Debated in Parliament on 9 May 2023.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry will consider reviewing the income criteria for the Student Care Fee Assistance to reduce out-of-pocket Student Care Centre fee expenses.
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Mdm Deputy Speaker, the Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) scheme provides help to lower-income families who require assistance with student care centre, or SCC, fees. Families receiving ComCare Financial Assistance automatically qualify for maximum SCFA subsidies. Around three in five families on SCFA receive maximum subsidies.
Out-of-pocket fees vary, depending on families' household income and the SCC that they enrol their children in. The median family receiving the SCFA pays out-of-pocket fees of $29 per child. Those receiving the highest subsidy pay as low as $5. The median fee for SCCs without assistance is $295 and has remained stable over the past few years.
Mr Edward Chia.
Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I would just like to ask the hon Senior Parliamentary Secretary: because student care operators are likely to face cost pressures, does MSF anticipate that student care fees would actually inch up and would MSF be prepared to increase the quantum for support in the coming years?
The second supplementary question is: for families which have more than one child, the family expenses do not increase proportionately. So, will MSF consider stepped-up assistance for child two onwards?
Thirdly, I understand that student care assistance schemes do not extend to enrichment programmes in student care. Would MSF look into supporting, especially children from resource-low families, in terms of the fees for enrichment programmes to promote a more inclusive learning environment in after school care?
Mdm Deputy Speaker, I thank the Member for his additional supplementary questions. To the first point, the SCFA was last enhanced in 2020 and we do review it from time to time. So, rest assured that we do review this scheme. For larger families, we do look at the per capita income condition, so that each family, if they do qualify, they can qualify for higher subsidies where plausible.
The Member rightly said that the SCFA is not meant for enrichment. There is perhaps one component that I did not mention and that is the startup grant, and that helps the families to pay for initial enrolment costs – things like buying a mattress, putting in centre deposits, buying uniforms, for instance. So, we do take quite a varied approach in helping families where the needs are most prescient.
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