A woman writing to Transitioning – a support group for out of work PMETs – has asked for support for her family of 7. Transitioning is supporting one of the woman’s five children under their sponsor-a-kid scheme.
The woman, Zaza, said that she is at her wits end because her husband was recently terminated and is now on doing odd jobs on a part-time basis.
She is also facing eviction for being late in paying her charges for her HDB rental flat. Her SP Services bill is also overdue.
She said that the Social Service Office was not forthcoming to assist them unless she places her children in childcare so that she could go to work. She said that she was willing to do this, but it was a lot of adjustment for the family in a short period of time.
The following is the letter she sent to Transitioning.
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I am Zaza. We are a family of 7 – my husband, myself and our 5 children.
One of my children is under your sponsor-a-kid scheme which is ending this April 2017. I thank you for every help you’ve rendered to us.
Right now, I’m at my wits end. My husband just got terminated from his job and now is on part-time odd job basis while going for full time job interviews. Which means that we have unstable income for now.
Recently, I’ve received letters from the HDB and SP services regarding my overdue bills – HDB rental owed is $170 (plus late charges) and the SP services $239. The rent each month for our rental unit is $44 and I owed HDB 3 months.
I’m particularly worried about all the bill letters they sent recently because they will restrict our water supply and we also need to vacant our unit if we continue to owe them money.
We did try going to SSO but they wanted me to go and work and change my children’s PCF to childcare first which is a lot of documentation to do at the short period of time. So they won’t help us.
I hope you can help us.