Number of Singaporeans and PRs Overseen by Each Social Service Office

3 Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Social and Family Development in respect of each of the Social Service Offices (SSOs) (a) how many Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs) who come under their geographical purviews respectively are recipients of ComCare Short-to-Medium Term Assistance and Long-Term Assistance, respectively, as of 31 December 2024; and (b) what is the total population of Singaporeans and PRs that each of the SSOs oversee for their respective geographical areas.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Sir, in 2024, each Social Service Office (SSO) town assisted an average of around 1,000 Singaporean and Permanent Resident (PR) households with either ComCare Short-to-Medium Term Assistance (SMTA) or Long Term Assistance (LTA). Each SSO town has an average of around 61,000 households.

Mr Speaker: Mr Pritam Singh.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you to the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the reply. Can I just enquire, for the geographical areas covered by these SSOs that showed the highest number of households requiring SMTA and LTA, does the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) publish this SSO-specific information on its website, and is there any reason why it does not do so?

The second question is with regard to the assistance, I understand there is income guideline which is $800 per capita. And I understand even if the individual who comes to the SSO exceeds this guideline, SSO will still make an assessment. Can the Senior Parliamentary Secretary confirm what percentage of households, who have successfully applied for SMTA, what is that number even though they may have surpassed the $800 per capita income requirement?

Mr Eric Chua: Sir, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his additional questions on SSO-town specific data. We do not publish that. We track the statistics at the national level. As to why we do not publish that, I think that there are some variabilities across towns, for instance, based on the demographic growth profiles of each town's population, there might be some differences in terms of those who qualify for LTA vis-a-vis those who qualify for SMTA for instance. But generally, we do not see a large standard deviation across towns with regard to those who qualify for SMTA and LTA.

As to the second supplementary question, I would encourage the Member to file another Parliamentary Question, because I do not have the statistics with me at this moment.

Mr Speaker: Mr Singh.

Mr Pritam Singh: Just a quick follow-up to the Senior Parliamentary Secretary. MSF released a report just two-odd months ago, "Supporting Low-income Household Trends report", I think there is some data. But again, the data is, as the Senior Parliamentary Secretary said, at the national level.

There is some discrepancy between the data of SMTA and the amount of money that has been extended to Singaporeans who apply for that, the SMTA, through the years. So, for example, the annual report in 2022, reported that number that was disbursed comes up to $119 million. That is for SMTA. It is at page six of the report. But in the trends report, that number comes down to $112 million, and the number of households increases for 2022.

So, I hope the Senior Parliamentary Secretary can clarify that, perhaps if not at this session, but perhaps during the Committee of Supply.

Mr Eric Chua: Sir, I thank the Member for his additional questions. We will clarify during the Committee of Supply debates.