Minimum Household Expenditure

Mr Laurence Lien asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what is the Department of Statistics' (DOS) latest estimate of the Minimum Household Expenditure (MHE) for a four-person household; (b) how many working-age households have employment income below the MHE currently; and (c) whether DOS can publish annually the median total and per capita household income of working-age households, by percentiles.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minimum Household Expenditure, which was renamed the Average Household Expenditure on Basic Needs in 2006, is a measure of household expenditure on essential needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

The Average Household Expenditure on Basic Needs varies for households of different sizes. For a four-person household, it is estimated to be $1,250 in 2011. For households with fewer than four persons, it will correspondingly be lower. In 2011, around 4,830 four-person resident households with at least one working person, or what we called "employed resident households", had income from work, including employer CPF contributions, that fell below this level. So, 4,830 four-person households had income below $1,250. This represented less than 2% of all four-person resident employed households. Some of these households would have received cash grants or other forms of social welfare assistance from the Government, which would not have been included in the computation of household income from work. In addition, there are targeted assistance schemes, such as rental rebates as well as medical and education subsidies, in place to help such households.

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The Member also requested for annual data on household income. The Department of Statistics (DOS) publishes an annual report on "Key Household Characteristics and Household Income Trends" which contains commonly used indicators on household income. These include the median total and per capita household income from work, as well as the average total and per capita income from work of households in different deciles. The public can access this report from the DOS's website.