Under a policy review by the Social and Family Development Ministry announced on Jul 28, unwed working mothers may soon get the same benefits as married ones.
Welcoming the announcement, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) said children of unwed mothers should not be penalised for their family structure.
Unwed mothers currently do not benefit from housing policies and tax reliefs such as the Qualifying Child Relief, Working Mother Child Relief and Grandparent Caregiver Relief, and that makes it harder to raise a child, said a single mother.
Susan (not her real name) is a 40-year-old who works in the events industry. She hopes the revised policy will be fairer to unwed mothers and their children.
“What I’m requesting is very basic. These are basic necessities like housing, you need a roof over your head. I wanted to apply for a BTO flat but as a single, I can only apply for a two-room flat. But I can’t live with my child in a one-bedroom flat so I appealed to HDB to request to apply for a three-room BTO flat but it has been denied a couple of times. So I had no choice but to buy in the open market,” Susan said.
“Why would I want to share a room with my son? I mean, when he’s younger it’s fine but when he is older, I’m sure he would want his own room,” she added.
Under rules by the Housing and Development Board (HDB), an unwed mother and her child are not considered a family nucleus and therefore do not qualify for a new three-room flat.
AWARE said this puts these families at a disadvantage as they are not given the same support as other families.
Ms Jolene Tan, Programmes and Communications Senior Manager at AWARE, said: “If you can’t afford a resale flat, then you find yourself in the situation of perhaps having to seek the goodwill of other relatives or to go to interim rental housing and all of this can create instability in the family environment.”
AWARE acknowledged that unwed mothers are not excluded from all benefits. For example, they are eligible for infant care and childcare subsidies. But the association said unwed mothers should not be excluded from any benefits at all and should receive even more support from the government.
Nominated Member of Parliament Kuik Shiao-Yin, who has brought the issue of unfair treatment of single unwed mothers up in Parliament previously, said that the review of policies is encouraging to hear. She added that this is an equalisation of opportunities as children of single unwed mothers can now start off on the same footing as children of married mothers.
The policy review is expected to be completed before the announcement of Budget 2016.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
