Debated in Parliament on 11 Sep 2012.
Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) whether the Ministry will consider implementing more financial and other practical measures to support disabled employees and their employers; (b) whether special employment credits under the Employment Credit Scheme can be extended beyond graduates from Special Education schools and tax rebates given to employers who hire disabled employees; and (c) if the Ministry will review the success of the Open Door Fund in financing workplace modification and job redesign as well as providing job-specific training for disabled employees.
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Sir, Mr Christopher de Souza has made a number of suggestions to facilitate the employment of persons with disabilities. This was one key area covered under the Enabling Masterplan (EM) 2012-2016 announced earlier this year. In terms of financial incentives, the Government decided to extend the Workfare Income Supplement and Special Employment Credit to persons with disabilities and their employers. Our current priority is on implementing these initiatives, and evaluating their efficacy before considering new ones.
Mr de Souza is concerned that the Special Employment Credit is for those from Special Education (SPED) schools. The SPED school criterion was included to help us better target the relevant group who is likely to face greater difficulties seeking employment. I would like to assure Members that we will allow equally deserving applicants to come onto the scheme, even if they have not attended SPED schools. We will exercise flexibility in the administration of the scheme.
Besides providing financial incentives, we need to work on other areas to help persons with disabilities find employment. For example, it is important to help them raise their skills so that they are more employable. As part of our EM efforts over the next five years, more persons with disabilities will receive pre-vocational and vocational education in SPED schools. We are also reviewing the Open Door Fund. One aspect we hope to improve is the apprenticeship element to help the disabled gain better access to job-specific training, something which is also suggested by the Member.
I would like to assure Members that we will continue to work with the disability sector and employers to help more persons with disabilities in their training and employment.
Sir, I thank the Minister for the supportive response. I am very glad that MCYS and Government are open to include non-SPED graduates in the Employment Credit Scheme. I would just like to know – instead of leaving it as an open request – is it possible for Government to formally include non-SPED graduates, as long as they have diagnosis and all the support of disability organisations to prove that they do need that support, can we formally include them in the Employment Credit Scheme? And, if so, when can that be done?
Sir, let me first thank Ms Denise Phua for the comment and suggestion. Yes, this is an area that we will certainly look at but let us look at the numbers for a start. I must stress that the most important thing beyond the numbers is really to get employers who are understanding and who are willing to partner the sector to re-design some of the jobs in order for the people to be placed in meaningful jobs. As to how we can better help them, having this scheme that the Member has suggested is one way. Beyond this scheme, we are also looking at other ways that we can encourage more employers to be more forthcoming in the re-design of jobs, to enable people with disabilities to join their sector.
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At the same time, I must also stress that we need a conducive work environment where supportive colleagues can also play a part to help induct these people into the workplace. So, we will certainly look at that.
Mr Speaker, Sir, may I ask the Minister whether he would consider improving the transport facilities for the disabled in terms of transport availability to help them to get to their jobs or to their doctors; and also, in terms of financial assistance, for the needy who require such transport?
Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank Member Dr Lily Neo for her comment. Indeed, we share her concerns about the transportation for the disabled people, from home to work, and also for them to access other services. We are working on two prongs to help the access for the people with disabilities.
One prong is what we call the specialised vehicles. These are vehicles run by VWOs that provide specialised services to the disabled community to get them from point A to point B. They can book such services, for example, with the Handicapped Welfare Association (HWA), which runs some of these services.
The other prong that we are working on which we have just recently completed a Request for Proposal (RFP), is to allow some of the people in the disabled community to actually access public transport. We know that the London cab issue has come up. Licences will expire next year. We have just completed our Request for Proposal and I am happy to note that some operators have come forward to help us run a new fleet of vehicles that can take some high-back wheelchairs and motorised wheelchairs to enable our disabled community to have wider access to public transport. We will continue to look at it and closely monitor the demand to see whether there is a demand for us to expand such services to allow our disabled community to have access to the day-to-day living functions.
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