Over 20,000 families on key government financial aid scheme in 2024, a five-year low in S’pore
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A total of 20,825 families were on the ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance scheme in 2024, a 9 per cent drop from the 22,960 families in 2023.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO FILE
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- ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA) scheme saw a five-year low of 20,825 families in 2024, a 9% decrease from 2023, due to an improved economy and job market.
- Half of the families who exited the SMTA scheme in 2021 needed further assistance within three years, highlighting complex, long-term financial issues.
- The Long-Term Assistance scheme also saw a decrease to 3,240 families, potentially due to people working longer, seniors having more savings, and expanded government support.
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SINGAPORE – The number of lower-income families who received help from a key government financial aid scheme
There were 20,825 families on the ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA) scheme in 2024, a 9 per cent drop from the 22,960 families in 2023.
The latest figure is also 40 per cent lower than the 34,858 families in 2020, when Covid-19 first upended the world.
The SMTA provides families with temporary financial aid to meet basic living expenses. It is one of the main schemes under ComCare, the key social safety net for lower-income families here.
The 2025 Supporting Lower-Income Households Trends report released by the Ministry of Social and Family Development on Dec 16 stated that the fall in the SMTA numbers reflected “an expansion in the economy and labour market from 2020 to 2024”.
The increase in support from other government schemes such as the Assurance Package, which gives lower- and middle-income Singaporeans cash, CDC vouchers and other benefits to cushion the goods and services tax increase, also contributed to the fall in the same period.
While the amount of cash given under the SMTA varies depending on the family’s income and needs, the median monthly sum given per beneficiary in the family was $380 a month in 2024.
Families on the SMTA received help for a median cumulative period of six months in 2024, said the second edition of the report, which outlined key trends in the ComCare schemes.
The 41-page report also highlighted the percentage of families who returned to seek help after their financial aid stopped. A household is considered off the SMTA scheme if it stops receiving aid for at least one month.
About half, or 49 per cent, of families who left the SMTA scheme in 2021 received another tranche of cash assistance within three years of leaving.
The report said: “While some SMTA households experience only temporary shocks to their financial circumstances, others face complex issues that require a longer time to resolve.”
A larger proportion of families who returned to ask for help had at least one young child, or the applicant for the scheme was medically unfit to work or had lower educational qualifications.
Mr Fareez Fahmy, chief executive of social service agency Allkin Singapore, said lower-income families have very “thin buffers”, such as limited savings and minimal access to informal sources of support, meaning that an illness, job disruption or caregiving crisis can undo months of progress.
In total, the Government disbursed $94 million under the SMTA in 2024, down from $105.1 million in 2023.
Another ComCare scheme, whose beneficiaries are mainly seniors, also had fewer recipients in 2024, despite an ageing population.
There were 3,240 families on the Long-Term Assistance (LTA) scheme in 2024, a 7 per cent fall from the 3,479 families in 2023. The 2024 number was also the scheme’s lowest in five years.
The LTA is for those who are permanently unable to work because of old age or illness and have little or no family support.
The report said the fall in LTA recipients may be due to Singaporeans working longer, younger cohorts of seniors having more savings and the expansion of government social support schemes for seniors in recent years.
A one-person household on the LTA scheme now receives $760 a month.
Associate Professor Chia Ngee Choon, from the National University of Singapore’s department of economics, said the drop in the number of LTA families could be due to government policies aimed at improving the employability of older workers and strengthening retirement adequacy as Singapore’s population ages.
These policies include the Retirement and Re-employment Act, which requires employers to offer re-employment to eligible employees who turn 63, up to age 68.
There is also the Silver Support Scheme, which gives out cash payments every quarter to seniors with low incomes during their working years, among other eligibility criteria.
Prof Chia said the drop in numbers of families on the LTA and SMTA schemes indicates that some of these policy interventions have worked well.
The report also showed that after adjusting for inflation, the average monthly income per person in a family from employment rose more for the bottom 20 per cent of families, compared with the median family in Singapore. These figures cover resident households.
For example, the increase was 3.2 per cent for the bottom 10 per cent, compared with 0.8 per cent for the median household.
Prof Chia said the larger percentage increase in real incomes for the bottom 20 per cent of families could be due to income growth from schemes like the Progressive Wage Model and enhancements to the Workfare Income Supplement.
The Progressive Wage Model helps to raise wages through skills upgrading and improving productivity, while Workfare tops up the incomes and Central Provident Fund accounts of lower-wage workers.
