Mindful that many families need help urgently, some programmes were rolled out immediately yesterday by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). It represents 500,000 unionised workers.

Speaking to reporters at the launch of the U Care funded schemes, NTUC secretary-general Lim Swee Say said the labour movement is making extra effort to disburse funds to needy workers as fast as possible.

'So we are cutting back all bureaucracy and working through the unions and this way we can reach out to workers a lot faster,' he said.

To do this, the NTUC will give individual unions a sum of money so they can quickly disburse the aid, instead of workers applying to the NTUC which may take longer, said its Care and Share director Zainudin Nordin.

The U Care fund was set up in response to the downturn, with tripartite partners collectively raising money to help low-income workers and their families.

The $23.2 million raised by U Care this year is almost double the $13.4million collected the previous year.

The extra funds will enhance the present help schemes and also launch two new one-off schemes, in the form of financial aid for needy families and extra funds for bursaries.

About 50,000 retrenched workers and those on shorter work weeks will benefit from the immediate cash assistance of between $100 and $300 under the $6.5 million U Care Immediate Assistance programme.

Said Mr Lim: 'We recognise the sum is not that big, however, for lower-wage earning between $800 and $1,000, it means a lot to them. It may not be a lot but what is important is that the labour movement continues to do its very best.'

Read the full story in The Sunday Times today.

aaronl@sph.com.sg