government will introduce incentives to support lower-income households in purchasing more energy efficient appliances. To help households adjust to the impact of the carbon tax on their electricity and gas expenses, eligible HDB households are given an additional $20 GST Voucher – U-Save on top of the regular U-Save rebate each year from 2019 to 2021. Eligible households living in smaller HDB flats benefit more as they receive a larger quantum of U-Save rebates, and typically have smaller annual utilities bills.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis spoke up for low income groups in his speech for the debate on Additional Support Measures in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic.

Louis: Sir, I thank the Government for providing a Resilience and Solidarity Budget that provides increased assistance to many Singaporeans in this time of great need.  

Many residents have shared how appreciative they are and thanked the Government for this. Sir, I have four points to raise in relation to the Budget.

My first point is about those on unpaid leave and reduced working hours. The Resilience and Solidarity Budget provides much support to Singaporeans who have lost their jobs and for the self-employed. But we need to do more for those who remain in employment but have nonetheless taken a big hit in their incomes. Such workers can either be workers forced to take pay cuts or go on unpaid leave, or hourly workers who have lost shifts and hours. 

I recently received an email from my resident, whose employer cut her hours from full-time to part-time. Overnight she lost 50% of her income. Another resident has been put on unpaid leave for at least three months. Overnight she lost 100% of her income. These are not isolated cases and I am sure all Members in this House have received similar calls for help. The only new scheme applicable to this group of workers in this Budget is the Temporary Relief Fund. But it only provides one-off cash grant of $500. 

Can the Government provide more financial support for those who have lost income but remain in employment? 

For a start, we can expand the COVID-19 Support Grant to supplement the monthly income of these workers up to a cap of $800 and up to three months or when they are back to full employment. This is especially important for those put on unpaid leave. After all, those on unpaid leave essentially become unemployed for the months they are on unpaid leave. The reply might be that we are helping employers retain workers through the Jobs Support Scheme but to save at least 25% of salary costs, there might still be employers who will prefer to put workers on unpaid leave. 

Sir, it is not likely that the damage to our economy will be over any time soon. We should provide some level of wage stability for those lucky enough to find themselves still employed but with zero or significantly reduced income.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Mr Heng Swee Keat (The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Assoc Prof Walter Theseira, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, Ms Foo Mee Har, Mr Louis Ng and Mr Faisal Manap have requested to provide more cash in hand for different groups of Singaporeans and their families to tide through this period. In fact, we will already be providing more than what the Members have proposed. A 50-year old couple with a child aged 20 years old and below will receive up to $3,200 in cash. This is from the Solidarity Payment, Care and Support Package and PAssion card top-up in cash. Low-wage workers on Workfare will receive an additional $3,000 in cash to help them with their expenses over this period. Singaporeans who become unemployed can receive the COVID-19 Support Grant of $2,400 over three months. In the interim, those who require urgent help with basic living expenses can apply for cash assistance of $500 under the Temporary Relief Fund. MSF and HDB are also exercising greater flexibility under ComCare and for mortgage repayments respectively to provide stronger support. In addition, under the Job Support Scheme, employers will receive up to $31,000 in wage offsets over nine months, for each local worker retained. Eligible self-employed persons will receive $9,000 over the same period under SIRS.

With this set of schemes, we balance between targeting our support for those who need it more and flowing support quickly to large groups. It is not an easy balance and we will do our best to calibrate this.

Louis: I thank you, Sir. I have four clarifications. One, can I just check whether we can extend the COVID-19 Support Grant to those who are also on unpaid leave?

Mr Heng Swee Keat: I thank Mr Louis Ng for your questions. You have asked four rather technical questions. And as I said, this Budget has been prepared in a record time. So, there will be details that the different Ministries will announce later and this will be sorted out by the different Ministries.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)