Low-income families with children to receive more help: DPM Wong

SINGAPORE — Low-income families with children will receive more support, which could include helping them to save up to buy their own homes or to stay employed, to "ensure that no family in Singapore gets trapped in a permanent underclass", Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Thursday (Oct 19).

Mr Wong said that the Government will provide families in highly-subsidised public rental housing on the Community Link (ComLink) programme with additional support, which will be tied to specific action plans jointly developed between these families and their family coaches.

The Government will train ComLink officers to take up this role of family coaches to motivate and work more closely with each family to work to achieve their goal. They will no longer just co-ordinate the provision of social support services, but play a stronger role to work with each family to determine and customise the support they need.

Said Mr Wong: "We can consider a higher quantum of support or even longer-term support to families who make progress in areas like staying employed, saving to buy their own home or ensuring their children attend pre-school regularly.

"The additional support will also help ease the families' short-term financial pressures, even as they made progress towards their longer-term goals."

Mr Wong was speaking at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Social Service Office (SSO), which administers the Government's financial aid schemes and acts as a dedicated frontline office on the ground for families in need.

From just two SSOs in 2013, there are now 24 across all HDB towns to provide "comprehensive, co-ordinated and convenient" social support, he said.

In 2019, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) started the ComLink programme to help low-income families with children living in highly-subsidised HDB rental flats. The idea is to provide intensive and holistic support a family requires across various needs, from employment assistance to child development, he said.

The ComLink programme has since been rolled out across all HDB towns with public rental flats, and about 14,000 families are on the programme.

In his speech at Kreta Ayer Community Centre, Mr Wong said: "We see early signs that social stratification is becoming more entrenched. In the past, we mostly had older folks staying in our rental flats.

"Nowadays, we see more families with young children staying in these flats and they are there for longer durations too."

Mr Wong said the Government has been studying the issue and engaging many groups to tackle the issues of income inequality and social mobility as part of the Forward Singapore exercise to refresh the nation's social compact.

He said: "In other words, the Government wants to do more. But we want to do it in a way that empowers these families too."

Further reducing the income inequality is one aim, Mr Wong said, noting that Singapore has made progress on this front in the past decade.

"That's why we have been tilting our policies in favour of the lower-income groups, and we will continue to do so," he said.

And more than closing the income gap, the Government wants to ensure that no family here gets trapped in a permanent under-class, he said.

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"That means we have to do more to help - not just the parents, but also ensure their children have access to full and fair opportunities early in life."

Under the Forward Singapore exercise, which will release its report soon, Mr Wong said the Government is also looking at other ways to help the lower-income group in Singapore, especially families with young children.

This includes providing more help to improve their wages and retirement income, and more aid for them to send their children to pre-school at an early age.

Mr Wong also urged the public and companies to get involved in the effort, such as contributing their time to befriend Comlink families or donating money to support programmes that help these families.

"We are taking bold steps to uplift our lower-income Singaporeans, and to keep social mobility alive and well in Singapore," he said. "The direction for our road ahead is clear: We want to see a fairer, more equal and more inclusive Singapore. Together, let's make this vision a reality."

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.