Jennifer Lee
Singapore
“May I therefore ask the Minister if he will review the tax relief for the CPF top-up for non-working spouses, the conditions of which are currently set, I believe, too late and too low with a view to recommending the removal of the age and prior earnings qualifications? Negative Income Tax”
“Can we take customisation of the system one step further from streaming as we practise it now and look at how we can teach and assess these students, ie, do it all together in a review of that?”
“Secondly, increase opportunities for them to foster understanding and bonding across racial and socio-economic classes through the mixing that is possible in the period of National Service. This concurrently enables them to widen their own network of friends and colleagues into the future.”
“As we have been saying with regard to means testing, we would like to target Government subsidies to those who need it. The $50 to $200 deposited into the Medisave accounts of those over 50s, who need it will, I can assure you, not be enough.”
“They have totally no say in what their spouses do with their own CPF balances and, particularly, after the withdrawal age of 55. I am happy, therefore, that the Minimum Sum will need in future to be topped up before withdrawal is allowed so that at least that amount of money is not unthinkingly spent on pursuit of immediate gratifications…”
“Could I ask the Minister? Obviously, there is so much mismatch - there is a queue, there are vacant flats. Would HDB, in fact, be doing a review? Because the Minister is saying that right now there are certain criteria and because of that, we do not accommodate a lot of people. But it would appear that there is quite a need out there.”
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Every one of 199 lines we hold for Jennifer Lee, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 4.
“May I therefore ask the Minister if he will review the tax relief for the CPF top-up for non-working spouses, the conditions of which are currently set, I believe, too late and too low with a view to recommending the removal of the age and prior earnings qualifications? Negative Income Tax”
“Sir, I welcome the tax relief for CPF top-ups for non-working spouses which DPM announced in his Budget speech. This is significant as it is the first time that the Government has done anything tangible to acknowledge the role and contributions of non-working spouses. And I hope that this will be the first of many more measures we will see in the future. However, in this instance, I must say that applying it only to non-working spouses who are 55 years and older is far too late to build up anything near a meaningful amount in the individual's CPF and restricting it to those who have earned not more than $2,000 in the preceding year, which is much too low a cap. Currently, our female labour force participation rate is 53% or 54%. Corollary to that, of course, is that 46% or 47% of our women are not in the workforce, a significant percentage of this being full-time home makers. This is a big group. With women having a longer life expectancy, many will survive their husbands. If they do not have adequate provisions for their old age, not only will they face a tough time themselves, the State will find that, at some point, it may have to assume some portion of the responsibility for their well-being. So, I think it behoves us well to look at what kind of provision we can make to try and protect or to enable their financial well-being into their old age. While CPF savings is only one of the many provisions and aspects of planning for retirement, it is, for many Singaporeans, an important one, a familiar scheme, one that we already have put in place. We should therefore use it to best effect.”
“On the contrary, it enables tangible benefits, such as matching employees' needs, for example, extending service hours by the use of flexi-time and handling uneven workflows by the use of part-timers on top of the other often-cited benefits of improved recruitment and retention. This promotion of increased availability of part-time work will also not only be beneficial to parents wanting to spend more time at home when their children are small, but it will also open up opportunities for older displaced workers. Properly implemented, good work-life practices engage workers in a collaborative process to find better ways in getting work done, and engender a flexible and creative approach to solving operational challenges. Actually, the Ministry currently responsible for all issues relating to promoting the family is MCDS. While such components of the drive, such as family life education and planning for dependent care centres and subsidies, sit well under the MCDS umbrella, other aspects which relate to work environment, such as flexible working arrangements, which are currently promoted by MCDS' Work Life Unit, I believe they would be much more effectively driven by MOM, as it would signal that these measures are down-to-earth business strategies to keep employees productive, effective and committed in the competitive and demanding modern work environment, rather than the burdensome Robin Hood type of accommodations to working mums. I would therefore propose that as the Working Committee on Population works towards comprehensive measures that it would recommend, MOM should be the Ministry which is designated the champion to promote and push for good work-life practices in companies. Paternity Leave”
“Sir, I am happy to hear that Government will take the lead in setting an example as an employer who will create a work environment supportive of families and hope to see many measures implemented in this effort. In this process, it is important that we differentiate between the support and subsidies that Government will be putting in place to provide a supportive infrastructure to help families with kids and the measures that Government will take as an employer. In the former role, we hope, of course, that it will be as generous as possible. In the case of the latter role, the approach which I believe is important to take must be one that emphasises a practical approach, with clear benefits for the organisation and inclusive of all staff, men and women, single and married, with children and none. The importance of emphasising benefits to the organisation is because we want to see not only the civil service adopting what I would prefer to call good work-life effectiveness practices, but that private employers across the board would also see it in their own interest to do so. Private companies will not see it as their responsibility to help Singaporeans avoid extinction by having more babies. I think this is perfectly understandable. However, we are fortunate in this instance that the interest of a company and those of its employees seeking good work life effectiveness are entirely congruent and synergistic. Speaking from our experience in KK Hospital, I can say, with conviction, that flexible working arrangements are eminently implementable without any increase in operational costs.”
“Has MOM any plans to push for increased productivity and quality in other sectors besides construction, to the extent that jobs in these sectors can justify better wages and so become real options for Singaporeans to fill, and we can break out of being locked into the cycle of low wage, low skilled, low productivity jobs? The easy availability of cheap foreign labour, particularly foreign domestic workers, also retards the development of some services which we are going to need and which are much better solutions for us in the long term. I know MOM is now working with various companies to establish home cleaning services. And another area that we are going to need a few years down the road will be home care and home help services for the elderly. With easy availability of foreign domestic workers, it becomes very difficult to have a viable commercial proposition to develop this kind of services. So, could I ask the Acting Minister to share his strategy and plans with regard to the role of foreign labour in our workforce into the future, and how he will be addressing the challenge of supplying the labour that we currently need without retarding the upgrading that we must have to progress?”
“Madam, the Acting Minister, in painting the big picture on jobs and where our workforce is going, has actually covered some of the grounds that I was going to ask him to share with us. But, nevertheless, there is a particular focus which I would like to speak on. Our workforce in Singapore is supplemented by foreigners in three areas - a large number of low and unskilled foreign workers; increasing numbers of highly qualified, highly skilled foreign talent; and now S Pass has been introduced for foreign workers with mid-level skills. I am fully cognisant of the balancing act which the Acting Minister has to perform in allowing in enough foreign manpower to support our industries and companies' growth on the one hand and, on the other, managing local workers' concerns about being displaced, as well as all the problems that too large a foreign workforce brings for any society. The top end skilled foreigners are the least problematic. Even Singaporeans who have expressed unhappiness and concern acknowledge the need to beef up our talent pool in this area. The large numbers of unskilled foreign workers at the other end of the spectrum are another matter. They have been with us for so many years now, to the extent that we have become very dependent on them to do all the work that Singaporeans do not deign to do. But having easy access to cheap foreign labour retards the upgrading of skills and the investment and equipment in technology, which drives improvement in quality and productivity. MOM has recognised the problem in the construction industry and has been using differential levies to encourage upskilling of construction workers.”
“Can we take customisation of the system one step further from streaming as we practise it now and look at how we can teach and assess these students, ie, do it all together in a review of that? I join my fellow colleagues in expressing the hope that we will see a more enlightened handling of our students in the Normal stream, and a review altogether of this whole concept of streaming at primary school level. School Ranking”
“Sir, nine of my hon. colleagues have already spoken about streaming, so I will try to be brief, apart from the fact that my voice might not hold out! Enough has been said regarding streaming at primary level. At secondary school level, I would not argue against allowing students who needed five years to successfully complete their "O" level. I only want to make the observation that our students in the Normal stream are a full 40% of our students each year. This is very much in that big portion of the Bell Curve of ability. But somewhere along the way in the history of the development of our education system, our elitist tendencies consigned almost half of each cohort of our children who are perfectly normal - "normal" with a lower case, ie, small "n" - to a life of misery by labelling them subnormal, euphemistically "Normal" with an upper case, ie, capital "N". I have heard anecdotally that some of the students may be less quiet and well behaved, with the result that their teachers have a much more challenging time coping with the usual class size of 40, possibly leading to expressions of frustration, which do not help the situation at all but add to the students - and, by extension, their parents - and teachers alike viewing being assigned to the Normal stream as a horrible sentence. We have always directed attention and resources to the cream of the crop. The truth of the matter is that the bright kids are the ones that need our help the least. They will do well anyway. We should direct more attention and resources to how we can give this 40% of our students an environment that is more supportive and that will encourage and facilitate them achieving their potential rather than dampening their spirits.”
“Secondly, increase opportunities for them to foster understanding and bonding across racial and socio-economic classes through the mixing that is possible in the period of National Service. This concurrently enables them to widen their own network of friends and colleagues into the future. Thirdly, opportunities to pick up skills which will be useful throughout their lives. Fourthly, opportunities for young women with potential to be identified so that the development to optimise their contributions in future leaderhip roles can be facilitated. With all of these in mind, I therefore trust the Minister will give this proposal some consideration. Operationally Ready NSmen”
“Sir, I fully agree with Mrs Lim Hwee Hua's call for Government to reconsider the issue of having our women serve in National Service. Apart from the very pertinent reasons that Mrs Lim has enunciated, there is also a very practical issue which I think we should consider. While compulsory National Service for young men ensures that the Armed Forces will be adequately manned, there are many sectors as well in the country that have to be fully geared and operational in the case of an impending war or other such national emergencies. Currently, not an insignificant percentage of the staffing in our hospitals are non-Singaporeans. In the case of an impending war, there is a significant probability that these workers may return to their homes, leaving our hospitals and other healthcare institutions very short-handed, particularly in a situation where the men with National Service obligations will also have been called up. I expect that this may similarly be the situation in other equally important sectors, besides healthcare. Therefore, I think this is a situation which should be addressed and we should therefore consider the introduction of National Service for Singaporean women. It is important, as Mrs Lim has said, that our women are allowed to serve as well as our menfolk do in the defence of our country. Besides that, there are other reasons and benefits for the women and the nation. Firstly, opportunities for women to be educated and sensitised to national issues which I think is currently quite a gap, as women transit from school to work and then considering a total involvement in family issues and, therefore, they do not have the same kind of exposure and opportunities as our young men do.”
“As we have been saying with regard to means testing, we would like to target Government subsidies to those who need it. The $50 to $200 deposited into the Medisave accounts of those over 50s, who need it will, I can assure you, not be enough. The same amount deposited into the Medisave accounts of those over 50s who do not need it will be irrelevant, and hence wasted. The $104 million will end up neither providing adequate relief to the needy nor even gain much goodwill for the Government in the process. I would therefore like to ask DPM Lee to reconsider and redirect the $104 million to Medifund instead, as this will then indeed be used to give assistance to those who truly need it. ADJOURNMENT OF DEBATE Resolved, That the debate be now adjourned. - [Mr Wong Kan Seng].”
“But if gross floor area exemption could be granted for the space, this would help to ease that problem and they would not then feel so unduly penalised by the requirement. This way, employees of many companies sited within such complexes would have a childcare centre conveniently and helpfully located close by. And with their combined numbers, this would make the running of such a centre a viable option. Before I move on to comment briefly on a separate subject, I must make an observation that the recent months have seen very encouraging developments in the education system, presenting students with more diversity of routes to tertiary education, easing the pressures related to mastering Chinese language and, most recently, the signalling of the departure from the academic ranking of schools. As the pressures of our education system are invariably featured very high on any listing of the stresses of bringing up a child, I dare say that if this promising trend continues, we may find that the hero in our Singapore baby saga turns out to be the Minister for Education! So, please do keep up this promising trend in terms of the measures to ease the perceived difficulties and challenges that our kids have struggled with in the system. Before I conclude, moving away from issues on procreation, I have one observation to make with regard to Medisave top-ups for the above 50s. We all appreciate the indication of the importance that Government places on managing healthcare costs and the attention it is paying to the needs of older Singaporeans that this gesture signals. However, my observation is that while the gesture was well intentioned, it is, in fact, not a very good use of the money.”
“As child rearing, in fact, does not end at eight weeks, six months, or a year or two even, I am happy to hear that the Government will be looking also into increasing subsidies for child and infant care, as well as exploring other family day-care options to address the problem of looking after baby after the period of parental leave is over. Apart from the quality of care provided, the convenience of location of a childcare centre is an important factor. The siting of child and infant care centres at the workplace makes life much more convenient, but comes with a significant price tag and, very often, individual smaller companies especially may not have enough staff with children in the pre-school age to justify setting up such a centre of their own. To address this situation, I had, on occasions in the past, previously appealed to the Minister for National Development to consider requiring developers of business and industrial complexes above a certain size to set aside space for childcare or multi-service centres with rentals kept low, but to no avail. I dare say that MND did not think it their responsibility to help the Singapore stork. So, I shall take the opportunity now to redirect my proposal to DPM Lee instead, since he has larger clout, with the hope that this can be included as part of the holistic package of measures to raise our fertility rate. I trust that Minister Lim and his working committee will be able to get all Ministries across the board to take ownership of this effort rather than to dismiss suggestions made to them as not within their remit or interest. Back to the issue of childcare centres. It has been brought up in the Minister for National Development's reply in the past that developers would feel rather imposed upon.”
“There are growing numbers of Singapore men, I think, who are willing to participate and take responsibility, but we must support and facilitate their taking part in the process of bringing up the kids and taking more responsibility. While this would take much time and effort, to see any significant change in mindsets, all the more reason that the message must be clear and consistent and immediate. We should not be waiting some more to be really making real efforts here. I would therefore go further than Mrs Lim Hwee Hua and Mdm Halimah Yacob and, in fact, Dr Lily Neo's suggestion of 10 days of paternity leave. I would propose to the Minister and his committee that should they, in fact, propose extended maternity leave, this indeed be called parental leave instead, and that eligibility for the leave be tied to the father taking one month of the four or six months, not concurrent with his wife for child minding. And it should be a case that if dad does not use it, the couple loses it. So, it is mandatory that if they want the parental leave, father should be involved as well. I can see the looks of disbelief from the Frontbench, but I think it is important to make a start. I believe Mrs Lim Hwee Hua has talked about an educational campaign on shared responsibilities, and I think educational campaigns will only go that far. I think you need to go beyond that and actually push that the dads do participate, and this is one way to get started. I may sound ridiculous to the men in the House, but I think it is important enough and I am willing to sound ridiculous to give it a try.”
“If the burden, so to speak, of adjustment and accommodation falls largely upon women, then in the longer-term, women will still opt to have smaller families or no children at all, simply because the sacrifice called for is more than they are willing to make. Mr Tan Soo Khoon quoted the low fertility rates of Italy and Spain in the context of the extended maternity leave that they have as something to be considered when looking at maternity leave. But there is, in fact, another reason that has been identified as to why these countries in Southern Europe have such poor fertility rates. And that is, in fact, they are very traditional societies with very strong gender stereotyping of roles, and that the women largely bear the burden of all of the various family issues. And this is, mind you, when you take into consideration that they are largely Roman Catholic countries with the prohibition of use of contraception notwithstanding, you still have no luck there with the Southern European countries. So, this whole issue of sharing of responsibilities of parenting cannot be done away with. And the subject of involvement of fathers in parenting was not touched upon at all either by the DPM or Minister Lim, except that when the latter was asked why paternity leave was not an option proposed, he started laying the groundwork, I suspect, for saying no by listing all the reasons why this was not going to work, even as he said that it was open to the public to give him feedback. If we are to succeed in raising our fertility rate in the long term, we must look at how to involve fathers much more in child minding and child rearing. The job of parenting must be fully shared between mothers and fathers. The perceived burden when shared might turn out not to be so burdensome after all.”
“The Minister correctly identified that many working mums feel that our current eight weeks of maternity leave is too short, and leaving the baby at home and returning to work at the end of that period is both wrenching and stressful. But what is the right number of weeks or months? When does child minding or child rearing end? Two options were proposed - four months and six months, with varying levels of pay. I think it is without question that Government will have to pick up the tab, as it would run counter to our efforts to try to keep Singapore attractive as a cost competitive place to do business, to lay that burden directly and upfront on companies. But the financial impact of extended maternity leave is only one of the tough questions that arises. The second is the issue of disruption to work when an employee is away for, say, six months of maternity leave. Employers and colleagues are likely to view this without much enthusiasm. So, extended maternity leave is a double-edged sword for women, as indeed are other, what might be termed, "family friendly" benefits, if these are to be targeted solely at working mums and seen as an accommodation to them. Companies will come to view married women as less desirable employees to have. Unless anti-discriminatory hiring laws are enacted concurrently, extended maternity leave carries significant risks for women that it will come to the detriment of their job and career prospects. This brings us to something very fundamental in the equation in the decision process with regard to the number of children couples choose to have.”
“It is a simple matter of mathematics - we really need every woman in the reproductive age group encouraged to consider having babies, not just those with secondary education and above. It is a fallacy to think that the higher educated mothers need more attention. Experience elsewhere has shown that companies are much more accommodating to higher skilled women with regard to good work-life balance programmes and schemes, and it is the lower skilled ones who have difficulty accessing any degree of flexibility of accommodation of their needs. Also, lower educated and lower income couples are the ones for whom two incomes in the family are a necessity, and the availability and affordability of childcare and other support and arrangements are a real problem. Making a distinction between lower and higher educational groups is alienating and, I think, counter-productive. We have already, in the past, targeted incentives at the better educated women. Now, rather than repeating the refrain, perhaps we should simply make sure instead that the children from lower income households have indeed every opportunity in our society to make good, with universal access to education, financial and other assistance where it might be necessary. In the follow-up to the Budget Statement, Minister Lim Hng Kiang, who has the challenging assignment to come up with the specific proposals by National Day, shared some preliminary thoughts with regard to some areas that are being looked at, namely, extended maternity leave, child and infant care, work-life balance and financial support. I fully agree with, notably, Deputy Speaker Lim Hwee Hua and Mdm Halimah Yacob's comments with regard to maternity leave and with the need to change mindsets regarding sharing of the responsibility for parenting.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is kind of hard to follow Dr Lily Neo who has already listed all of the various measures. I saw Minister, Mr Lim, taking frantic notes. But, Sir, I am very happy indeed to hear the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance say that we will finally take a comprehensive approach to address the problem of our plummeting fertility rate, instead of the rather tentative and piecemeal attempts that we have made in the past to encourage Singaporean couples to have more babies. That this issue resonates with Singaporeans at large is clear from the media coverage, the amount of feedback that has been received in this week since, and the number of MPs who have been and will be rising to speak on various aspects of the subject. I do not propose to go into a comprehensive listing of measures that I may have to suggest, as these have already been amply covered by many hon. colleagues. I would, however, like to bring up a couple of areas of concern. DPM Lee spoke of the need for a holistic and coherent approach, of looking for long-term solutions, and of the need for patiently working on changing attitudes and mindsets. Unfortunately, even as he said this, the principles he set out for guiding Government's thinking on the subject displayed the prevalence of some ongoing distinctly old mindsets, in particular the singling out again of the better educated higher income women as a group needing special attention and incentives. I would venture to say, however, that with our fertility rate at an all time low of 1.26, we should be desperate enough to depart from this constant focus only on our better educated women.”
“They have totally no say in what their spouses do with their own CPF balances and, particularly, after the withdrawal age of 55. I am happy, therefore, that the Minimum Sum will need in future to be topped up before withdrawal is allowed so that at least that amount of money is not unthinkingly spent on pursuit of immediate gratifications. However, the problem remains that a spouse could will away his CPF balance, leaving his widow without a cent. I, and many other colleagues in the House, past and present, have broached the subject before, without success, of splitting or sharing the CPF account of a person with a non-working spouse. As part of Government's review of the system, may I bring an alternative solution, namely, to require that the endorsement of the spouse is required for nomination of beneficiaries to CPF accounts and for any subsequent changes to the nominees.”
“But the circumstances have changed from our heady high-growth full-employment days when we could, with confidence, sweepingly dismiss those who do not put enough aside for their own old age as perhaps people who are not trying hard enough and who should not be encouraged in their grasshopper ways. I believe it is time to pause, and after this quick action, to respond to immediate needs, to do a thorough review of how we need to drill more wells for a more robust system for the retirement needs of our population, not just for the top 20% but for the majority, into the future. I am just concerned that we will see a repetition of a situation similar to what we are experiencing with structural unemployment. We had actually identified structural unemployment as a concern many years ago, and I remember serving on more than one committee, where the subject was discussed. But because the problem did not seem imminent at that time, we just did not pay enough attention to pushing hard enough for solutions and now we find ourselves unprepared, smack in the middle of the problem. Let us not be caught similarly unprepared with the retirement needs of older Singaporeans when the day comes that the over-65s form 20% of our population. At that time, there will be too many for us to take that case-by-case approach that our Ministers favour currently when we bring up issues of needs of various segments of the population. Finally, before I end, I would like to pick up one point for a specific group, and that is homemakers - housewives who are dependent on their husbands, and subsequently their children, for financial support because they are not in the workforce. They would, of course, not have a CPF account, and if they do, it would generally be an inactive one with a minuscule balance.”
“For too long, Singaporeans have grown up and grown old thinking that their CPF savings would take care of their retirement needs. Unfortunately, along the way we have been led into using the scheme to achieve other objectives, such as home ownership and healthcare financing, leaving insufficient cash for the original and primary objective. So many needs and requirements have been intertwined into the whole scheme that we can see, even though with so many powerful minds that we have in the Cabinet, it is proving very difficult to implement changes to achieve one end without doing severe injury to other parts of the whole - a clear illustration of the teachings in Economics 101, as they say, that you should use one instrument for one objective. It is obvious that CPF alone is not enough and Government must look at what can be done to supplement CPF as the only source of retirement income on which people rely on their old age. An analogy I recently heard likens it to drinking from only one well. If that well runs dry, it is a disaster. I would like, therefore, to urge that in our new and evolving circumstances, we rethink to consider a system where we can draw from many other wells, including some such as minimum pension benefits, social security-type systems, insurance-based instruments, private retirement plans, as my colleague, Dr Gan has just mentioned, and other schemes that financial and economic experts can design. I know we have always in the past responded negatively to any such suggestions.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, there is little disagreement that we need to urgently address the problem of our wage cost in Singapore and that the CPF retuning that the Prime Minister just announced yesterday will go some way towards this. It is also clear that wage costs are only one component of total business costs and that many other significant components need also to be addressed with equal urgency, if we are to achieve the desired outcome to grow the economy, to safeguard and indeed to grow jobs for Singaporeans. Many of my colleagues in the House have already spoken on various aspects of this and I will not repeat their points. The need for a package to help Singaporeans affected by the CPF changes in the immediate and short-term has also been brought up, and I am sure that the DPM will address many of these concerns later today. I would like, however, to draw attention to a longer-term perspective, and highlight that, while appreciating that the subject currently in debate very necessarily focused on immediate and urgent matters, we do not lose track in the process of the longer-term retirement needs of Singaporeans. The huge challenge of our ageing demographics that prompted the formation of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Ageing Population, not too many years ago, still looms ahead. And the issues identified, in particular, in the area of financial security, stand very much at risk in the current scenario of the impending diminished contributions to CPF. At $252 or even $378 a month, our senior citizens will be hard-put to make ends meet. Worse still, there are significant numbers of older people right now, and into the foreseeable future, who will not manage to reach the targeted Minimum Sum at retirement on which these calculations are based.”
“Could I ask the Minister? Obviously, there is so much mismatch - there is a queue, there are vacant flats. Would HDB, in fact, be doing a review? Because the Minister is saying that right now there are certain criteria and because of that, we do not accommodate a lot of people. But it would appear that there is quite a need out there. Would there be a review done? Is there review in the works? If there is not, would he consider that it might be timely to do a review? I think for many of the criteria put in place in years past, circumstances have changed and society has changed to some extent. So, would a review not be timely?”
“It would be helpful then in that scenario to make sure that we are not putting a lot of "no fishing" signs on all the bodies of water that may exist. What is the point of teaching them to fish and then at every pond, every pool and every little rivulet you have this "no fishing" sign on it? With regard to these "no fishing" prohibitions, I am reminded of a story. I recently heard from one of my long-time serving Parliamentary colleagues who had to plead for 10 years before finally being able to secure a licence for a constituent to set up a little corner in a marketplace outside a clothing shop to do clothing alterations. This constituent is a woman who is single with a sick mother, whom she has to take for medical appointments and whom she has to stay home periodically at short notice to take care of. So for her, the ideal solution was the flexibility of a part-time income generation job. She was not asking for a handout. She has this skill. But it took that long to get this licence. Presumably, the appropriate authority was very mindful of the tidiness of the environment in that marketplace, in a bigger context. But I think you can see that it was not really helpful for this woman, who was trying to make a living and not having to depend on a handout. I think there is a case to be made. We are now facing a situation that is complex and we want all the diverse solutions that we can get. Apart from creating jobs in big and small and medium sized companies, I think we should find a way so that individuals with skills can have lots of flexibility to set up and provide their own services. This too, I trust, will be something that WDA will champion. With that, Madam, I support the Bill.”
“This is not a session on CPF, but I think that what he does bring home, this re-tuning of the CPF scheme, which is being mooted by various quarters recently, is certainly badly needed. In fact, the question is whether it is a re-tuning that is required or a fairly major overhaul because the issues are so intertwined and complex as to the conflicting demands that we need to see addressed. In this context, all that I wanted to say is that even as the WDA pushes ahead with the issues of training and reskilling, which the Agency will, in fact, move this in parallel, as it certainly will have impact on the success, or otherwise, of the ultimate goal of jobs for Singaporeans. Finally, to turn attention to another approach, ie, self-employment. Much effort will go into creating jobs in which Singaporeans may be employed. But I trust WDA's remit also includes looking into supporting the creation of opportunities for self-employment or freelancing, as my colleague, Mr Ong Kian Min, has just earlier referred to. MOM had sponsored a course last year on "How to start and run your own business". This was co-organised by the PSB Academy and DEW Credit Cooperative. I think they trained, in the period of 3-6 months last year, 1,200 people. How about supporting this effort beyond sponsoring the training? How about, firstly, extending this effort to minimising rules and regulations that prohibit or that are not helpful to helping people who actually want to go out there and do some small business or provide some services on their own? This principle of helping you how to start and run your own business is the principle that we always use, as an analogy, of teaching people how to fish.”
“This is where, as a society, we must move from mouthing platitudes about the dignity of honest labour towards truly according the appreciation and respect that we should have for any worker who discharges his or her duties competently and responsibly, regardless of the nature of the work itself. These are mindset issues and the WDA will have an impossible task if we do not consciously work on our attitudes and behaviour. Next come the realities of what a displaced worker needs in terms of earning a viable living. The company I spoke of starts their housekeepers at $1,000. In fact, the range moves up, when you get to be a supervisor, to $1,800. This is actually not bad when you look at it that way. But a simple and clear illustration of the problems Singaporean workers face, with regard to salary, was given by a Mr Jack Sim, who wrote to the Straits Times' Forum page last week. He gave a very simple illustration of why he employed Malaysian workers rather than Singaporeans and further of why it was difficult - he was not casting aspersions on Singaporean workers - for a Singaporean worker to manage on the same salary that his Malaysian counterpart would be happy to accept. He used a simple calculation of $1,000, which is easy to work in terms of percentages. It is simply that at the starting salary of $1,000, the Malaysian worker costs Mr Sim $1,030 ($1,000 + $30 levy) and a Singaporean worker costs him $1,160 ($1,000 + $160 CPF). That is from his perspective as an employer. From the perspective of the Singaporean worker, he only gets $800 as take- home pay ($1,000 less $200 employee's contribution). Of course, the $1,000 that the Malaysian counterpart brings home gets him a lot further than the $800 that our Singaporean worker takes as take-home pay.”
“Since that time, quite a number of companies have sprung up, providing housekeeping services and they are doing a booming business. I use the services of such a company to help keep my apartment in habitable condition. They send two workers in a team to do the cleaning and they actually do a very good and professional job. Just last week, I discovered that both the workers assigned to my apartment are non-Singaporeans. I was rather taken aback because I had, up to then, always thought happily that the work that the Committee that I had served on, and our recommendations had made some contributions towards encouraging the growth of a sector that provided good opportunities for Singaporeans. As it transpired, the picture was not that bad. On talking to the owner, who was surprised to get a call from me, I found that, in fact, 70% of their workforce is local. So we have created some good jobs there. However, they do face significant difficulty finding and keeping Singaporeans. In fact, they have just done a review. In a recent 7-month period, they had hired 160 Singaporeans and put them through structured training. At the end of that period, regretfully, only 20 of this group have stayed on. One of the reasons is the same as the one that my colleague, Ms Irene Ng, has just brought up. They relate to the working conditions, such as a non air-conditioned environment. But there is also another factor that comes into play, which relates to whether the house owner would be at home or out when the housekeepers come. The latter is preferred, as the workers do not like to be seen at their work, being shy of being identified. The job is not one that they are proud to be identified with.”
“On Singaporeans' attitudes and expectations with regard to jobs, we hear different stories from different quarters. I am sure that all the stories are, in fact, true and factual and simply reflect both the diversity of people's backgrounds and experiences, as well as a society which is in transition from having known so many years of high growth and full employment to one dealing with a much less certain future. I had spoken in this House before on the very positive experience of all parties when you have a happy confluence of determined and adaptable workers and employers willing to take on mature employees in the instance of our experience in healthcare. We must find the occasion to highlight more of such success stories. There is, however, a long way to go yet to encourage many other Singaporeans to adjust their mindsets with regard to what constitutes an acceptable and worthy occupation. This applies to both individual Singaporeans looking for jobs as well as Singaporeans as a society in how we view workers. A recent encounter reminded me both of the progress made as well as the way yet ahead. This has to do with the area of domestic services. I served in early 1997 on the Back-to-Work Committee of the then Ministry of Labour. We had identified domestic services as an industry which had potential to solve two problems concurrently. It is a great example of the win-win solutions we are always looking for. We thought it would help solve the problems of working women juggling a career and housekeeping responsibilities, without further increasing our reliance on foreign maids on the one hand, and providing opportunities for other women wanting to get back to work in an area that they would have the necessary skills and aptitudes on the other.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I welcome the proposed establishment of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency that will bring together various divisions of the Ministry of Manpower and SPRING Singapore. The issues that need to be addressed in tackling the challenges that lie ahead of us in ensuring employment opportunities for Singaporeans are multi-faceted and it will be good to have one agency that can focus its entire attention and energies on this task. MOM and SPRING Singapore must be given kudos for the many and varied training and reskilling programmes that they have already developed and introduced in the recent couple of years, even without the existence of the WDA, and the generous funding that they have made available to support these programmes. However, the support and provision of training and reskilling programmes is only one small part, in fact, the first step in the whole picture and process. What we want and need is ultimately, that the worker is placed in a job, that he stays in the job, that he makes a good contribution to his employer and that he earns a wage that allows him to discharge his financial obligations and maintain a reasonable living. There are many other factors that will significantly impact on WDA's effectiveness and ability to deliver on this ultimate goal. These include Singaporeans' mindsets and attitudes towards work, both as individuals as well as a society; the realities that Singaporeans face in earning a viable living in the face of the complex impact of CPF contributions on take-home pay and the ability to pay mortgages on the one hand, and the issue of business cost on the other; and finally what we can do in the whole area of self-employment.”
“But the path ahead will be uneven and we will not get to our destination overnight. In our hospitals in the coming weeks, we will have good days free of news of new infection, and bad days when the frailty of human nature results in a breach in our precautions and consequent minor setbacks. So long as these are minor and isolated setbacks, we will still be in reasonable shape. Our biggest challenge now is not the immediate mobilisation to the highest level of alert. It will be the ability to sustain these efforts beyond the immediate into the mid-term, beyond next week into next month. This is what is constantly on my mind these days, even as I am nagging, hassling and encouraging my people, as we are ramping up our measures how to sustain this extraordinary effort for the longer term. To help ease the burden on our hospitals and healthcare workers and to simplify our tasks, we need the public's support and cooperation to accept these inconveniences and restrictions. I am confident that we will beat this bug. But to do so, we need to work together with the understanding and cooperation of the public and, where necessary, with the backing of the force of the law. The proposed amendments to the Infectious Diseases Act will give Government the muscle and the tools to do this. Sir, I support the Bill.”
“Sir, SARS has been with us for some six weeks since mid-March. I do not think that we would claim to know all that there is about the virus - far from it. But we have been learning painfully but quickly, and the enemy is now no longer so unknown to us. We have the experience of TTSH which has been leading the vanguard of our troops in this battle. We know what we need to do to beat the bug. I am not surprised that our healthcare workers have responded without hesitation to the situation, their own fears notwithstanding. All our days and all our hours are now focused on SARS-related needs and issues. Not just our frontline healthcare workers, but our staff who are usually in the backroom have been mobilised and trained to help with screening and triaging and contact tracing, and all of them have responded to take on these new and additional duties. The first challenge was coming to a realisation of this new enemy in our midst. Next, coming to an understanding of what it takes to deal with it. For a while, we hesitated, still trying to balance tough measures and restrictions with concerns about convenience and compassion for our patients and their visiting families. I think we are well past this now, recognising what is necessary for the greater good. Now that we have put a high level of precautions and protective measures in place in our hospitals, we must work hard and relentlessly on getting out of old habits and old practices and being constantly on high alert, constantly remembering all the small but important things that we should do and must do and cannot do as we look after our patients, never letting our guard drop. This is very hard to do, but we must try our best. We will beat this bug.”
“Whilst we are still grappling with various schemes, measures and policies, I would like to zoom in on two main areas that have to do with changing the mindsets of couples intending to get married, and couples who are already married, in the hope that this might encourage more couples to go in for responsible marriages, and then to work at their marriages with the level of commitment that is required. I am referring specifically to marriage preparation courses and marriage enrichment courses. I understand that the Government is not ready to make marriage preparation courses mandatory for ROM marriages. If such is the case, what steps are taken to enhance the role of religious organisations, for example, mosques and churches, VWOs and the GROs in organising such courses? We understand that with a materialistic lifestyle and with the onslaught of globalisation, the whole institution of marriage and having responsible parents and families is probably in danger of erosion here. So we need to take active steps. Maybe such courses could be even eligible for not just subsidies for the service providers, but also tax-breaks or subsidies under Continuing Education and Training programme. We have to take this very seriously now, and not just leave it to individuals to figure out the value systems, the roles and responsibilities on an ad hoc basis.”
“So, at this point in time, what I do want to raise for Government's consideration is whether or not we should be looking for examples, like the European experiences, to see what lessons we can learn from them. In the traditional and conservative South European countries of Italy and Spain, the fertility rate has gone south, so to speak, all the way to 1.2. In the Northern European countries, the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Finland, where the Government has pulled out all the stops to support family formations, in terms of very high subsidy for childcare, like over 80%, providing very generous paternal leave, and aggressively promoting fathers' involvement, the rate is at the level of 1.8. So, are we willing to pull out all the stops and go to this extent? If we are unable to persuade more young Singaporeans to get married and to have children, maybe to have one or two, or more children, the only other alternative is to grow our population entirely through incoming migration. Do we throw in the towel and settle for this option? Can the Minister share with us what might be the thoughts of the leadership on this very important issue, upon which hangs our continued long term existence? Indeed, Mr Charles Chong did talk about extinction. It is an issue as important, if not more so, than our cost competitiveness, which is getting so much attention now, and the quality of our workforce, as it addresses, in fact, whether we will have a workforce at all. Assoc. Prof. Ngiam Tee Liang: Sir, like the hon. Member, Dr Jennifer Lee, the issues regarding the family are actually very far-reaching, wide and complex.”
“Mr Charles Chong has mentioned incentives like Baby Bonus Scheme and the Inter-Ministerial Committee. Mrs Yu-Foo has just talked about the promotional part, the PEC on the family. There are many other efforts that MCDS is making, including a very good Work-Life Unit that does tremendous work in supporting and promoting good work-life practices. We have now maternity leave for the third child, and in the civil service, sick child care leave has been extended to fathers as well. For all of these efforts, our fertility rate has not budged one bit. In fact, it has budged, but has gone in the wrong direction. My question now is: what do we do next? Simple enhancements - like further developing child- minding services and home-help services to be delivered at community level, beyond CDC level down to Residents' Committees, and even block level, trying to replicate the old informal neighbour-type networks, and being more targeted with the different messages to different groups, like the higher educated women may have more flexibility in their choices, whereas for those from the lower economic strata for whom dropping out of the workforce is not an option, and they cannot totally decide on that - may not actually make any impact at all. There are three big categories of determinants of fertility rates, and that is, economic, social, cultural and institutional. And all of them interplay and all three of them are important in a couple's decision to start a family. Across the board, are we truly doing all that we can to address all the issues in all the three areas? It is impossible to try to cover all of the grounds in a 2-minute cut.”
“PRIME was launched in 1999 and anticipated at that time to take seven years to complete. I believe that the programme must have been accelerated, as by the 2001 Budget debate, which was just two years later, the Minister reported that 46% of schools had already undergone redevelopment under PRIME. It is now another two years since 2001, so I am sure that PRIME would almost certainly be at completion or very close to now. Therefore, may I ask the Minister to please reconsider the implementation of single session primary schools as it will be of significant benefit to all parties - the schools, teachers, parents and family life.”
“In these first 35 minutes of the debate on the Education budget, four Members before me have asked for single session primary schools. I would like to add my voice to theirs. The benefits of single session schools have been enumerated in this House by other Members in previous Budget debates as well. And to quote the Minister himself, they include the greater flexibility in the use of curriculum time and resources for the schools, a wider range of enrichment programmes to cater to students of different abilities and family backgrounds in a more vibrant school culture. Besides the educational imperatives and benefits of a single session system, it will, in addition, allow schools to push their starting time a little later, from the current 7.00 am or so to, say, 8.30 am, so that our poor children and their mums, who have to get them ready for school, do not have to get up at unearthly hours, which they do currently, to be on time. Furthermore, single session schools will be a boon to parents who currently have to juggle getting their children to and from school and supervising them after they get home. This is particularly significant for families who have two, three or more children. We wish there were more of these families. Somehow, it seems there is a special variance of the equivalent of Murphy's law for schools which determines that if you have two children, they will invariably always be in different sessions, morning and afternoon, every year, throughout their primary school days. When the Minister responded last to a question on this subject in the debate of 2001, he said that MOE would consider whether to have single session primary schools when PRIME was closer to completion.”
“But what I am talking about is the uniform delivery of a quality curriculum in these two areas across all schools, and the development and appreciation for aesthetics through the learning of the arts and the love for sports, rather than an aversion that develops as a result of being required to participate in some less than inspiring physical activity programme, developing the love for sports, to build character, team spirit and healthy competitiveness. Since I have referred in passing to the subject of the Sports School, I cannot but make the observation here as well that the announcement that the school will not accept Normal Stream students is sadly at odds with all that we have been, in recent times, saying about professing to value and to want to nurture diversity and to value youngsters with different skills and talents. This inability to get beyond, first and foremost, academic abilities above all, will cost us many youngsters with different talents to fall through the cracks in our selection processes and criteria. 2.00 pm”
“Sir, I sat last year on the ERC Sub-committee on Enhancing Human Capital. The Workgroup on Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation noted that, while our school system has done well in science, technology and mathematics, there is an urgent need to pay equal attention to literature, arts and sports education. Further, school teachers need to understand the purpose of literature, arts and sports education, less to help talented students to become artists or sportsmen, but more to build character and skills to understand human relationship and appreciate aesthetics, to nurture a receptive mindset for both the arts and sports and to be creative individually. Thus, our literature, arts and sports education policy should be such that every one, not only the talented few, is given the opportunity to experience. I would like to propose therefore that, notwithstanding the plans, when the Arts School and the Sports School are targeted at nurturing and developing those youngsters with the talent to make it to the apex of these disciplines, we should place literature, arts and sports as an essential part of school education in general. I expect that the Minister will say that our children do currently have arts and sports in their curriculum and give us examples of even some neighbourhood schools which have showcased band, drama, sports, or other arts programmes and enumerate the number of teachers in each school trained in physical education.”
“I believe that a comprehensive study and cost benefit analysis into the cost of keeping elderly patients well cared for in the home environment, compared to the cost that is incurred the moment a patient needs to be admitted to a general hospital for acute episodes of an illness, a community hospital for rehabilitative care or a nursing home, will be most helpful to the Ministry, as the trade-offs and balances in setting long-term policies and decide on resource allocation for many services for the elderly that need to be established and developed, including the issues of level of norm cost and subsidies and use of Medisave.”
“This was a significant step as it signalled the importance that the Ministry puts on home healthcare and the funding is much appreciated. The subsidy provided is subject to means-testing and is tied to a norm cost of $120 per doctor visit for up to two visits per month and $55 per nurse visit, up to eight visits per month. This approach of per visit reimbursement in home care is not ideal in that it perversely encourages providers to be less efficient and make more frequent visits. This is even more so when the norm cost of both doctor and nurse visits based on Tsao Foundation experience is low on a per visit basis, but potentially very generous on a yearly basis. You can claim up to $2,880 for doctors and $5,280 for nurses, adding up to a total of $8,160 per annum. So there is a tendency to encourage them to make more visits, rather than just what is necessary. Might the Ministry therefore wish to consider reimbursement based on care over a specified period, say, monthly, rather than on a per visit basis? The Minister has responded to Dr Chong Weng Chiew regarding the use of Medisave for home healthcare. I would like to pick up on the Minister's point regarding the possibility, indeed, I believe the likelihood, that good home healthcare will reduce in-patient episodes.”
“Currently, many VWOs, while having the best of intentions, say that their efforts are compromised with the constant concern regarding finding adequate funding for their activities, despite Government subsidies. Norm costs that are calculated based on current level of activity and standards will likely be too low and tie the VWOs into a vicious cycle. So, might we want to consider putting in place a two-tiered level of norm cost, with the top set at a very generous level but tied in rigorously to professional management and stringent requirements on standards of care while the bottom level can stay at current norms? Finally, regarding assessing of funding and subsidies, most of my points have already been taken up by Dr Lily Neo. The only other point I wanted to bring up was that, as the patient navigates through various parts of the system, from outpatient and day-care to residential care and home care, the process of means-testing is sometimes repeated over and over again, because each provider requires slightly different items of information based on their estimation of what they subsequently need to satisfy an MOH auditor. Might it not be a good idea for the Ministry to specify a standard set of assessment criteria since all the subsidies that may be disbursed through it, and if some are also disbursed through MCDS, then to engage MCDS into the picture, so that we can do the processing only once? These are for the Minister's consideration. On my second cut, Sir, may I declare at this point that I sit on the Board of the Tsao Foundation which is a not-for-profit organisation providing home healthcare for the needy in Singapore. In October 2002, MOH implemented subsidy for home care providers.”
“That investment has yielded good results, with GPs demonstrating that they are keen to upgrade and indeed willing to invest in their own development. Three batches of GPs have since signed up for the two-year course. The first batch of 40 had graduated and the latest batch numbers 70. These GPs pay their own fees of about $3,600. Why not take the route to widen the scope of the PCPS, and tie it into the GDFM qualification? It would be a win-win situation for all involved. With regard to the provision of residential care, MOH has set aside 17 parcels of land for commercial nursing homes to encourage the development of the private sector. What is the Minister's level of satisfaction on how this is progressing? Three parcels of land had been awarded. What have the outcomes been? What is the current thinking regarding VWOs versus private sector provision of residential care services for the elderly? If the intent is to promote private sector participation, I believe that we must set the parameters so that we do not end up with developers jumping into the arena, thinking there is an opportunity for a property play. One hears the usual private sector feedback that they are somewhat squeezed between competing with the restructured hospitals for staff and in this sector, competing with the VWOs whose capital costs are highly subsidised. The result may be a tendency to warehousing, to squeeze as many batches as possible out of each project with less than satisfactory standards. With regard to standards of care, I expect that, with notable exceptions of course, there is room for improvement in this area. The question is how to achieve this.”
“It has been over three years since the report of the IMC on the Aging Population was published in November 1999. One major area identified was for attention to be paid to healthcare needs of the elderly. In the period, since the Ministry of Health has moved many initiatives and programmes for the elderly, I would like to ask the Minister for his assessment and satisfaction with the progress made so far, and to put forward a few suggestions for his consideration. In particular, I would like his observation with regard to the following components in the delivery of an integrated healthcare service to elderly Singaporeans: (1) The roles of GPs in the system; (2) The role of VWOs in the private sector in the provision of residential care; (3) Raising standards of care and service of providers; and (4) Assessing subsidies. Regarding the GPs, I know that the Minister has already responded to earlier speakers on the PCPS. I do have one additional point to make on the subject. The Minister has said that extending the reach of the PCPS is the current priority. However, I believe that there is a need to enrol both senior citizens as well as sign up more GPs into the scheme. Dr Lily Neo has spoken of the restrictions on management by the GPs of chronic illnesses and this may be a reason why some GPs have not signed up. If there is a concern that GPs are not quite up to the job, should we not be looking to upgrading the skills and competence of the GPs since they form a wide network? Indeed, the intent captured in the 1992 White Paper was that 80% of primary care is to be provided by GPs. The Ministry had invested in a grant with the College of Family Practitioners in 1999 to develop the Graduate Diploma in Family Medicine (GDFM).”
“The economies of scale to run such a centre are just not there to make the enterprise viable without a huge subsidy, something small companies are not in a position to undertake, and the number of staff benefit is small. In a big industrial or business development, however, the employees of many companies sited within such a complex would find a childcare centre, conveniently located somewhere within the complex, most useful and, with their combined numbers, make the running of such an establishment a viable proposition. As part of our on-going efforts to create a family-friendly environment - an important consideration, both from the perspective of our on-going attempts to boost our fertility rate as well as being an integral part of the enhanced working environment that the ERC seeks to make a reality - I hope that the Minister will give this proposal consideration this time.”
“Sir, three Budget debates ago, I asked the Minister if he would consider granting gross floor area (GFA) exemption for space to be set aside in business and industrial complexes for childcare or multi-service centres as one component of a total approach to creating a family-friendly environment in Singapore. The Minister thought that developers should be willing to provide such facilities on their own volition, as it would surely add to the attractiveness of their developments. Sir, in the ERC report which was released just last month, one of the recommendations, in the segment addressing land issues, was to grant more GFA exemptions to encourage the provision of communal areas for residential developments and common areas for commercial developments, so as to improve the quality of the living and working environment. I am therefore encouraged to try my luck at persuading the Minister yet again to make similar GFA concessions for space set aside, specifically for childcare centres in business and industrial complexes, as I cannot think of any better way of improving the living and working environment, than by providing more on-site or near-workplace childcare centres. Childcare arrangement is one of the two most important factors cited by women in enabling them to balance their work and family responsibilities. Apart from the quality of care provided, convenience of location is an important factor. Best for the parents are childcare centres conveniently sited at a location near to home or a workplace centre. Generally, only big companies with large establishments would even consider having an on-site childcare centre, as it makes little sense for a small company with a small staff to set up one of its own.”
“For Government buildings, I would be less reticent in asking for more rigorous implementation of the good practice guidelines, and I hope that the Ministry of National Development will use its good offices to push its fellow Ministries and Government agencies in this direction. Finally, I believe that some objections to the mandatory requirements come not only from developers, based on cost concerns, but also from some architects who want to preserve more leeway for creative design. I would like to encourage our architects that their creativity can be directed instead to how to incorporate elder-friendly features into building design at a minimum additional cost.”
“Madam, the Ministry of National Development has, in recent years, implemented various very good programmes towards making housing and the physical environment in Singapore more elder-friendly. Examples of these include the introduction of the Lift Upgrading Programme in 2001 - referred to by Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Dr Tan Boon Wan before me - and the Studio Apartment Scheme referred to by Ms Irene Ng just now. My NMP colleague, Mrs Fang Ai Lian, I know would be speaking later on retirement villages. I would like to refer to the Code on Barrier-free Accessibility in Buildings which was first published in 1990 and has been revised twice since, which prescribes features to help the wheelchair-bound and, now, the visually-impaired, the aged and families with young children negotiate their way around our buildings. The Code imposes both mandatory requirements as well as recommends good practice guidelines which are non-mandatory requirements. The most recent revision to the Code, in July last year, included four sets of guidelines on non-mandatory requirements to cover groups with special needs, including one set directed at older persons. To pre-empt the Minister, let me state that I am in full agreement with the philosophy that the less rules the better. So, I am not asking for all the good practice guidelines to be summarily made mandatory. However, I would ask that the Ministry regularly monitor the progress - developers are responding to the guidelines - and review, if necessary, the balance between the mandatory "shall" statements and the recommended "should" statements in the Code, and whether there should be a shift in balance that might be good over time. Next, Government buildings are exempted from the provisions of the Code and, instead, follow internal directives.”
“I would like to ask that, as we proceed to refine the CPF system, as recommended by the ERC, we consider, in addition, dividing the Special Account contribution into two, one half being in the name of the non-working spouse in a single income household. Women in Singapore are very fortunate in that the strong protection that family law here provides them in acknowledging the contribution of a non-working spouse in the division of matrimonial assets in the event of a divorce. There is no such provision in inheritance law and we have sad stories of widows left high and dry when their deceased husband's assets, including any CPF savings, are willed to other parties. In line with our promotion of strong family units and both partners in a couple, working together, raising children together and preparing for old age together, could we therefore consider, in addition, that, on the death of an account holder, the balances in the Special Account and the Medisave Account be transferred automatically to the surviving spouse since these two accounts are particularly meant to cater for one's basic needs in old age?”
“Sir, many of my colleagues have already spoken on various aspects of the CPF system. I would like to touch on just one current deficiency of CPF as the primary means of addressing financial needs of Singaporeans in their old age, namely, it does not cover homemakers whose contributions in the home and in attending to their family needs are not attributed economic value. The IMC on the Aging Population recommended in 1999 that this be addressed. But sadly, the ERC, in all its studied modifications proposed to the CPF system, did not follow up on this particular aspect. Although the female labour force participation rate is currently 54%, there are over 700,000 women who are homemakers - not holding a CPF account, not holding a job that draws a salary and, therefore, either having an inactive CPF account with minimal amount in their balance, or not having a CPF account at all. As these women will, in all probability, outlive their spouses, their financial situation will be precarious as it is uncertain what their husbands will have left them as remaining balances in their CPF account, or other savings or, indeed, if they will have left their CPF balances to them at all. The work women do in attending to the responsibilities in the home are what enable their spouses to be productively and gainfully employed in the workforce and the upbringing of children prepares the next generation of citizens. It is surely then not too much to ask that this contribution be acknowledged by factoring into the system measures that will help to protect the women's financial situation in their old age.”
“They would not wish to jeopardise their own safety nor that of others. They would know that for themselves whether it is safe or not for them to travel during peak times. So there is no need to confine them to off-peak periods. Under such circumstances, would the Minister kindly initiate a review of existing public transport regulations that impede opportunities for senior citizens to be gainfully employed and to enjoy active ageing? This is also in line with the thrust of the Economic Review Committee's recommendations regarding employment of older workers. I know that this has been brought up before in this House and the older persons would just like the Minister to please review and assist them as far as possible, and thus make their day.”