The plight of the lower-incomed – Do we need to care more for them?
By: Leong Sze Hian
I refer to the article “Why low-income parents may make ‘poor choices’” . It states that “As we gain awareness about inequality and poverty, how we look at problems has a real impact on the solutions we craft. Better-off Singaporeans should care about low-income people because they are a part of our society.”
Govt needs to care more too?
By the same token, arguably, the Government also needs to care more about low-income people.
$9 per household per day assistance?
In this connection, ComCare gave $130 million of assistance to about 40,000 households in the last financial year.
This works out to only an average of about $271 ($130 million divided by 40,000 households divided by 12 months) per household per month, or about $9 per day ($271 divided by 30 days).
Less than 0.1% of GDP?
As out GDP is about $400 billion – our ComCare spending is less than 0.1 per cent of GDP.
Lowest in the world?
Is this the lowest spending as a percentage of GDP of all the developing and developed countries in the world?
Less than 0.25% of govt expenditure?
With government operating expenditure in the Budget at about $56 billion – ComCare spending as a percentage of government operating expenditure is less than 0.25 per cent.