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Press Room

Mar 10, 2010
Committee of Supply 2010 Debates: Min (CYS) Opening Speech

MCYS SPEECH NO: 06/2010
DATE OF ISSUE: 10/03/2010

Mr Chairman, this is the sixth year my Permanent Secretary and myself are representing MCYS. In six years I have heard a lot of suggestions from this House, and this year, I can honestly say I agree with most of what I have heard.

By now, my staff are also used to my usual response when I am presented with new ideas and new suggestions, and that is to go back to first principles. First, what problem are we trying to fix? Second, what are the values that underpin the solution being proposed? Third, what evidence is there to back up the proposal and in the long term, what evidence do we have that the solutions that we have rolled out are effective? This is the general approach that I have to the many issues that surface in MCYS. Perhaps it would be therefore worthwhile starting again with the first principles.

Today, we have a successful modern dynamic society and a first world city that have arisen from an island with no natural resources, and that resulted from a congregation of people from many different places in the world. The first question you should therefore ask, is how and why we have succeeded.

If you can answer that question, then bear that answer in mind as you propose solutions for the social safety net. It is the same reason why we will start today with the family. The family remains the basic building block of our society. It goes far beyond the need to merely reproduce ourselves, although we are not doing that very well either. The family shapes our identity, transmits our deepest held values and represents our ultimate investment in the future. A society with no children would be a hedonistic society with no interest in the future.

But even as we affirm the importance and centrality of the family in Singapore, we also acknowledge that the family in Singapore is under pressure. Ms Cynthia Phua was quite rightly concerned about the increasing divorce rate. Of the couples who got married in 2004, after 5 years, 5.8% of them were divorced. I then asked my staff to track the 1987 cohort, because that was when I was married. For the 1987 cohort, after 5 years, only 3.2% of us were divorced. What this means is that in the last two decades, the likelihood of a marriage failing within the first five years has doubled.

But having said that, I also want to caution and remind all of us that ultimately, a marriage is about a relationship between two people. It is not about the government. The Government cannot legislate love or commitment, and these crucial elements cannot be neglected by the two key partners involved.

Quite frankly, we all know that there are some circumstances in which divorce may be the preferred option. I would not judge anyone who has to make such a wrenching decision. MCYS will do its best to help families and people who want to work at their marriage. My Ministry works with the National Family Council (NFC), family service providers, educators and religious groups, to equip couples with skills and help them prepare for and weather challenges encountered in a marriage. We encourage marriage preparation courses, but these should not be run by civil servants or the Government. The NFC's Marriage Central as also set up a one-stop resource point at Jurong Regional Library. This will complement Marriage Central's online presence. There are also many other religious groups which run one-stop referral and help centres.

Despite best efforts, some marriages will still fail. A divorce is always a disaster. There will always be people who will suffer from a divorce, especially when there are children involved. We do have schemes to ensure that divorced families can access financial assistance, employment and childcare. There are also many Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) that provide support to divorced families and help them adjust to their new realities on the ground, because, almost always, there are both social and economic penalties for the remaining family members.

What I want to emphasise today is the duty of care, which is in line with Cynthia Phua asking us to do more to help new women claim their alimony payments. I had flagged this issue last year, and I had asked for feedback from members of the public. My Ministry then worked with the Courts, the NFC, the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO) as well as people on the ground, who sent us many suggestions.

First, let me give you some numbers. In 2009, 3,585 applications were made in Court for maintenance orders to be enforced. This represents a 10% increase over the previous year. For maintenance orders issued in 2005, 21% of them had defaulted within 3 years. Of those 21%, half of them were recurrent defaulters, meaning they had defaulted twice or more. So the point is that we do have a problem with maintenance.

We intend to adopt a two-pronged approach to strengthen the enforcement of maintenance. First, we will make it less onerous for women to seek and enforce maintenance orders. Second, we will introduce new and enhanced measures to deter defaults and secure payments. Let me go through some details.

I am glad that the Courts have announced - in fact, it was the Chief Justice who made the announcement two weeks ago - that they will improve processes to make it easier for complainants. This will reduce the need for complainants to make multiple trips to Court in order to enforce a maintenance order. The current system often entails a woman having to go to Court 3, or 4, or even more times in order to secure an order. And once a person defaults, the process will have to start all over again. All of us here would have experienced women coming to our Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS) and saying they are too tired, too emotionally stressed and unable to take the time off to secure maintenance. Their employers ask them why they keep going to Court and coming back empty-handed. We will work on reducing this onerous process.

One such measure includes enabling women to lodge their complaint through a video-link, which will mean they do not need to go to Court to begin the maintenance process. They can go to a service centre which will have all the proper formalities and necessary technological link-ups.

The Subordinate Courts will also create HELP (Helping to Empower Litigants-in-Person) Centres to help complainants navigate the legal process and explain to them what to do after step one, step two, etc. MCYS will explore how to further help complainants through appropriate referrals to social assistance services. We have also had preliminary discussions with the SCWO, and I expect them to make an announcement shortly on how they will step up to the plate and help women seeking maintenance.

Furthermore, we will amend the law so that the Court will be empowered to order parties to provide information on their financial status when hearing cases. This means the person cannot hide from their responsibilities by saying, I do not have a job, or I am unemployed. We will get access to the needed information.

The Government will also deter defaults by amending the Women's Charter to give the Courts powers to impose further sanctions and penalties. One measure will be to require the defaulter to post a security, such as a bank guarantee, to set aside funds against future defaults. So if you default, the money will still be drawn out of the bank guarantee, while you squabble in Court about whether the payments are due.

Another is to allow the Courts to impose community-based sentences when the legislative framework for this is ready. We have had situations when the man says, if you put me in jail, then I cannot work and I cannot pay maintenance. The Courts need to have an additional menu of options¹ in which to penalise and deter recalcitrants without preventing them from working. The Women's Charter will also be amended to enable complainants to report maintenance debts to credit bureaus. So if you are defaulting on alimony payments to your wife, this will affect your credit standing.

To better secure maintenance payments, the Subordinate Courts have announced that they will be issuing more Attachment of Earnings Orders (AEOs) where maintenance payments will be deducted directly from the men involved, to ensure prompt payment. To facilitate the issue of AEOs, MCYS will amend the law to allow complainants to obtain information on the respondents' employment status from the CPF Board.

Finally, I think the prospective new spouses of defaulters - the second or third wife or so on - ought to be aware of the outstanding financial obligations of the defaulters. We will not stop them from remarrying, because that will be going too far. However, MCYS will require people who have maintenance debts to declare them when they register for marriage at the Registry of Marriages, so at least, the next wife knows that the defaulter has got a record. But said just now, love is blind, so I do not think this will stop the marriage. It will however create a culture of responsibility and compliance.

Let me at this point also reply to Ms Ellen Lee's suggestions on changing the Women's Charter to a ''Family Charter''. The Women's Charter is a very special piece of legislation. It was passed in 1961 and was one of the early signature pieces of legislation by the PAP. If you think about it, it was ahead of its time to, in 1961, insist on monogamy and women's rights, and create an unlevel playing field to protect women.

So will we consider a change in name of the Women's Charter? I think you were going for more than a change in name. We should ask ourselves how much has changed in 50 years. Obviously, much has changed for women in Singapore in 50 years. However, everyone here, including the Opposition MPs, know that there is still a gender gap. Our female labour force participation rate in 2009 was 55%, which was significantly lower than males' at 76%. For maintenance cases that come to see us at MPS, they are almost always women. I have hardly ever seen a man come in and say I am divorced, but my wife is very rich, I wish she would hand over some money to me. That has not been the case. So my answer to you would be that I do not think we are ready, yet, to abandon the key principle in the Women's Charter - which is that women still need protection in our society.

Mr Seah Kian Peng and Mr Wee Siew Kim have also made excellent suggestions on possible amendments to the Maintenance of Parents Act (MPA). I generally agree with
the suggestions that have been put up. The MPA should reflect the central importance of filial piety in our society. We need to ensure that adult children discharge their duty to provide for their parents.

There has unfortunately been a rising incidence of applications being made to the Family Service Centres (FSCs) to gently remind people to fulfill their fililal responsibilities and avoid going to the Courts. However, this often requires us to give the elderly parent a helping hand. I have instructed the Commissioner's Office to take a more active role in lending a helping hand to vulnerable elderly parents.

Where appropriate, we can apply the enforcement measures for the maintenance of children and ex-spouses, to orders for maintenance of elderly parents. Let me explain this. The MPA can result in a maintenance order being issued. The enforcement of that order rides on provisions in the Women's Charter. So in fact, when we tighten up the enforcement measures in the Women's Charter, it will also make it easier for parents to make and enforce claims on their children.

Do we need to do even more, given the rising numbers? The answer is probably yes. The MPA was first tabled in 1994 as a private member's bill by then NMP Associate 16 Professor Walter Woon. This time round, I would like to suggest that Mr Seah Kian Peng get together a group of likeminded Members and table a Private Member's Bill to amend this Act. Put down your suggestions, translate them into legislative amendments and put it to this House. The Government will lift the whip on this issue so that we can have a full and thorough debate both inside and outside this House. We will let MPs vote according to their conscience, and we will hopefully have a revised Act that reflects the aspirations and needs of our society on this most sensitive issue. I hope we will see progress on this in the next few months.

We have also liberalised the CPF Minimum Sum Topping-Up Scheme to encourage children to voluntarily top up their parents' accounts. Tax relief is given for these topups, and hence what I am actually saying, Mr Seah, is that your proposal to have another scheme to encourage filial piety by making voluntary donations - in fact that avenue is already available, and I hope more people will do so. MOF has also enhanced the parent relief to provide greater tax benefits for those looking after their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. I suppose if people are supporting their great-great-grandparents, we can negotiate further with the Minister for Finance.

Mr Seah Kian Peng has brought up for the third time his suggestions for paternity leave. I think you would have heard DPM Wong announce a major suite of marriage and procreation benefits in 2008, during the National Day Rally², so we are not yet ready to make another slew of adjustments.

Nonetheless, I hear what you say, and I have sympathy for your suggestions for paternity leave and expanding the criteria for maternity leave so that women who are currently not eligible would qualify in the future.

Mr Seah has also asked if the Public Service, since it is the largest employer, walks the talk in maternity benefits, childcare leave, part-time work, telecommuting, staggered hours etc. Let me assure the House that they are all consonant with our national policies. We will lead by example. We will also take Ms Yeo's comment on encouraging greater work-life balance, and MOM and MCYS will continue to work on this in the future.

I have spent a lot of time talking about marriages and families and responsibilities. But I have not forgotten Mr Calvin Cheng making his plea for singles. My first offer to him is to use the services of the Social Development Network. We will be most happy to help you and maybe if by next year, we can report progress, that would be very useful. Having said that, we do actually take care of all citizens. There are benefits that are given to everyone, regardless of marital status. These include public healthcare and education subsidies, childcare subsidies, training subsidies, Workfare and tax reliefs. Singles who fall into hard times can tap on national assistance schemes. Eligibility for ComCare's financial assistance schemes is not dependent on whether or not you are married. However I was also struck the other day by the fact that the overwhelming majority of people on public assistance are single, elderly people. You can draw your own conclusions from that - that singlehood is a risk, or you can also draw the conclusion that even if you are single and in trouble, there is still a safety net for you. However, that is a safety net that I hope people will not want or need to rely on in the future.

On housing, I should remind the House that we have allowed singles aged 35 and above to purchase HDB resale flats, while orphans can purchase a flat with their siblings when they are 21. Singles may also qualify for the Singles Grant of up to $11,000; if singles are staying with their parents, they can also qualify for a higher grant of up to $20,000. So the point is that we have not forgotten singles, and that they are also a part of our families.

Mr Wee Siew Kim was concerned if we were providing adequate support for single mothers. Single mothers and their children are eligible for universal infant and childcare subsidies, government subsidies for healthcare and education, social assistance and 2 days of statutory childcare leave per year under the Employment Act. It is true that they are not eligible for the Baby Bonus and for the extended Government-Paid Maternity Leave (GPML). The reason we did not extend this is because the Baby Bonus and GPML are incentive schemes to encourage married couples to have more children. We are very wary of unwittingly encouraging singles to have children. I understand that every single mother that I have met has told me that they are not single by choice, but rather by circumstances.

But I am also mindful that for a woman in such circumstances, there is always a missing man. She did not conceive and deliver a child on her decision alone, or only because she made mistakes. We need to remind ourselves that the State cannot be a surrogate father or husband. While we want to make sure we nurture and protect children caught in such circumstances, we have to be mindful not to incentivise wrong behaviors. I want to remind all men that we are responsible for all our children, even if they are illegitimate, and even in cases where they told the women to have abortions. These men claim that since the women decided to keep the child, it is the women's responsibility. The legal position is that the man is still responsible. In fact, as we put more teeth into the enforcement of maintenance, such men will be held liable and will have to take responsibility for looking after their children.

I would also like to thank Mr Ang Mong Seng for sharing his views on adoption. Over the last 5 years, there were 450 babies adopted each year in Singapore. Of these, about 60% were foreign.

In adoption, our primary duty is to ensure that the child's safety and well-being are catered for. Adoption is not a major plank of our marriage and procreation policy. Therefore, we have to be careful to assess each couple to make sure they are capable of bringing up the child securely for the long-term.

Our current process takes about 19 weeks, which includes the social, legal and investigation processes necessary. 19 weeks is not inordinately long, compared to overseas jurisdictions. I also want to emphasise that we will not take shortcuts in this area. All members who have children will appreciate that every child deserves the best chance in life. You can rest assured that I also lean regularly on my officers to reduce unnecessary red tape.

Let me touch on several new initiatives that we are embarking on, to enable more children to have a better life in the future.

During the 2008 National Day Rally, the Prime Minister announced that the Government will facilitate the setting up of 200 new child care centres by 2013. We have made good progess. In the last two years, another 59 more child care centres have been established, which have provided 6,700 more places. Today our enrolment in child care centres has also climbed to a high of 58,400. This represents about 83% of our total capacity. So we still have space and we will continue to roll out more centres.

Over the next year, MCYS will set up a Child Development Network (CDN) to promote quality early childhood care and development in Singapore, focusing specifically on professional development and research. The CDN will reach out to the 800 child care centres across the island and 10,000 professionals in this sector. It will work with industry stakeholders to provide technical assistance and consultancy, professional guidance, career counseling, research and development, as well as public education. 40 MCYS will also establish an Early Years Development Framework by 2011. This will focus on care for infants and young children aged three and below, as they are more vulnerable, and need extra care. The framework will review the relevant professional training, licensing requirements and quality standards for infant and toddler care. We have also set up an inter-disciplinary advisory committee that includes government and industry professionals to drive this initiative.

We will also be going further to upgrade the early childhood profession. We will provide greater funding support for eligible child care operators to attract and reward better qualified child care teachers. We will develop a professional development framework for child care
professionals, so that peer review and cross-fertilisation of ideas can result in higher quality, skills and competencies, and ultimately, higher qualifications.

I agree totally with Mr Zaqy that we need to ensure that there is an adequate inflow of qualified teachers. Over the last year, the labour market for early childhood educators has tightened. This is due partly to the fact that we raised the minimum teacher qualifications, and it has also resulted in salaries for kindergarten and childcare teachers rising by about 18% since 2007³. I think Members in this House will agree that that is a reasonable increase, which they deserve. This is a good development, as I believe it will help attract and retain more of the people in this crucial sector. The attrition rate has also fallen from 23% in 2007 to 17% in 2009. 17% is still quite high; we will keep working on trying to bring that down further. You are right that the situation will probably tighten in the next two years as we roll out more child care centres. We will closely monitor the situation and if need be, we will moderate the build up so that there is a match between hardware and software.

To improve the supply of qualified child care staff, we will work with the WDA and industry partners to promote the child care profession and to attract more talent to this profession.⁴My Ministry will also consider ways to attract former staff who may have left in the bad old days, when they did not get paid well enough, and they did not get sufficient respect, to return into this sector.

My Ministry also welcomes the suggestion for kindergartens with extra capacity to run child care services. I think this is an interesting proposal which MCYS and MOE will study. It will help achieve better utilisation of space as well as the staff, and provide additional opportunities for parents to be able to go to work, knowing that their children are safely cared for. So this is an idea worth pursuing.

We will be amending the Children and Young Persons' Act this year to provide better protection for vulnerable children and young persons. We will license all children's homes and will review all cases of children residing in these homes, particularly those who have been there for a long time. Furthermore, we intend to accede to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This is basically a Convention which seeks to ensure the safe return of children who were wrongfully removed from their state of habitual residence. Basically, it's about parental kidnapping against Court orders in the state of habitual residence of the child. My Ministry will be working with relevant agencies to finalise operational details, to set up the necessary mechanisms and to enact the new legislation, which we will come to this House for.

We will also do more for young children with special needs. This is something which Ms Denise Phua campaigns vigorously for every year. And I hope Ms Phua would agree that we have done more over the years. Specifically for EIPIC - the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children - we have increased the number of centres from 9 to 11 in the last two years. This means that we now have a capacity of 1,600. I think our current enrolment is between 1,200 to 1,300 children.

EIPIC is a means-tested programme. The VWOs have tried their best to keep the fees affordable but quite frankly, it is an expensive programme. Anyone who has been involved in this would know: the true costs are probably somewhat in excess of $1,000 per child per month. Well, I am pleased to announce that we will have a new subsidy of $300 per citizen child attending EIPIC. This is a brand new subsidy which will then apply across the board to all citizens, and it will make EIPIC far more affordable. But we will continue to have means-testing for the sum of money in excess of that, so that we will adhere to the principle that the less well-off deserves more support. Overall, I hope this will allow us to have an EIPIC sector which is viable, which has got high standards, and which is affordable. Because ultimately, we need to make sure that more parents can afford it. Meanstesting cuts off at the 50th percentile, and we need to make sure that even those beyond that will still be able to access these services. So I hope you will agree that this is a significant move. What this means, of course, is that my Ministry's budget will increase, so between us and the National Council of Social Services (NCSS), we will spend about $14 million on EIPIC per year. If the number of students increases, we will have to look at further increases in the level of support.

Nevertheless, I also want to acknowledge that these programmes would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the VWOs that champion, advocate and push for this, and provide services. So people like Ms Phua and many other leaders out there deserve our support. 49 I am also pleased to announce that MCYS is working with the Ministry of Manpower and the CPF Board on a new scheme. I almost wanted to call it the Denise Phua scheme, but the civil servants said, no, we will call it the Special Needs Savings Scheme. This is exactly the proposal which you put up when you led a sub-group - I think it was about three years ago. Normally, what would happen when a parent with a disabled child passes away is that his CPF account will be closed, and a lump sum will go to his nominee. In this new scheme, the CPF Board will amend the disbursement rules so that when the parent passes away, the disabled child can draw a monthly stream of income from the money that is left behind in the account.

This has got two big advantages. One, the remaining amount in the CPF account will continue to earn interest. Two, because it is a constant stream of income, there is less danger of a lump sum being dissipated or misappropriated. And together with a care plan which I hope all parents with disabled children will make beforehand, I think this will help reduce some of the anxiety that all parents with disabled children go through when they wonder about what will happen to their children after they pass away. So this new scheme - the Special Needs Savings Scheme - will complement the Special Needs Trust Company. Parents will have more options to save and prepare for the long-term financial security of their children with disability. The operational details will be announced by the Minister for Manpower.

For children with mild disabilities, as Mr Laurence Wee has suggested, my Ministry will facilitate, wherever possible, getting them into a mainstream school. Beyond the 18 existing child care centres which run an Integrated Child Care Programme, we are working with MOH and the hospitals to build the capabilities for more child care centres to run special programmes for these children.

I hope the House will agree that we have made significant progress for the disabled and their families over the years. We are now in the fourth year of the Enabling Masterplan and we have achieved key milestones. The norm costs of services and programmes including adult disability services were revised just last year, and we have made further adjustments to wage costs this year. Basically that means more money has moved into this sector.

I will give you an example. The Day Activity Centre per capita norm costs were revised over the last four years. It used to be about $740; it is now $788 for FY10. I would like to assure Ms Phua that we will continue to regularly review these norm costs and adjust them accordingly. As to your question about when we are going to review the Enabling Masterplan, since it expires in 2011, I think some time between now and next year, we need to reconvene and decide what the next five year plan will be. You can rest assured I will send you an invitation.

MCYS will also work with MOE, WDA and NCSS to enhance employment and employability of persons with disabilities, because this is a key strategy - as Mr Laurence Wee has mentioned, if you can teach a man to fish, it is much better than giving a man a single fish. So we will continue to emphasise vocational and pre-vocational training in Special Schools and also provide an additional 3 years for the students who are work-able. MCYS and NCSS will complement MOE's sterling efforts in this area, and we will also work with employers through the Enabling Employers Network and the Open Door Fund, so that there will be more job prospects for people with disability.

Mr de Souza has asked for more support for caregivers. Any one of us who has done home visits would have come across cases like this: the severely disabled person, wheelchair bound or confined to the bed for years, and often there is a totally dedicated caregiver - usually a lady, the wife or a daughter who has spent years looking after this person. And caregivers do need our support. We cannot replace them, because quite frankly, it is their love and their dedication which keeps these people alive.

But as Mr de Souza has suggested, we do need to make sure there are more opportunities for respite care, to give them some time out - they can recharge, or get additional training, or just rest, so that they can go on with the task of caring for a disabled person which is a very, very heavy burden. We have a Caregiver Training Grant which we make available to families. We also have a foreign domestic worker levy concession of $95 per month for families with disabled members who want to employ a Foreign Domestic Worker. But I think we will continue to study how else we can lighten the burden on such persons.

Let me move on to Dr Teo Ho Pin's points on selfreliance. He has asked us to define self-reliance. I think for most of us, self-reliance basically means enabling a person to work, to provide for his family, to save for his rainy day and to do his best to build a better future. Self reliance does not mean selfish individualism. It recognises that we all have responsibilities to our families and to the community that sustains us.

This year's Budget has focused on raising Singaporeans' productivity, so that we can hold better jobs and earn higher incomes. We cannot ensure equality of outcomes. And there will be people who, based on their current skills, will not be able to find a high-paying job. In such situations, we have Workfare to supplement their incomes, and the Government will also work to ensure - wherever possible - equality of opportunities for Singaporeans. But in order to take advantage of these opportunities, Singaporeans will still need to be hard-working, forward-looking, and to embrace lifelong learning. You see, the problem for Singapore is that we will never be able to stop being hard-working. That is the brutal reality of Singapore.

Nonetheless, we recognise that there will be some amongst us who will fall on hard times and will need a helping hand. And the first step to self-reliance is earning an income, and getting a job. To answer Dr Teo, there are many factors that prevent people from making that first step. Like you and Dr Lily Neo, I would agree that it is a complex multidimensional problem, and it requires intensive hand-holding. It requires someone, and I say someone, because it is not something that a computer can generate, to determine the trigger that releases a person onto the path of self-reliance.

Much has been said about our Many Helping Hands, and there have been suggestions that maybe we have too many Helping Hands. I don't believe that we have too many Helping Hands, but I accept the point that we can improve our co-ordination of those Helping Hands. For me, the key Hands in the community are the Community Development Councils (CDCs) and the FSCs, and the ComCare Local Networks which have developed in every constituency to ensure co-ordination and collaboration between these Helping Hands.

So let me give an example. All Government funded schemes flow through the CDCs. So whether a person is eligible for public assistance is decided at the CDC. But when someone has a social problem, a personal problem, a 9 family problem, I do not believe that a civil servant, or a CDC employee, is the best Hand to hold the person in such circumstances. That's why we need a FSC, and we need social workers. I have more to say about what we are doing to expand the number of FSCs as well as the social workers who work in these places. So the key is continue to work on our Many Helping Hands model, but even as we do so, to never, never lose sight of the fact that we still want people to own their own lives. Owning their own lives also means owning their problems, taking responsibility for them, making the right choices, and living with the consequences of those decisions.

[Reference to slide on "Funding for the Social Services and Needy"] Can I just get that slide up, because there was a question on how much we are spending and making available to the social services sector. The bar chart on the left shows what we actually spent in 2008, a total of $414 million. You will notice that out of the $414 million, $231 million came from donations from the public. This is a very real example of Many Helping Hands, because the amount that my Ministry put in is only about half of that. You will notice obviously that the numbers are increasing over the years. For FY10, we expect that MCYS will provide $96 million for ComCare and HOPE programmes, and we will spend another $131 million which we will funnel through the VWOs in order to provide the services on the ground. For the amount that comes from the public, we estimate that it will increase to $240m. We believe that this is achievable as the economy recovers.

I had some good news which I actually announced in Parliament last month, which is that despite the downturn last year, there was a drop in donations, but that drop was due mainly to a reduction in corporate donations. At the individual level, Singaporeans remain as generous as they were even in a downturn, and I think Singaporeans should be congratulated for that instinct to be generous and to extend a helping hand to their fellow men. MOF has extended the 250% tax deduction for donations by another year. I hope this will continue to encourage Singaporeans to be generous.

But beyond giving money, people are also giving time. The volunteerism rate has doubled from 9.3% in the year 2000 to 16.9% in 2008. The National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and the Singapore Cares platform will continue to do their best to encourage more Singaporeans to provide their time, their mentorship, and their expertise for social services.

Dr Teo has also asked me to set out the Master Plan for the FSCs. The FSCs are a critical part of our social safety net. Their operating costs are almost fully funded by MCYS, the Community Chest and the Singapore Tote Board.

Since 2009, MCYS has provided FSCs with additional funding of up to $430,000 each in order to hire more staff. The additional funding will allow the FSCs to get more clinical supervisors, pay for consultancy services and provide enhanced staff training.

As I promised the House last year, we will have 5 additional FSCs which will be developed in areas with high
demand over the next 5 years. That means we will have a total of 41 FSCs islandwide. The first new FSC will be sited in Bedok, at Blk 41 Chai Chee Street and it will be operated by PPIS, which is the Young Women Muslim Association, which has done very good work and we want to encourage them as they expand their services. They expect to be able to commence operations by June 2010. The second and third new FSCs will be in Telok Blangah and Tampines in FY10 and FY11 respectively.

As for the FSCs' effectiveness, we used to just track the numbers of times that they solved cases. But we know that actually, what is far more important is the adoption of a client-centric and outcome-based approach, which refers to how many clients have actually achieved self-reliance after accessing the services of the FSCs. This is a KPI, but it is also one which I would say is more of an internal guide for the Ministry and NCSS to work with the FSC. This is because it is not meant to be a carrot-and-stick approach; otherwise you will end up with all kinds of invidious and sometimes perverse outcomes or incentives.

Qualified and competent social workers are absolutely essential. We are proposing that from 1 April 2010, we will raise the salaries of social workers by providing additional funds to the VWOs who employ them. We hope that there will be a salary increase of between 14% to 16% for our social workers. We will benchmark their pay to the pay of medical social workers. We need to make sure that social workers get the respect and remuneration which they so richly deserve.

We are also studying how we can address the current shortages of social workers from minority groups. We are working with MUIS and Mendaki to review the options of providing niche funding and training support to boost the supply of Malay/Muslim social workers.

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES

I would thank Dr Fatimah Lateef and Mr Seah Kian Peng for their concern about dysfunctional families. We all know this is a complex topic because they face multiple problems on multiple dimensions. A whole-of-government approach, in fact, a whole of society approach is needed to deal with this. I chaired the Inter-Ministry Committee on Dysfunctional Families (IMC-DF) two years ago and I am pleased to report that all the recommendations have been or are in the process of being implemented. We have spent $11 million so far and we have set aside $20 million for this financial year.

A key initiative, as you have suggested, is Intensive Case Management, which aims to provide a more systemic, holistic and family-centric model to vulnerable families with inter-generational issues. We ran a pilot which we started this year with referrals from multiple touchpoints such as the Singapore Prison Service, the schools, the community and MCYS. These families receive intensive casework support from dedicated social workers with a caseload ratio of 1 social worker to 10 families. This is much less than the usual FSC caseload.

Another key recommendation is to strengthen early identification of children from vulnerable families at key touchpoint agencies. If a child is not doing well at school, or has dropped out of school, or has gotten into trouble with law, or gotten into glue sniffing or other drug addictions, or landed up having to depend on MCYS protection and services - these are early warning signs. Not only are these children at risk, there are also probably siblings at risk. There may also be dysfunctional parents in the equation as well. Again this calls for greater collaboration between MOE, MHA, MCYS, MOH, the CDCs and FSCs, so that we have an early warning system and a comprehensive safety net for these children and their families.

Mr Seah has also asked about the Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) scheme. HOPE encourages young, low-income families to keep their families small so that they can focus their resources on their children. HOPE was enhanced last year in response to your suggestion and eligible divorced women with two or fewer children were allowed to join HOPE. As at end of last year, 58 divorced women had joined HOPE and 205 mothers were able to find employment and tap on the enhanced education bursaries. You can claim personal credit for that.

As we discuss the plight of the low income and needy, let me also reiterate my views on protecting the financially vulnerable in Singapore against casino gambling, even though no question has been asked specifically on the issue. It is useful to remind the House that we agreed to open two Integrated Resorts with two casinos in order to attract tourist dollars. The government will continue to discourage gambling amongst people resident in Singapore.

The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) has set up the casino exclusion framework. So far, 29,153 people have been excluded. The majority of these are 28,690 third party exclusions because they were undischarged bankrupts and persons receiving public assistance. We have 426 who applied for self exclusion orders and 37 for family exclusion orders. I want to encourage all who are financially vulnerable, and families or religious organisations who know of people who are financially vulnerable, to avail themselves of the self-exclusion orders which are run by the NCPG. I would point out that these orders are available to citizens, PRs and others who are resident in Singapore.

I would urge all Singaporeans to continue to value their families and look after their loved ones. The Government will continue to provide support mechanisms to strengthen marriages, and enhance early childcare. We will enhance the legislative framework to ensure that people fulfill their basic financial obligations to family members. However, as I said just now, the government cannot mandate strong family
relationships. We cannot mandate unconditional love.

The family must remain our first line of support. The Government and community, through many helping hands, must continue to help and empower people to be self-reliant and to be as resilient as possible. Only then can we avoid entrenching an entitlement mentality, help people break out of a downward spiral of apathy and self-defeat, and give them hope for the future.

Annex:
1. Funding for the Social Services and Needy
2. Comparison of Means-Testing Frameworks for Programmes for the Disabled

_____________________________

¹In addition to the Court?s current jurisdiction to impose fines, a garnishee order and imprisonment to defaulters.
²The M&P package increased paid maternity leave, extended the protection period for pregnant working, reduced the qualifying period for maternity leave, and introduced protection of pregnant employees in retrenchments. Further, to enable working parents to have more time to bond with their children, we extended the childcare leave for each parent with children under seven years old, and enabled parents to take unpaid infant care leave.
³Survey conducted in July 2009 by the Education Services Union. The average salary of full time teachers is $1,456 according to the survey.
⁴4 A one-year accelerated teacher training programme is projected to place and train 300 midcareer PMETS this year, from 130 last year.

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DATE PUBLISHED: Thursday, May 20, 2010

LAST REVIEWED: Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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