Debated in Parliament on 12 Nov 2013.
Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) in lieu of an official poverty line, how is the Government measuring efforts to help needy families leave the poverty cycle; (b) in terms of existing key performance indicators, how many needy families have left the poverty cycle in the last five years; and (c) what proportion of households receiving ComCare assistance succeeded in being uplifted to become ineligible for assistance in the last five years.
Besides the assistance available for basic needs like healthcare and housing, more vulnerable citizens also receive additional financial support through targeted schemes like Workfare, MediFund, the Additional or Special CPF Housing Grant and ComCare assistance. For families with more complex challenges, financial assistance is complemented by other services, such as case management, social intervention and caregiving support. This is so that we can better address the underlying challenges in each family.
From 2008 to 2012, about three in four of unemployed Singaporeans under ComCare's Short Term Assistance were placed onto jobs either during their term of assistance or upon graduation from the scheme. During the same period, about 20% of families on ComCare assistance who received case management support saw their incomes rising beyond the eligibility criteria for assistance.
It is especially important to ensure that children from lower income families have access to opportunities. For this reason, increased efforts were made to reach out to and enrol children from lower income families into preschool. This has resulted in 99.2% of Primary One children having received preschool education in 2012, compared to 95% in 2006.
Many of the families we help have more than one area of need, and some have to deal with multiple challenges. For them, we cannot look only at addressing specific dimensions of needs. We need a holistic approach. Social workers will work with other help agencies and with the families to address the underlying issues. Some families need longer periods of assistance, and help
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will be provided until they stabilise their situations.
We will do more to uplift the needy families. The Ministry is setting up a network of Social Service Offices to make assistance more accessible and to improve integration of services on the ground. A national case management and information system will also be set up to facilitate better sharing of information among service providers. The data will enable service providers and Government agencies to better understand current trends and the families we are helping, as well as to forecast and address emerging needs faced by the needy.
PAPERCUTS