home budget debate

쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12 2009 PAGE B10

MINISTRY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUTH AND SPORTS

$25m plan $2m recession

fund for
to help Malay
community
families BY JEREMY AU YONG

in trouble NEEDY Muslim families will receive $2 million in ex-

MCYS will improve
ways of identifying
and helping them
BY LEE HUI CHIEH
THE Government will spend $25 mil-
lion in the next five years on various
schemes to help dysfunctional families,
whose members typically have prob-
lems getting a job, develop addictions,
or resort to crime and violence.
Singapore could have up to 7,500
such families, the Ministry of Commu-
nity Development, Youth and Sports
(MCYS) estimated.
It will be improving ways of identify-
ing and helping them, including raising
the bursaries for their pre-school chil-
dren by eight times to $2,000.
The measures were announced by
Minister for Community Development,
Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan
in Parliament yesterday.
These are in line with recommenda-
tions of an inter-ministry committee
on dysfunctional families that he
chaired.
One of the new ways is the exten-
sion of the existing Home Ownership
Plus Education (Hope) scheme to in-
clude divorced women with up to two
children.
They can receive grants worth
around $100,000 for their children’s
education, skills training, utilities and
housing.
Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade
GRC) had earlier called for their inclu-
sion in Hope, which was introduced in
2004.
The scheme is for intact families
with a monthly household in-
come of $1,500 or less and with
no more than two children.
The change will bring hope
to 300 such single-parent
families and boost the
number of families on the
scheme to about 2,000.
Said Dr Balakrishnan:
“We want to send a mes-
sage to the women: If you
find someone who says he
loves you and will marry you, by all
means go ahead. But do not find some-
one, or feel pressured to marry some-
one and offer fertility, simply because
you feel you need to provide security
for your existing children.”
Under Hope, educational bursaries
given to 320 pre-schoolers with work-
ing mothers will be raised from $250 to
$2,000.
Said the minister: “These mothers
should not feel they lack the funds to
provide for their children’s well-being
and education.”
Mrs Constance Singam, president of
the Association of Women for Action
and Research, welcomed the new move
but hoped to see it taken further.
“We want to see it extended to fami-
lies in need, no matter how many par-
ents or children they have. The policy
should be to protect the children,” she
said.
The MCYS is also embarking on a tri-
al programme in which 150 families are
put under “intensive care” for two
years.
Each will be monitored by a senior
social worker, who will take care of
just 10, instead of the usual 40 to 50,
families.
It will also start a mentoring pro-
gramme for 150 youth from dysfunc-
tional families, which Dr Muhammad
Faishal Ibrahim (Marine Parade GRC)
wanted.
A unit will be set up to teach job
skills to those at its juvenile homes.
Also, agencies that families in trou-
ble tend to turn to first for help, such
as schools, polyclinics, hospitals and
tra aid this year to help them through the recession.
The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore
(Muis) has set up a one-off fund that gives grants to
families as well as support for various social assist-
ance schemes.
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ib-
rahim announced the new programme in Parlia-
ment yesterday.
The lion’s share of the cash will be spent on train-
ing and education. Around $630,000 has been set
aside to help pay for courses for those retrenched
or facing reduced income.
A further $650,000 will either be used to help
needy students in Islamic religious schools or in the
Institute of Technical Education.
The rest of it will either go to needy families in
the form of cash grants or help organisations that
partner Muis in programmes aimed at making fami-
lies self-reliant.
The fund, named the Ihsan Fund after the Malay
word for compassion, will be in addition to the com-
munity-based and national schemes already in
place.
In announcing the fund, Dr Yaacob urged Ma-
lay-Muslims to keep their chin up despite the tough
times.
He pointed to the great strides the community
Divorced mothers had made in education and employment over the
with up to two years, and called for them to continue to improve.
children will be
able to receive “The recession should encourage us to persevere
grants worth and aim for greater heights.
around $100,000 “If we do not do so, when the economy turns
for their children’s around, which it will, we will be worse off than be-
education, skills fore the recession.”
training, utilities
and housing. He reassured the community that they will not
TNP FILE PHOTO be short of help during the downturn. On top of na-
tional schemes, both the Government and self-help
groups will do their part to plug any gaps.
the Housing Board, will be roped in to Self-help group Mendaki, for instance, had
spot such families. eased the qualifying criteria for many of its pro-
These “touchpoint” agencies, as Dr grammes this year.
Balakrishnan called them, will be It has extended its Education Trust Fund subsi-
trained to spot and refer the families to dies to include upper secondary students. The fund
community development councils or previously covered only students from preschool
family service centres. through to lower secondary.
huichieh@sph.com.sg Separately, a booklet on tips and information on
various programmes that needy families can tap on

Parents, divorcees: Ideas sought on more protection

THE Ministry of Community Development, Youth
and Sports (MCYS) is looking to strengthen laws that
protect parents and divorcees.
It is studying whether to “put more teeth” to the
1994 Maintenance of Parents Act that enables elderly
parents to claim maintenance from recalcitrant chil-
dren.
It also wants to ensure that the divorced keep up
maintenance of their former spouses and children.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Minister for
Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian
Balakrishnan said he was “open to ideas”, however
radical, in these areas.
He was replying to Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio
GRC) and Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman (Sembawang
GRC), who highlighted the plight of neglected par-
ents and divorcees.
Mr Wee described a phenomenon which he said
MPs would be familiar with: Many seniors left home-
less after being evicted by their children from homes
that they had ploughed their savings into jointly buy-
ing.
He asked the ministry to consider enhancing the
Maintenance of Parents Act so that children would be
made to provide their parents with not only money,
but also a roof over their heads and emotional sup-
port.
He said: “While leeway may be given to those who
are genuinely financially unable to provide for their
parents, there are many who can make adjustments
to their lifestyles, and accommodate parent care with-
in their means. They are just not willing.”
Agreeing that more should be done to help seniors
whose children had turned their backs on them, Dr
Balakrishnan said that the Tribunal for Maintenance
of Parents would try to reconcile parent and child via
counselling and mediation more pro-actively.
A suggestion that could be considered, he said,
was to give the tribunal the power to force the intran-
sigent children into revealing their financial records,
so that the tribunal could better gauge their ability to
support their parents.
As for divorcees, Dr Maliki asked if more could al-
so be done to help women whose former husbands de-
fault on maintenance.
He related an example of a woman who had to go
to the Family Court 21 times in the first 20 months af-
ter separating from her husband to seek the court’s
help in getting him to pay up.
The Family Court can attach an earnings order on
maintenance defaulters, or even fine or jail them.
Dr Maliki said: “In some cases, when the women
don’t have alternative childcare arrangements, the
children are dragged to court too, only to witness
their mothers’ constant struggle to get money, caus-
ing them undue anxiety and sometimes, anger to-
wards their fathers.”
Last year, 3,200 applications for enforcement of
maintenance orders were filed by 1,700 people, main-
ly women.
“I don’t think we have arrived at a satisfactory so-
lution to this,” Dr Balakrishnan said. “If any of you
have creative, even unorthodox, ideas, please share
them with me.”
He cited some “radical” suggestions that he had
heard, although he was quick to say that this did not
mean they would be implemented.
One involved telling prospective wives of the
former husband’s spotty payment history, which
would reflect his inability to fulfil a commitment.
Another suggestion: For those declared bankrupt,
paying maintenance to former spouses should be giv-
en priority over other debts.
LEE HUI CHIEH
is in line for release next month.
Aid aside, the minister also gave an update on
some key social indicators.
He was particularly encouraged by the progress
the community has made in education. The gap
with the national average has narrowed.
The proportion of the Malay Primary 1 cohort ad-
mitted to post-secondary institutions has more
than doubled between 1990 and 2007, going from
36 per cent to 83.5 per cent.
The number of marriages involving minors had
also dropped by 45 per cent between 2000 and last
year.
But he did raise concerns over the high rate of
Muslim remarriages and serial divorces. He noted
that around one-third of all Muslim marriages last
year involved people who had married before. Simi-
larly, it was the case with divorces last year.
To help reconstituted families that result from
these marriages, he announced that a dedicated cen-
tre for them would be set up next year.
In the meantime, an interim centre offering coun-
selling and support programmes would be opened.
In a rallying call to the community, he said in Ma-
lay: “Although the economic crisis is very challeng-
ing, it is also an opportunity for us to rebuild our
community as a stronger and more resilient commu-
nity.’’

FROM THE GALLERY

Don’t let the sun go down on Singapore’s elderly

BY CLARISSA OON
SENIOR POLITICAL
CORRESPONDENT
DOES Singapore value its elderly as much
as it does its young? A member of the
House, who can typically be counted on
to make philosophical, deeply felt re-
marks on what society stands for, asked
this yesterday.
Mr Sam Tan (Tanjong Pagar GRC) be-
gan by recounting his informal survey of
100 single elderly residents on Public As-
sistance (PA) – he found that their month-
ly spending on groceries, traditional Chi-
nese medicine and other necessities typi-
cally exceeds what they get from the Gov-
ernment.
Worrying about their ability to save
for a rainy day and their general quality
of life, he quoted a Chinese proverb on
the moral responsibility of caring for
elders and children not related to you by
blood, which is seen to be as important as
caring for your own kin.
Speaking in Mandarin, he noted how
children here, as “masters of the nation’s
future”, are unstintingly provided for
from birth and all the way throughout the
education system through countless subsi-
dies and schemes.
He called on the Government to have
the same spirit of care towards the elder-
ly and destitute, noting that the PA recipi-
ents he surveyed had to spend as much as
$450 a month, significantly more than
the $360 they will now get in cash.
If one just goes by what was said in Par-
liament over the last two days, there is
some truth in Mr Tan’s observation that
society lavishes a disproportionate
amount of attention on the young com-
pared to those who have already had their
time in the sun.
Anyone listening to the Education Min-
istry’s office-holders roll out their plans
to build a world-class education system
would have come away dazzled by the
amount of thought and resources put into
everything from early childhood to terti-
ary education.
There is now an advanced diploma for
kindergarten teachers, and Primary 1 and
2 pupils no longer need to take exams so
as not to rob them of the joys of learning
for its own sake, as part of an overhaul of
primary education.
Whatever a child’s interests and tal-
ents, there are now a multitude of paths
he can take through the education system
– among them, a fourth university which
hopes to raise science and technology re-
search here to a new level.
Nor will children from needy families
be denied a shot at a good education, as
the ministry will give out an additional
$7.3 million a year in financial assistance
to them, in the form of bursaries, free
textbooks and free school uniforms.
But what happens when an individual
reaches the end of his or her economic
lifespan, is too old or sick to work and be-
comes financially dependent on others?
Will their families and society in general
treat them with the same regard, asked
Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio GRC).
He observed that a growing number of
elderly parents have been turned out of
homes that they share with their children
because of family disputes. This despite
the parents having helped to pay for the
house by selling their own HDB flats.
The Ministry for Community Develop-
ment, Youth and Sports (MCYS) has
sought to balance help and protection for
senior citizens in need, with an insistence
that their immediate family members
should be at the front line in looking out
for them.
It has increased the PA rate for poor
elderly singles who are unable to work,
from $330 to $360 a month, and also giv-
en them highly subsidised rental rates
and free medical treatment.
Since the middle of last year, MCYS
has also promised flexibility in extending
the scheme to old folk with children but
who live alone and cannot turn to them
for support.
However, as its Minister of State
Yu-Foo Yee Shoon said yesterday in her
reply to Mr Tan, the quality of life for
these senior citizens should be measured
not just by handouts but also by the
amount of love and care they receive –
and the “first line of love comes from the
family, then relatives (and) neighbours”.
To underscore that point, Minister for
Community Development, Youth and
Sports Vivian Balakrishnan said he is con-
sidering giving the 14-year-old Mainte-
nance of Parents Act more teeth.
The Act gives parents who are above
60 years old and cannot support them-
selves the legal means to claim mainte-
nance from their children.
The problem: A growing number of
children can no longer be counted on to
give their elderly parents money and a
roof over their heads, in the face of an age-
ing society, increasing financial strain on
families and changing norms and values.
Due to all these factors, the pressure
on MCYS to give more support to the eld-
erly poor will not go away, and indeed, it
has responded to these social forces over
the years.
For example, the PA rate for destitute
elderly singles has actually been raised
three times since July 2007, before which
they were given just $260 a month.
To be fair to the Government, looking
out for needy senior citizens is the obliga-
tion of society as a whole, and philan-
thropic initiatives for this group such as
SMRT’s Silver Tribute Fund are vital in
this regard.
As Mr Tan put it, quoting the Chinese
sage Mencius: “When poor, lead an hon-
est, clean life and stay out of trouble;
when you have arrived in society, empow-
er others to do the same.”