Social Safety Net for Disabled who Need Institutional Long-term Care Beyond ElderShield

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Health what social safety net is there for a person who remains severely disabled and requires institutional long-term care even after the six years under ElderShield.

Mr Deputy Speaker, today, Singaporeans with severe disabilities who require long-term care can be supported in several ways. These include insurance schemes, such as ElderShield, Government subsidies and assistance schemes, especially for those with less means, personal and family savings, for instance, and also Central Provident Fund retirement payouts.

Singaporeans can tap on Government subsidies of up to 75% of nursing home costs. Singaporeans who require additional financial assistance for institutional care in nursing homes can tap on Government-funded safety nets, such as MediFund. Many nursing homes are also run by voluntary welfare organisations and may tap on charitable donations to provide further financial support to their residents.

From 2020, Singaporeans can benefit from new initiatives to defray the cost of long-term care. These are (a) CareShield Life, a new long-term care insurance scheme which provides monthly cash benefits for the severely disabled. The scheme will cover all Singaporeans born in 1980 or later, regardless of whether they have pre-existing disabilities. Those born in 1979 or earlier and not severely disabled can join CareShield Life in 2021; (b) next, all severely disabled Singaporeans above the age of 30, including those who have finished their ElderShield payouts, will be able to withdraw up to $200 per month in cash from their or their spouse's MediSave; and finally, we will introduce ElderFund. This will be a new discretionary assistance scheme which provides up to $250 per month for low-income severely disabled citizens who are unable to join CareShield Life, have low MediSave balances and face financial difficulties in meeting their long-term care needs.

I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. I think the last group of people are the people who need this the most. And if special consideration, in the discretion of the Ministry, could be applied to those who are actually suffering from severe disabilities now, and have used up the six years of ElderShield and, therefore, need a leg up. Would that be considered, please?

I thank the Member for raising the point. Yes, certainly, it will be considered. And I will add that apart from what I mentioned, there are also other assistance schemes, such as the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly, which provides means-tested payouts of up to $200 per month for six years. There is also the Pioneer Generation Disability Assistance Scheme, which provides support for severely disabled Pioneers through a cash payout of $100 per month for life. So, these and other schemes remain available and, certainly, on a case-by-case basis, where the most vulnerable class of persons who are severely disabled, needs assistance, the Ministry will look into those.