Singaporean and Permanent Resident Households with Electricity and Water Bills in Arrears
Ministry of Sustainability and the EnvironmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns statistics and assistance measures for Singaporean and Permanent Resident households in electricity and water arrears as raised by Mr Gan Thiam Poh. Minister of State Desmond Tan reported that 13,000 and 150,000 households have electricity and water arrears respectively, with flow restrictors used for 1,200 water accounts owing over $250. He explained that the Pay-as-You-Use (PAYU) scheme for electricity helps those with $400 in debt by allocating 20% of pre-paid credits to arrears. Since August 2021, the Public Utilities Board has trialed a similar water PAYU scheme with 50 households. Data from this trial will inform future decisions on expanding the scheme further to more households.
Transcript
21 Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) how many Singaporean and Permanent Resident (PR) households currently have electricity and water bills in arrears respectively; (b) how many of these cases have measures taken to regulate their use of water; and (c) whether the existing practice to offer Pay-as-You-Use (PAYU) scheme can be expanded to cover the use of both electricity and water.
The Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment (Mr Desmond Tan) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): Mr Speaker, there are approximately 13,000 households which have electricity accounts in arrears and 150,000 households which have water bills in arrears. Of these 150,000 households, about 1,200 have arrears of at least $250. [Please refer to "Clarification by Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment", Official Report, 5 April 2022, Vol 95, Issue No 61, Correction by Written Statement section.] For these households, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) has installed flow restrictors to reduce the flow rate of water to their premises. This measure does not completely shut off water supply to these households, as access to water is a necessity for drinking and basic hygiene. Normal flow of water will be restored once the arrears are paid off.
The Pay-as-You-Use (PAYU) scheme is currently offered to electricity customers who have accumulated at least $400 of overdue payment. Under the PAYU scheme, households would have to pre-pay for credits to use electricity and 20% of the credit payment would go towards settling outstanding arrears.
Since August 2021, PUB has commenced a trial to implement the PAYU scheme for water, and 50 households are currently participating in this trial. Similar to the electricity PAYU scheme, households under the water PAYU scheme will be able to access water at the normal flow rate through pre-paying for credits, 20% of which goes towards settling their arrears. PUB will continue to gather data from the trial, before making a decision on whether to extend the scheme to more households.
11.29 am
Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will proceed to read the Order of the Day and Notice of Motion.
[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix, unless Members had asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn.]