Home Care Services that Received ElderCare Fund Disbursements
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms Carrie Tan’s inquiry about ElderCare Fund disbursements for home care services and the feasibility of using the fund to provide stipends for informal caregivers. Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung clarified that FY2020 disbursements covered home medical, nursing, personal care, and therapy, though interest income only funded 20% of ILTC subsidies. He noted that the remaining 80% of subsidies are funded via the Government Budget, making it premature to expand the fund’s scope while interest income is insufficient for current needs. To support informal caregivers, the Minister highlighted the Home Caregiving Grant, which will increase in 2023 to $400 for lower-income beneficiaries and $250 for others to defray costs. Further financial assistance is available through the Seniors’ Mobility and Enabling Fund, CareShield Life, ElderShield, and MediSave Care to support elderly Singaporeans with care and medical expenses.
Transcript
78 Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Health (a) of the 0.33% disbursed from the ElderCare Fund in 2020 that was spent on home care services for FY 2018 as reported in the Elderly Care Endowment Scheme 2020/2021 Annual Report, what are the services which this spending is used on; (b) what are the reasons for this low quantum; and (c) whether the Government will consider tapping on the ElderCare Fund to support informal caregivers with a stipend, in view that they do provide home care to infirm elderly.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: In 2000, the ElderCare Fund was set up to support the financing of operating subsidies for intermediate and long-term care (ILTC) services through the annual interest income generated from the fund. Hence, since its formation, disbursements from the ElderCare Fund have been, primarily, allocated to finance nursing home subsidies. Where the same nursing home provider also provides other subsidised ILTC services, these are also supported.
We wish to highlight that Table 1 on page 2 of the Elderly Care Endowment Scheme 2020/2021 Annual Report contained an erroneous "FY 2018" label, when it was meant to refer to disbursements made in Financial Year (FY) 2020, as reflected in the table title and preceding paragraph. We have clarified with Ms Carrie Tan that the question is on disbursements from the ElderCare Fund in FY 2020, instead of FY 2018.
In FY 2020, the interest income from the ElderCare Fund was only sufficient to fund about 20% of the total operating subsidies for ILTC services. The home care services supported by the disbursements included home medical, home nursing, home personal care and home therapy services. The remaining 80% of operating subsidies for ILTC services were funded directly from the Government’s Budget.
As the interest income from the ElderCare Fund is currently still insufficient to fully finance the annual operating subsidies for ILTC services, considering it for other uses beyond ILTC subsidies would be premature at this point.
MOH recognises that informal caregivers play an important role in caring for our elderly. MOH has rolled out the Home Caregiving Grant (HCG), which can be used flexibly to defray the formal or informal caregiving costs for eligible individuals with permanent moderate disability. The HCG quantum will be increased from early-2023, from $200 today to $400 per month for the lower-income, and $250 per month for other HCG beneficiaries.
Other support measures include schemes like the Seniors’ Mobility and Enabling Fund to defray the cost of assistive devices and home healthcare items. For severely disabled Singaporeans, other schemes, such as CareShield Life, ElderShield and MediSave Care, may also provide monthly cash payouts.