SINGAPORE: Singapore's five Community Development
Councils (CDCs) have seen an increase in the number of social
assistance cases coming to them for help in 2012.
A key reason for this uptrend is the revision in the
criteria of people who can now qualify for such help under the
ComCare scheme.
The scheme was revised last year.
Among the changes - the income criteria for short and medium term
assistance schemes have been revised and there are more pre-school
and student care subsidies.
There are four key challenges which will shape the work of the CDCs
in 2013 - an expected slowdown in economic growth in Singapore
coupled with economic restructuring, preserving social mobility, a
rapidly ageing population and the continued costs of living
pressures.
For cleaner Tay Kheng Leong, a sole breadwinner earning about S$700
a month, schemes from the North East CDC have come in very handy
for him to meet his daily and medical expenses for his family
members, who live in a two-room rental flat.
Mr Tay said CDC has been giving him S$300 every month for more than
a year. His children get free textbooks and school uniforms. He
provides for his children's pocket money.
Between January and September 2012, the CDCs received close to
44,900 applications for help, an increase of 8.2 per cent compared
to 2011. In 2011, there were 41,500 applications for the period
between January and September.
Teo Ser Luck, mayor of North East CDC said: "There is the lower
middle income (group) that we have to help. Based on the rising
costs of living, some of them may be struggling, some of them may
have a one-time expenditure which they could not handle or afford.
These are the ones we look out for.
"But we have to make our schemes more readily available on the
ground and accessible. That is why more resources would be put into
the community, engaging the residents and helping the residents
this year."
Dr Teo Ho Pin, mayor of North West CDC added: "This year we have
set aside a budget of about S$3.5 million in our CDC funding to
support the needy. What we want to do is to provide a more holistic
approach to help the needy families to achieve self reliance.
"In the areas of social assistance services, we will be
decentralising some of our service points. Secondly we will be
improving our processing time. Today we are processing 99 per cent
of our cases within four weeks. We are going to do it within two
weeks, so that we can respond faster."
Dr Amy Khor, coordinating chairman of the mayors' council, feels
more can be done to improve the accessibility and delivery of
social assistance.
"The CDCs are also actually working to further enhance and improve
the efficiency and effectiveness as well as accessibility of social
assistance and social assistance delivery," said Dr Khor, who is
also the mayor of South West CDC.
"We are looking at a standard referral form and protocol, as well
as working closely with our partner agencies to ensure that no one
falls through the cracks and that they can get targeted assistance
which is needed, relevant and useful to them."
Sam Tan, mayor of Central Singapore CDC said: "In the past, there
were many who lived in the one and two-room rental flats, they may
not be able to read the newsletter, internet and so on. We have
done a lot of outreach activities like doing home visits, working
closely with the VWOs (voluntary welfare organisations), the
seniors activity centres, asking them to recommend the probable and
suitable (potential beneficiaries) so that we can get in touch with
them."
But there may still be some who do not qualify for the schemes and
who need some interim help.
"In our case we always take a more generous approach in that we
always exercise flexibility for people who may just marginally, or
for some reasons may have exceeded the criteria a little bit more,"
said Mr Tan.
"We always look at their family background to find if there are
other justifying factors or reasons so that we can have reasons to
offer the assistance to them, even though they may have exceeded
the criteria."
"Definitely there are applicants who may not qualify, but they come
forward. Some of them may know that outright they do not qualify,"
said Dr Khor.
"They may suffer pay cuts but they expect to maintain their
standard of living. That can be a problem and so we need to counsel
and explain to them. In some cases when they really do not qualify
because of their income criteria, we may still assist them through
our own local schemes, in various ways, may not be in cash
assistance but other ways, in terms of training where they can get
other jobs. Or for instance in terms of looking at their needs of
their children."
The next focus area for the CDCs is the elderly, and a pilot
programme is underway in Marine Parade to assess their needs.
Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, mayor of South East CDC explained: "Marine
Parade is where we pilot the concept of a city of all ages where we
want to help the seniors ensure that they are able to age
successfully with the younger generation.
"So we assess all the abilities of the elderly, whether they are
wheelchair bound, whether they have visual difficulties. The whole
of Marine Parade is assessed physically and at the same time they
also look at the social infrastructure of Marine Parade to respond
to the varying needs of senior citizens there. Hopefully if Marine
Parade succeeds we will try to expand it to other towns."
When it comes to employment assistance, the picture at the CDCs is
slightly different. The CDCs say the number of people coming to
them for job referrals and employment matters has dipped slightly
in 2012 compared to 2011. And one key reason for this fall in
numbers is the tight job market in Singapore last year.
Between January and November 2012, the number of people approaching
the CDCs for training and employment assistance was 24,500, a 3 per
cent drop compared to the same period in 2011.
The success rates of those being placed into employment has also
been higher in 2012. 11,800 were placed into jobs between January
and November 2012, compared to 10,100 for the same period in
2011.
But if Singapore faces a recession, the mayors say they are ready
with their help schemes, having gained from the experiences in 2003
and 2008.
- CNA/xq
