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Tag: Welfare

  • I’m From Low Income Family How Can I Get $9,806 Help From Government Schemes?

    I’m From Low Income Family How Can I Get $9,806 Help From Government Schemes?

    The survey also showed that households living in one-room and two-room HDB flats received more government transfers than those in larger flats or landed property.

    On average, resident households in one-room and two-room HDB flats received $9,806 per household member from various government schemes in 2016. This was almost double the average of $4,168 received per household member across all housing types.

    straightforward i frm low income, my wife look after my 3 childrens.for me i work dispatch.  altho we low income but we are happy as family.sometime wen i haf xtra i buy mcdonalds happy meal for my childrens bday.

    simple life is ok for us.as long i can send my childrens to school its ok whatever struggle is ok and we always pray to Him.

    what it is we will be syukur for the $9806 they say is give to people stay in 1 and 2 rm flat.not to be ungrateful what help we get now but the 9k is mean very much for us.what is the guideline for people who get that?

     

    Didi

    Reader Contribution

  • Religious Malays Breed Carelessly, Don’t Take Charge Of Their Lives, Perpetuate Handout Mentality

    Religious Malays Breed Carelessly, Don’t Take Charge Of Their Lives, Perpetuate Handout Mentality

    Melayu yang susah tapi anak ramai are usually from the alim tak alim type. It is also the same group that perpetuate that handout mentality.

    Beranak more than they can afford (besarkan anak bukan setakat bela bagi makan minum, there are college and uni fees to consider which most Malays dont) then expect the government to tanggung all their offsprings studies.

    Menyusahkan orang.

    Have what you can afford and not beyond that.

    Plan and think long term.

    Kalau asyik pikir berapa ramai nak baca doa depan kubur kitalah mentaliti bangang yang memperabihkan khazanah negara untuk nak dibela.

     

    Source: ML MelayuLama

  • 13 Year Old Adik Greatest Wish? To Break Fast With His Mother

    13 Year Old Adik Greatest Wish? To Break Fast With His Mother

    Ahmad is like many other 13-year-olds.

    He is bold, boisterous and is optimistic in a way only a young person can be.

    But his greatest wish is to break fast with his mother.

    For the second year in a row, he is spending Ramadan away from her.

    It is only when this subject was raised that we saw a change in the boy.

    “I’m quite jealous when I see some of the residents go out and break their fast with their family members,” Ahmad told The New Paper, with notable sadness.

    Ahmad (not his real name) has spent more than a year at Pertapis Children’s Home.

    According to Mr Sophian Kayat, the head of the home, Ahmad and his older brother were placed in the home’s care in March last year after a court order to protect them.

    Their mother had been abused by Ahmad’s stepfather.

    She stays in a separate welfare home.

    “

    I’m quite jealous when I see some of the residents go out and break their fast with their family members.

    — Ahmad

    When Ahmad was first admitted to the home, he understood why he was being separated from his mother, but it was still hard.

    “Ahmad is close to his mother so when he was first admitted here, he was moody and easily agitated,” said Ahmad’s case manager, Miss Hamidah Otheman, 25.

    “It took him three to four months before he was able to deal with his emotions and settle into life in the welfare home,” she added.

    Ahmad described last year’s fasting month: “I was very sad because it was the first time that I was fasting away from my mother.

    “This year, it’s better because I’m already used to it and I have friends here.”

    Ahmad breaking fast with some donors.
    BREAKING FAST: Ahmad breaking fast with donors. The donors had sponsored the food that day.

    When TNP visited the home in Kovan, Ahmad was having his school holidays.

    He and the other children at the home clamoured to play games during their morning break.

    During the school holidays, the children are allowed to play from 7.30am to 9am.

    He loves to play football. The home has a small field — about a quarter the size of a normal football field.

    “I support Chelsea and Fernando Torres is my favourite player,” he shared between kicks towards an old goalpost.

    A young resident at the home looking on as Ahmad and his friends play football.
    OBSERVING: A young resident at the home looking on as Ahmad and his friends play football.

    Even though Ahmad is away from his mother, but he does not complain about the home.

    In fact, he credits the home for helping him to get through the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), which he took last year.

    “The tuition and the support programmes that they have helped to push my grades up and I was able to pass my PSLE,” he said.

    Ahmad doing his worksheets which were given to him by the home.
    PRACTICE: Ahmad practicing the worksheets which were given to him by the home.

    “I want to study hard and get into polytechnic and study aerospace engineering,” said the secondary school student.

    “I heard that there are a lot of jobs as an aerospace engineer.”

    This is more than personal ambition. He wants to be able to give back to the welfare home.

    “Maybe in the future, I can sponsor an event for them or maybe make an activity programme for them,” he said.

    “

    Ahmad is close to his mother, so when he was first admitted here, he was moody and was easily agitated.

    — Miss Hamidah Otheman, Ahmad’s case manager at Pertapis

    But for now, all he wants is to be reunited with his mother.

    According to Mr Sophian, Ahmad’s wish may be granted in the near future.

    He says that the next stage for Ahmad is to spend and extended home leave with his mother.

    “So long as safety is not compromised, we should be heading towards reunification.”

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • 12 Year Old Abang Is Both Father And Mother To Young Siblings

    12 Year Old Abang Is Both Father And Mother To Young Siblings

    He cooks, dresses the kids up, takes them to school and stays up till 3am to finish his job.

    The 12-year-old is known simply as “Abang” (or big brother in Malay) to his siblings. We are not using his real name.

    He is a remarkable boy thrown into an unfortunate crisis. His biological father was allegedly abusive, his mother is unwell and his stepfather absent.

    To his younger siblings, including a 30-month-old brother, Abang is father, brother and when he feeds, mother too.

    His sad story begins with his parents’ divorce, five years after his birth.

    Abang’s mother, who wants to be known only as Madam Nora, 35, remarried in 2008.

    But Abang has not seen his stepfather since January after a slew of letters proclaiming outstanding credit card debts landed at Madam Nora’s mother’s flat in Woodlands.

    The couple moved to the current rental flat last August.

    Madam Nora, who has five children (three from her previous marriage and two with her current husband), says her husband owes $40,000.

    To make matters worse, doctors at Tan Tock Seng Hospital have deemed Madam Nora unfit for work until the end of this year because of her health.

    Before her injury, Madam Nora worked at the Woodlands Checkpoint as a Land Transport Authority customer service officer.

    With his mother visiting hospitals and clinics almost three times a week for diabetes and chronic shoulder injury, Abang has no choice but to hold the fort at home.

    “I need to help mama,” the soft-spoken boy tells The New Paper on Sunday during a visit to their two-room rental flat in Woodlands.

    He is set to take his Primary School Leaving Examination this year.

    “She is already sick and if I don’t help her, she will be alone,” he says.

    Every day after school, he prepares lunch – it is usually fried rice or instant noodles – for his four younger siblings.

    While his three siblings, aged 11, nine and seven, eat their lunch, Abang sits patiently feeding his 30-month-old brother.

    “I used to make lunch in the rice cooker. But now we have new pans, so it is easier to make makan (Malay for food) for my adik (Malay for younger siblings)”.

    The family is under the North West Home Fix Scheme, a collaborative effort between North West Community Development Council and Grassroots Organisations. The initiative aims to provide essential household items or repairs to upkeep basic living conditions.

    The family recently received donations comprising cookware, slow cooker, gas stove, kitchen cabinet and a mattress.

    ASSISTANCE

    They also get financial assistance from several agencies including the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).

    Madam Nora says the family receives a combined total of $1,270 from the two in cash every month.

    The young boy, 12,  allows himself briefly to be a boy again when he plays with his precious kendama toy. He has no digital devices, and hardly watches TV. The toy is packed neatly away and has pride of place in the bare house when he is done. He then goes and gets the younger children to do their homework. TNP PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

    An MSF spokesman says Madam Nora and her children are also provided with “Comcare financial assistance and assistance for medical, rental, utilities, and service and conservancy charges for the six-month period from July to December 2015”.

    The family also gets $100 worth of North West Food Vouchers monthly as part of the North West Food Aid Fund.

    To supplement the financial aid her family gets, Madam Nora prepares food packets for people who like her cooking.

    Abang has to help her and because of that, he usually goes to sleep at 3am three times a week.

    He tries his best at school and has passed all the subjects except mathematics.

    “Sometimes, when I am in school, I feel tired but usually, it is okay. I can stay awake,” he says. Abang and his three siblings attend a primary school that is a 15-minute walk from their home.

    Abang does not ask for anything for himself. But he does have one wish – to meet his football heroes. He says: “The LionsXII footballers are good. My favourite players are Khairul Amri, Sahil Suhaimi and Faris Ramli.”

    When asked what he would do if he got the chance to meet them, he laughs and says: “I don’t think I will get to meet them. They are big stars.

    “If I ever get the chance to meet them, I won’t know what to do but I think I will ask them to teach me ball tricks.”

    He then excuses himself and goes back to helping his siblings with their homework.

    “Sometimes, when I am in school, I feel tired but usually, it is okay. I can stay awake.”

    – Abang, who often goes to sleep at 3am three times a week because he has to help his mother prepare food packets

    Her hero amid health, money, marriage woes

    BOND: Madam Nora and her five children are close. TNP PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

    The young boy, 12,  allows himself briefly to be a boy again when he plays with his precious kendama toy. He has no digital devices, and hardly watches TV, looking after his younger siblings, cooking, and cleaning for them. The toy is packed neatly away and has pride of place in the bare house when he is done. He then goes and gets the younger children to do their homework.

    Madam Nora says she has not managed her diabetes.

    She also has a chronic shoulder injury which she says was caused by an unattended dislocation years before.

    According to a doctor’s letter, the injury means she is deemed unfit to work until the end of this year.

    Having Abang, who she calls her “commander-in-chief”, has eased her burden.

    “He really is my hero. He helps in any and every way that I need help, especially with the children.

    “I do feel bad sometimes but he knows that I need all the help I can get and he is willing to do it,” Madam Nora says.

    “Abang is also the only person I can confide in. He has matured quickly because he had to understand our situation.

    “He hasn’t failed me once.”

    Madam Nora recalls an incident when the financial situation was so bad that Abang took his daily $1 allowance from his mother, kept it for 30 days and subsequently put the $30 back into her wallet telling her “use it for yourself, mama”.

    Her first marriage – from which she had her three children – ended when her ex-husband turned into an abusive alcoholic, says Madam Nora.

    She tied the knot for the second time in 2008.

    She remains married to the man, whom she says works at Certis Cisco Security.

    But that relationship is troubled too. She has not seen him since January because he has been avoiding debt collectors over unpaid credit card debt amounting to $40,000.

    LETTERS FROM BANKS

    While the letters never reached their rental flat, Madam Nora has seen them – notices that came from two different banks – when the family lived at her mother’s flat.

    Her husband’s absence, especially during times of trouble, has not quite put Madam Nora past the marriage.

    She says he is still responsible towards the children.

    He turned up at the hospital to sign the paperwork for Abang when he went for an operation in February, allowing the child’s hospital expenses to be deducted from his CPF.

    Madam Nora says: “Abang is not his son. Yet he came to help sign off on his medical expenses”.

    “He helps in any and every way that I need help, especially with the children. 
I do feel bad sometimes but he knows that I need all the help I can get and he is willing to do it.”

    – Madam Nora on her eldest son

    A day in abang’s life

    6am: Abang wakes up and gets ready for school.

    6.45am: He takes his three younger siblings with him to school. It is a 15-minute walk.

    2pm: School ends.

    2.15pm: Abang and his siblings go to their grandmother’s flat, a 15-minute walk away to pick up their 30-month-old brother. They then walk 30 minutes to get home.

    2.25pm: He prepares lunch for his siblings. He also feeds his baby brother.

    3pm: They all take a shower. Abang bathes his youngest brother and puts him to bed for his afternoon nap. The rest start on their homework.

    5pm: Abang takes a nap.

    7pm: He helps his mother prepare dinner.

    8pm: He helps his mother put the youngest boy to bed.

    Midnight: He helps his mother prepare food orders for the next day. He also has to run errands including picking up groceries at the 24-hour supermarket nearby.

    2.45am: Abang and his mother finish all the food preparation for the next day.

    3am: He goes to bed.

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • Tan Jee Say: Lee Hsien Loong Should Stop Fear-Mongering Over Calls For More Welfare Benefits

    Tan Jee Say: Lee Hsien Loong Should Stop Fear-Mongering Over Calls For More Welfare Benefits

    Two days ago, PM told a large audience at SMU that Singapore has to raise the GST from 7 to 20% if we want Scandinavian style benefits to raise the fertility rate. He is wrong. His speech is here

    In SingFirst’s social safety net announced in February this year, we have provided for Scandinavian style welfare benefits to encourage childbirth such as 90% subsidies on childcare centre fee and child allowances of $300 per month for children up to age 12. In addition, we also proposed a range of other benefits for families by lowering the cost of living such as waiver of all fees from primary one to university, 30% reduction in public transport fares and old age pension of $300 per month for all senior citizens aged 60 and above. The total package costs only $6 billion a year and it can be financed from the investment return of around $8 billion that the government is allowed to use for annual budget spending. There is absolutely no need to raise the GST at all, much less to up it to 20%. Here’s a summary table of SingFirst’s safety net package

     

     

    Details of our package are in this posting  SingFirst’s social safety net

    It is highly irresponsible for a prime minister to simply pluck a figure from the air and use it to scare the people from putting forward their legitimate demands.  Stop your PAP-style scare-mongering to mislead the people. And lay out the facts and figures in full so that Singaporeans can know the truth and engage in a meaningful debate about what the government can do to help them lower their cost of living, raise children, look after the elderly and develop strong families.

     

    Source: Tan Jee Say