SINGAPORE - Significantly fewer families received financial aid from the Government in the past year, as the unemployment rate fell and the economy bounced back after the Covid-19 pandemic eased.
About 36,400 households received financial help from the ComCare schemes in the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) last financial year, which ended in March 2023.
This is about an 18 per cent fall from the 44,700 or so families who had such help in the financial year that ended in March 2022. ComCare is the key social safety net for the low-income in Singapore.
The MSF said the fall in the number of families receiving ComCare aid was mainly due to the fall in the number of families on the Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA) scheme, which provides temporary financial aid and other forms of help to tide recipients over tough times as they are looking for a job or are ill, among other reasons.
As at the last financial year, more than 70 per cent of families on ComCare are on the SMTA scheme.
In a statement released late on Monday afternoon, the MSF said the fall in the number of families on the SMTA scheme comes amid the “economic and labour market recovery” in 2022.
About 25,900 families were on the SMTA in the 2022 financial year, compared with about 33,900 a year before that.
Singapore’s resident unemployment rate also fell from 4.1 per cent in 2020 to 2.9 per cent in 2022.
Meanwhile, the proportion of families on the SMTA scheme whose main applicant was seeking employment fell from 22 per cent in the 2020 financial year to 15 per cent in the 2022 financial year.
In its statement, MSF said: “Households whose members entered jobs that provided sufficient income for their basic needs in the 2022 financial year would not have needed ComCare assistance.”
While fewer households received ComCare aid, families got a larger sum of cash aid, on average, in the last financial year, compared with previous years.
From Aug 1, 2022, a one-person household on the ComCare Long-Term Assistance scheme receives $640 a month, up from $600 previously.
The Long-Term Assistance scheme, also known as Public Assistance, provides a cash sum to the destitute who cannot work as a result of old age or illness and have little or no family support.
In response to inflation, all new recipients on the SMTA scheme between April and September 2022 received at least six months of aid.
Those who had their aid under the scheme renewed during the same period received at least three additional months of aid.
In the past, recipients of the SMTA scheme typically received three to six months of aid for the first time they are on the scheme. The sum given to each family varies depending on their needs and financial circumstances, the ministry previously said.
The MSF said it conducts regular reviews of the sum given out per recipient, the coverage and the scope to ensure the ComCare schemes remain adequate and relevant. These reviews take into account projected inflation, among other things.
In its last financial year, the MSF disbursed $170 million in ComCare aid, which is 4 per cent less than the $177 million disbursed in the year before that.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development, said: “The Government will continue to monitor developments that may affect livelihoods in Singapore, particularly those of lower-income families.
“To continue our efforts to ensure social support remains relevant and adequate, we will enhance ComCare coverage and access, where necessary.”
