While former GIC chief economist Yeoh Lam Keong agrees in principle with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on the need for more active social worker support for poor families, he feels that more financial support is needed to ensure that they are able to cope with the rising cost of living in Singapore.
Penning his thoughts on Facebook, Yeoh said that while it may seem reasonable for the minister to say that ‘just handing out cash to low income households may be counterproductive’, there are other key points that need to be addressed.
Yeoh first touched on the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) which was introduced in 2007 and targeted at workers whose earnings are in the bottom 20% with support in the form of a top-up to their salary and CPF to help them save for retirement.
Yeoh feels that the current maximum annual WIS range between $1,700 to $4,000 should be increased to provide better support for lower-income workers.
“The Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) which gives out only a miserly $300 in cash to poorest working households, does not just hand out the cash. It is contingent on full or at least part-time employment and is thus an incentive to work,” said Yeoh.
“The working poor desperately need another $500-600 in cash from this scheme to barely make ends meet in this highly inflationary environment.”
The next scheme that Yeoh highlighted is the Silver Support Scheme, which hands out about $360 to $900 to Singaporeans aged 65 and above, per quarter, depending on their household monthly income per person and the type of HDB they live in.
“The Silver Support Scheme similarly only gives out $300 a month to our poorest elderly retired poor. The vast majority of them are forced to work as cleaners or even cardboard collectors to make ends meet,” added Yeoh.
“Their very real problems of meeting basic needs are largely not due to “marital problems, criminal records or past addictions.” Yet we continue to deny them another $500-600 a month to live a more dignified life they deserve as Singapore’s pioneers.”
Yeoh believes that raising the payouts in these two schemes would ‘largely eliminate absolute poverty for over 200,000 of citizens and pioneers and is well affordable fiscally.’
“DPM Wong’s words would ring with a lot more credibility, and he would certainly have a lot more of my genuine support if he would actually just do these simple reforms to help our marginalized low income households and largely end absolute poverty in Singapore,” shared Yeoh.
Yeoh was responding to a speech made by DPM Wong at the International Conference on Cohesive Societies held at the Raffles City Convention Centre on 8 Sept. DPM Wong noted that ‘income inequality in Singapore has been narrowing over the last decade, and low-income workers have seen their salaries rising faster than that of the median-income worker.’