Blunt home value based means testing divides families and dampens birth rate of SingaporeansOddly, when challenged, Ms Sim Ann (SMS Finance) said
"... targeted schemes form “only a small part” of the total benefits that Singaporeans, including private-property dwellers, receive"...
Is she bending the truth when we all know that GST credits, utilities rebates, education bursaries, medical subsidies (ward charges, CHAS card/ medishield-life premium subsidy), workfare, workfare transport concession, silver support scheme and almost ALL community support schemes (nursing home, home nursing foundation etc) are means tested with 'Annual value (AV) of home' being a core criteria in means testing?
In today's computer age whereby
(CNA, 25Feb2016) 'Satellite-based ERP to be ready by 2020, with S$556m contract awarded', surely, a more appropriate per-capita AV calculation cannot be too much to be expected from a
"first class political leadership"?
(per capita AV of home is the AV of residence divided by the number of Singaporeans/ PRs residing at the address (owner, family + tenant etc)).
The cost of not upgrading the blunt AV system of means testing include:
1) Dividing families.
- Children are less likely to stay with parents not because of personality differences but because they need to 'downgrade' to a smaller HDB flat to be able to receive government means tested subsidies such as GST credits, utilities rebates, CHAS/ medishield-life premium subsidies,
reduced property maintenance + conservancy fees due to higher gahmen subsidies for smaller units. Retired owner-parents who now feel burdened by inflation linked cost of living pressures and in need of gahmen subsidies for healthcare, siver-support $$$, higher GST rebate payouts etc are thus tempted to kick their kids and grandma out of the home so as to downgrade to a smaller HDB flat (to gain more access to such subsidies/ benefits).
There is thus little logic for the majority of singles/ newlyweds to stay apart from their parents except for the pressure of gahmen policy which divides many families who if given the choice would have prefered to stay united.
Many newlywed children, once burdened with the mortgage payments for their new HDB flat, find it difficult to find time to be with their parents possibly resulting in strained family ties. The grandkids also cannot remember grandma's name.
2) Decrease in birth rates:
- It is already VERY expensive to bring up kids in Singapore, it seems a double whammy as just as the kids are growing up and need more space to themselves (boys and girls might want a room each to themselves), parents have to weigh their higher costs of upkeep (education, daily needs) plus the costs of a bigger HDB flat versus the loss of multiple gahmen subsidies ranging from educational bursaries to healthcare (CHAS card/ medishield-life premiums) for the kids to GST credits + utility rebate reductions affecting the entire family. Some families survive the ordeal whilst others find themselves sandwiched due to obsolete/ blunderbuss gahmen means testing policy, with their subsequent negativity putting the brakes on the child rearing intentions of all couples around them.
The Singapore gahmen claims to have the welfare of all Singaporeans, old, young and yet to be born at heart, but turns a blind eye to the pain that their outdated, obsolete and inaccurate method of means testing is causing.
By the time too many Singaporeans have fallen through the enlarging cracks, maybe the PAP themselves will fall through too... and then a new dawn of politics in Singapore is born.
Quote:
Annual value of home ‘best available proxy’ in means-testing
SINGAPORE — The annual value of one’s home is not a perfect measure of wealth, but it remains the “best available proxy” in helping the Government to determine eligibility for its social-support schemes, Senior Minister of State for Finance Sim Ann said yesterday.
12 April 2016.
SINGAPORE — The annual value of one’s home is not a perfect measure of wealth, but it remains the “best available proxy” in helping the Government to determine eligibility for its social-support schemes, Senior Minister of State for Finance Sim Ann said yesterday.
Furthermore, as this data does not need to be separately collected, using it allows the Government to deliver benefits, such as the GST Voucher, to recipients automatically without their having to sign up for them, she added yesterday at the Ministry of Finance’s Committee of Supply debate.
Ms Sim also noted that targeted schemes form “only a small part” of the total benefits that Singaporeans, including private-property dwellers, receive. These include broad-based schemes such as healthcare, education and training subsidies such as the SkillsFuture credit, marriage and parenthood package, lower foreign domestic worker levies for those with young children or elderly, as well as senior citizen transport concession.
She was responding to Mr Edwin Tong, Member of Parliament (MP) for Marine Parade GRC, who suggested the Government review its means-testing criteria so those who require assistance do not fall through the cracks. For instance, he said there are some living in private estates who may have little or no regular income. But because of the “good annual value” of their homes, they do not qualify for many of the social schemes that they might need to get by.
“To this group of people, annual value is indeed something of a misnomer. And it is really no answer to tell these people that they should sell their homes and live off the remaining proceeds of the sale.
“We will only be dislocating many of them from their homes, the environment they are comfortable with, and this would directly undermine efforts at fostering social fabric within our communities here,” Mr Tong said.
His sentiment echoed that of other MPs such as Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang GRC) and Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten SMC) who, during the Budget debate last week, urged the Government to remove housing type as a criterion for the Silver Support Scheme.
Ms Sim said appeals by those “who are in need and in exceptional circumstances” will be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. “We will continue to review our means-testing criteria across all schemes to ensure that our assistance is targeted at those who need (it) most,” she added.
Lee Yen Nee
http://www.todayonline.com/business/...-means-testing |
