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A TV, mobile data, a maid - needs or wants for a poor family?
Experts look at the seemingly questionable spending choices of some families who get financial help
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A girl sits on a bench along East Coast Park while using her mobile phone.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Yuen Sin, Hariz Baharudin
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A few years ago, housewife Noor Hayati and her family excitedly bought a shiny new 32-inch TV set.
It cost $1,200 - just shy of her husband's $1,400 salary as a cleaner. The family of five, who lives in a two-room rental flat in Tampines and gets $120 a month in financial aid, paid for it in instalments of $100 over the course of a year.
