Schemes to Assist Low-income Malay/Muslim Families

Madam, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) and Yayasan MENDAKI administer a range of programmes and work closely with national agencies and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs), to help needy Malay/Muslim families achieve self-reliance and uplift their lives.

Through the zakat fund, MUIS provides financial assistance to needy Malay/Muslim families. In 2012, about $10.3 million was disbursed to more than 5,500 Malay/Muslim families, an increase of about $0.9 million compared to 2011.

Beyond financial assistance, MUIS' Empowerment Partnership Scheme (EPS) guides zakat recipients towards self-reliance. Out of the 237 families under the EPS in 2012, 192, or 81%, now no longer depend on MUIS' financial assistance as they have learned to better manage their household finances and minimise monthly income deficits. Starting June 2013, MUIS will expand its financial coaching programme to 40 more families under the EPS. MUIS will also be collaborating with MENDAKI SENSE to assist EPS clients on employability matters.

A total of 743 zakat recipient families who are not on the EPS also successfully underwent a three-month programme in 2012 to acquire useful knowledge such as financial planning and Islamic learning.

MENDAKI also provides social assistance to ensure that disadvantaged Malay/Muslim families with children who are schooling get help from a comprehensive range of social services. Currently, MENDAKI's Wrap Around Care (WAC) and Enhanced WAC (eWAC) provide social assistance to about 200 families, to help them achieve a certain level of healthy functioning. In 2013, two satellite centres were launched in Pasir Ris and Woodlands to bring such services even closer to families.

MENDAKI's primary focus continues to be on education, which is a key social leveller. MENDAKI's Education Trust Fund (ETF) provides subsidies from pre-school to post-secondary education for Malay/Muslim students from low-income households. In 2012, over 6,300 students benefitted from more than $1.2 million ETF subsidies. The subsidies now also extend to needy students who are re-sitting for academic qualifications such as the "N", "O" and "A" levels at SENSE College, a skills centre that MENDAKI recently launched in March this year.

Through its signature MENDAKI Tuition Scheme (MTS), MENDAKI has provided accessible and affordable tuition classes to almost 45,000 Malay/Muslim students in the last five years – that is, 2009 to 2013 – particularly in English, Mathematics and Science. The MTS enrolment for 2013 is about 9,800 students. More than 70% of these students receive fee waivers because of their family income. To bring MTS to more students, MENDAKI is collaborating with Malay/Muslim Organisations (MMOs), such as Darul Ihsan and Muhammadiyah Welfare Home, to host tuition classes. MENDAKI also partners Residents' Committees to run the Homework Cafe in areas with a high concentration of low-income families, to supervise and guide students with their homework.

Zakat funds are also used for educational purposes. MUIS implemented the $2.5 million Progress Fund in April 2010 to subsidise the school fees and enrichment programmes of children from zakat-receiving families. The fund was further topped up with $2 million in 2012. More than 5,800 children have benefitted from the $3.2 million disbursed to date.

Madam, in terms of employment, MENDAKI SENSE continues to assist low-income workers through training, skills upgrading and job matching. In April 2013, SENSE successfully conducted a two-day fair targeted at assisting some 2,000 low-skilled workers, aspiring PMETs and women who are keen to return to the workforce.

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. It is clear that low-income families will benefit from the Government assistance and programmes such as access to affordable childcare or student care, for example. However, may I know how our other community organisations and Malay/Muslim organisations (MMOs) are streamlining their assistance schemes to complement and enhance Government's support for low-income families?

Madam, families who are in need, first of all, should not hesitate or be embarrassed to seek help from a wide range of assistance schemes at the national and community levels. We want to avoid duplication and enable low-income families to achieve self reliance in a holistic manner beyond just mere monetary help. So, the Member is right that we want MMOs to better dovetail their assistance schemes with national schemes. The general approach that we would like to take is to first explore the client's eligibility for national schemes and then with community and local schemes coming in to supplement or complement the client's needs.

I cannot speak for other MMOs but, for both MUIS and MENDAKI, that is the protocol that we adopt. So, for example, we first refer zakat recipients to national schemes conducted by the CDCs and also by WDA. In the case of MENDAKI, all the programmes that we do on the ground, we work closely with Family Service Centres which are national institutions to ensure that we tap on the programmes which are available by various Government agencies with MOE and MSF.

At the national level, we understand that MSF would continue to work as an active and caring partner in helping the needy but working in partnership with families and the community to strengthen our social safety net. So, the idea of dovetailing and streamlining is an important part of the work that has been done in Singapore and we would like all MMOs to consider that as a protocol.

To the best of my knowledge, many MMOs would first tap on national resources before they deploy their own resources to assist low-income Malay/Muslim families.

Supplementary question, Mdm Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if such a partnership between Government and community is viable, and if it is the way forward for uplifting our low-income families.

Madam, we think that the partnership between Government and community-based organisations has enabled a lot of low-income families, not just Malay/Muslim families, to benefit from assistance that is more tailored and customised to meet their complex needs. So, if you look across the landscape, we have the CDCs, grassroots organisations, VWOs as well as community-based organisations and they play a key role in rendering the services.

I think the best way to see whether the partnership has worked is really to look at examples. I have a couple of examples that I have asked my staff to compile but I will give just one example. This is the case of Mr Mohamad Rafi, aged 37, and his wife, Mdm Rokiah, aged 28. They successfully graduated from the MUIS' Empowerment Scheme in December 2012 and they approached MUIS in 2011 when they were grappling with their inadequate income, arrears and even depression suffered by the wife and childcare arrangement for the children. But because of the EPS and because we worked with WDA, today Mdm Rokiah has just completed a full-time diploma in design. So, the family no longer has arrears and is working towards the dream of home ownership. And what is more important now, Madam, is that Mdm Rokiah is now a volunteer at one of our mosques in Ang Mo Kio. When she was asked as to why she is doing that, and I would like to quote her, she said, "There are many more out there, worse off than us. We have been very lucky. I know how they feel and I hope we can help in whatever small way."

So, the partnership is effective. The example clearly shows how both the Government and VWOs are complementing each other in helping low-income families to uplift and there are many, many other examples to show that this is really a viable alternative to go forward.

I thank the Minister for sharing the case studies and also the progress made by MENDAKI and MUIS. I would like to ask the Minister if MENDAKI and MUIS had done a scan in terms of the demand for such help in Singapore, and whether MUIS and MENDAKI are adequately staffed and resourced to meet the demand?

We did a scan first in 2002 when I took over and we have just finished another scan. Clearly, there are gaps and the gaps can be filled by having more partners come onboard. So, a good example is the CLF that we created in 2003. And it has created an opportunity for more organisations to come onboard so that we can have more hands on board to deal with the problem. As I mentioned in my figures, we are only helping 200 families. Clearly, there are more families out there and we need more partners to come onboard.

Having said that, the response from the MMOs has been very heartening – they also faced constraints such as manpower and resources and, certainly, we can always raise the money but we also need warm bodies on the ground to be able to do the hard work. So, this will be an ongoing challenge and we will continue to engage the organisation as best as we can to ensure that they are scaled up as quickly as possible to deal with the problems.