Madam Chan Siew Ying already spends most of her PA grant on living expenses. The extra $30 from April will help her buy some vitamins and new clothes. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
THOSE on the dole and living alone will get more money from the Public Assistance (PA) scheme, starting from April.
Single PA recipients will each get an extra $30 per month, raising their grant to $360.
This targeted assistance is part of the $20.5 billion Resilience Package announced by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday to cushion 'the most vulnerable groups' against last year's cost-of-living price hikes.
He said the bigger payout will also help affected PA recipients to reduce their reliance on their extended family, who may themselves be reeling from the current recession.
More than 80 per cent of 3,000 recipients on the welfare scheme will benefit from this move, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
Government pensioners will also get more financial aid from April 1.
They will get an extra $20 in the monthly supplement to their pensions, raising the Singapore Allowance from the current $220 to $240.
Mr Samuel Ng from the Marine Parade Family Service Centre praised the Government's move to provide extra financial aid.
'The additional assistance will go a long way to help the poorer groups who are still struggling to cope with the rising prices of food,' he said.
But Mr Ng cautioned that those who do not qualify for the extra payout may have to seek help elsewhere to cope with the recession that is expected to bite deep and hard.
Apart from government payments, PA recipients also receive free medical care, rent assistance and other rebates like services and conservancy charges, plus help from charitable groups.
One of the PA recipients who will get the extra money is Madam Chan Siew Ying, a retiree who lives alone in a one-room rental flat in Marsiling.
Her 20-year fight with diabetes and heart disease has left her physically weak and depleted her Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings.
After shelling out more than $200 on rent, transport, telephone and utility bills, the 78-year-old has hardly anything left of her $330-a-month PA grant.
'Luckily the self-help groups deliver lunch and dinner to me every day, so I can save the money to buy some fish from the hawker centre or milk,' said Madam Chan in Mandarin.
When told about the extra $30 she will get from April, she quipped: 'I could probably afford to buy some vitamins to strengthen myself and get some new clothes... it's a good and timely hongbao.'
