Singapore could have up to 7,500 such families, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) estimated.

It will be improving ways of identifying and helping them, including raising the bursaries for their pre-school children by eight times to $2,000.

The measures were announced by Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament on Wednesday.

These are in line with recommendations of an inter-ministry committee on dysfunctional families that he chaired.

One of the new ways is the extension of the existing Home Ownership Plus Education (Hope) scheme, to include divorced women with up to two children.

They can receive grants worth around $100,000, for their children's education, skills training, utilities and housing.

Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC) had earlier called for their inclusion in Hope, which was introduced in 2004.

It is for intact families with a monthly household income of $1,500 or less and with no more than two children.

The change will bring hope to 300 such single-parent families and boost the number of families on the scheme to about 2,000.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.