Take-up Rate for Lasting Power of Attorney

4 Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Social and Family Development what has been the take-up rate of the Lasting Power of Attorney since its introduction and how can the application process be made more accessible for citizens to sign up for it.

The Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Tan Chuan-Jin): The Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal instrument which allows an individual to plan ahead and appoint a trusted person to make decisions for him should he lose mental capacity.

Since the Mental Capacity Act came into effect in March 2010, we have received more than 20,000 LPAs. The take-up rate has risen after we made it easier and more convenient to make an LPA in late 2014. In 2015 alone, we accepted about 8,360 LPAs, which is an increase of almost 160% from 2014.

Some of the changes made in late 2014 include simplification of the LPA Forms and reduction of legal terminology that are hard to understand. For Singapore Citizens, we waived the $50 application fee for the most common LPA form used. In addition, we secured the support of SingPost for a free postal service for the public to submit LPA applications via Business Reply Service envelopes. With this, the public no longer need to visit the Office of the Public Guardian to submit the forms.

We very much would like to take the opportunity to encourage more Singaporeans to make an LPA. We also encourage the public to continue to give us feedback, so that we can continue to improve that process to make it a lot more user-friendly. We will continue to improve the process to make sure that the necessary safeguards are still in place.

Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade): Just a supplementary question for the Minister. I note the number, which is 20,000, who have applied. Certainly, I think the LPA is a useful instrument.

I would like to ask the Minister whether the Ministry is satisfied with the current take-up. Because if you look at the pool that we are trying to target, I would say that every one of us should actually do an LPA. Put in that light, I think 20,000 is a very small number. I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I have done a dialogue on LPA with my residents and, from the questions that were asked, I think it is quite clear that many are not aware of it.

On the process, I hear the Minister saying that the Ministry is trying to make it simpler, faster and more accessible. I urge for a lot more efforts to be put into this and, if possible, to also set specific targets, so that there is a clear game plan and, hopefully, a year from now, this 20,000 will be a much bigger number. I do think 20,000 is too small.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: Mdm Speaker, I agree with Mr Seah that the numbers are not where we would like them to be, but it is growing. So, that is the encouraging thing. With ease of application, it is always a balance of making it easy and also safeguarding the interest of the individuals. Because we are very mindful as individuals apply for the LPA, we also need to make sure that due diligence is applied, so that there is no undue pressure, there is no external influence. This is something that we are also concerned about, with adults growing older, when mental capacities degenerate at some point and they become vulnerable.

We do urge every Member of this House to actively encourage and raise awareness. We will, on our part, also try to see what we can do to increase the publicity and to make sure it is as accessible as possible. Indeed, this is something that most, if not all of us, should seriously consider taking up.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): I do agree with the Minister and I would like to ask the Minister what would be the top three barriers to having a higher take-up rate for this very important instrument. What is being done to address these barriers, especially on how much more aggressive can we be? Could we be a bit more aggressive to help, especially those who are less educated and those who are less aware?

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: Mdm Speaker, we have not really analysed what are the various top factors but, from what I can gather, I would say that one of it would be inertia. This is something relatively new even though it has been introduced for a few years now. It is not something that is second nature to many of us. I am not sure many people are also necessarily fully aware. So, I think, publicity is one.

Secondly, even if you are aware of it, it is not something that is in our lexicon, something we know that our parents used to do and, therefore, we continue on the practice. It is something that we need to get past that stage.

One of the other factors is I think a lot of people talk about Singaporeans being under-insured. We sometimes do not take up enough life insurance. I do not know whether it is because we are pan tang or whether we try not to think about the inevitable. But at some point, we will all degenerate as we grow older physically, mentally. So, this is something that we know is necessary. Intellectually, many of us grasp it, but I am not sure whether we, emotively, fully hoist it on board. It could also be that some think that by taking that step, are we also sort of acknowledging that we may at some stage reach that particular condition?

It is a host of various reasons. What we need to do more of is publicity to make sure that the information gets out as far as possible and that is where we would ask everyone to chip in to make sure that the residents are aware.

Secondly, to make sure that it is easy. As I have said, we have to strike that balance. We are very mindful of that, to make sure that their individual well-being is catered for but, at the same time, to make the process easy. We are quite happy to improve the process. For example, see what steps can be taken, so that they do not even need to go down specifically to submit the form. So, for them to be able to mail it in, so on and so forth. These are steps that we will endeavour to try to make it more accessible.

For the less educated, it is the same thing, it is about education and awareness, how to make it more easily understandable in terms of collaterals, but this is where it is better through the grassroots organisations. We should actively put out the message. We know that there are particular areas where there are older Singaporeans, lower income, perhaps, less educated. So, we may perhaps encourage more targeted efforts in those specific geographical areas.

Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef (Marine Parade): Madam, I am beginning to see more and more people, especially the elderly and also their family members, who are coming forward with problems related to not signing an LPA.

Therefore, I am wondering whether the Ministry can consider doing something like what MOH is doing with MediShield Life, having a one-on-one counselling session kind of thing for those who are in that category and they have elderly with dementia and all that, where they can do that with maybe an outsourced partner, community partners or VWO. Because I think that is really quite helpful. We have got feedback that the MediShield one is really very good.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: We would be happy to consider those options, as the Member pointed out, with MediShield Life and also even our Pioneer Generation ambassadors. For the whole ageing package, not just with the LPA, this is something that we have been talking a lot about. From MOH's and our perspective, as a whole nation, there is really quite a significant range of issues related to ageing. The volumes are going to be quite significant 10, 15 years from now. We do need to think about how to put in more resources to do this and we will take that suggestion on board.

Mdm Speaker: Dr Lim Wee Kiak, last question.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang): Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister what is the average age of the individuals when they apply for LPA currently in our database. And as Assoc Prof Fatimah has suggested, when they reach a certain age, such information could be mailed to the individuals or all Singaporeans when they are at a particular age, so that they know how to apply.

Last of all, maybe the Minister can consider leveraging on the Pioneer Generation Office (PGO) when they reach out to the Pioneer Generation to advise them on the LPA as well.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: Mdm Speaker, in terms of the age profile of the LPA applicants, just a quick breakdown. Those 21 to 34 years of age, we have about 3%; 35 to 55, about 28%; 56 to 70, 41%; 71 to 85, 24%; and above 85, about 4%. It is largely clustered around those who are, perhaps, post-50 and above, which is very natural when we begin to think of those issues. But we encourage more Singaporeans to consider doing this early because you never know when conditions may deteriorate.

On the point about the PGO playing that role – that is something that is useful. In fact, the feedback from the public as well as from the Office, the Pioneer Generation ambassadors have been doing a great job in terms of engaging the elderly, as well as informing them of some of these key policies. This is something that we can consider. There are many things that are important. We also do not want to overly burden them with too many things but they are a ready resource base that we should draw on and this is something that we should work on.