But subsidies from a fund - first set up by National Council of Social Services' and then taken over by the Land Ttransport Authority - helped save Mr Jan Lee thousands over more than 10 years.

Fares were in the news last week when SMRT Taxis launched a customised cab for the handicapped. The booking fee of $8 was described as too steep by groups dealing with the disabled.

Not many know that the LTA has a fund to help the disabled and needy who rely on taxis to get to work or school.

One beneficiary is Mr Lee who was 10 when an inflammation of the spinal cord caused him to be permanently wheelchair-bound.

He had to take a taxi to Jurongville Secondary even though the school was just a few streets away from his home.

His father quit his job and took on odd jobs so that he could send Mr Lee, now 27, to school.

The daily cab rides and his father's odd-job arrangement took a toll on the family's finances.

A social worker recommended that Mr Lee be put on the National Council of Social Services' (NCSS) Taxi Subsidy Fund.

The Land Transport Authority adopted the fund in June 2007 and renamed it LTA Cares Fund.

About 343 beneficiaries are on the scheme now and LTA has disbursed $82,840 since April this year.

From his later years in secondary school until he completed his accountancy studies at Nanyang Technological University last month, Mr Lee relied on taxi subsidies.

'I'd to take the bigger-capacity Maxi Cab which charged a flat rate of $25 per trip. It would have cost me $50 per day just to get to and from school but I paid only $12.50,' he said.

These days, he boards the Handicapped Welfare Association van to get to his office in Raffles Place - he is an auditor at accountancy firm KPMG - and takes the MRT or bus to go home.

He is grateful for the taxi subsidies.

'I was able to focus 100 per cent on my studies because I didn't have to worry about how to get to school,' he said.