Review of Household Income and Per Capita Income Criteria for ComCare Assistance Given Rising Inflation
Ministry of Social and Family DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns whether the Ministry of Social and Family Development will review ComCare income criteria due to rising inflation and slower economic growth, as raised by Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui. Minister Masagos Zulkifli B M M clarified that these criteria serve as guidelines rather than hard thresholds, allowing Social Service Offices to exercise flexibility based on holistic assessments. He announced that a review of eligibility criteria is planned for this year, following the last review in 2019, as the Ministry typically conducts reviews every two to three years. Regarding the duration of Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA), the Minister explained that review periods are necessary to monitor beneficiaries' progress in employment or health. He added that the Ministry has automatically extended SMTA periods during the COVID-19 pandemic and will repeat such measures if necessary to support lower-income households.
Transcript
8 Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry is considering reviewing the household income and per capita income criteria for ComCare assistance in view of rising inflation against a backdrop of slower economic growth.
The Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M): Mr Speaker, ComCare provides assistance to low-income households for their basic living expenses. Households that need help to tide over temporary financial difficulty are provided with ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA).
While there is an income eligibility criterion for ComCare SMTA, the criterion is not a hard threshold to qualify for assistance. Rather, our SSOs assess the needs of individuals and families holistically and exercise flexibility as needed to provide the necessary financial assistance and community support.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) reviews the ComCare eligibility criteria every two to three years. The last review was conducted in 2019, and we will review the ComCare eligibility criteria sometime this year.
Building an inclusive and caring society is a collective effort. The community plays an important role in partnering the Government in helping those in need. If anyone encounters a neighbour, friend or family member who needs support, they can call the ComCare hotline at 1800-222-0000 or refer them to the nearest SSO or Family Service Centre for assistance.
Mr Speaker: Mr Edward Chia.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Minister for the reply. I have two supplementary questions.
I would like to ask the Minister what the considerations on the review period are. I think the Minister mentioned the last time it was reviewed was in 2019. Is the Minister exploring other ways of reducing the time lag between the review and cost of living increases for our lower-income households?
The second supplementary question is: for the short- and medium-term assistance periods, can the Ministry consider extending the periods to reduce the anxiety for many of our lower-income families?
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. The period concerned is not critical because it is just a guideline for us to set for our staff in order to qualify and, when they do not qualify, to look at other reasons how to bring them over if they need help from the community or the Government.
What is your other question, please? Sorry.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui: It is whether the period of assistance can be extended to reduce anxiety because most of our residents do feel that three months sometimes is very short, and they are very concerned about extensions.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: During this period, we have actually auto-extended SMTA a few times. If we need to do so, we will do it again. The period is to ensure that during normal times, we want to check on them that they are actually making effort maybe to look for jobs or have gotten better in their health condition. Therefore, that review period is necessary. However, there are also instances when we do extend it automatically when we need to. And for the last few periods during this COVID-19 crisis, we have been extending it beyond the three months and six months automatically.