UTILITY VOUCHERS TO VULNERABLE FAMILIES

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UTILITY VOUCHERS TO VULNERABLE FAMILIES:

(Expansion of provision to all Community Development Councils): 10.

Assoc. Prof. Kalyani K Mehta asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports whether he will consider expanding the provision of utility vouchers to vulnerable families to all Community Development Councils (CDCs) so that such families living outside the North West and South West CDCs' boundaries may not run the risk of having their power supply cut off.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Government provides extensive help for needy families. Under the $3 billion package which will be given to Singaporeans this year, low-income households will receive Utility-Save (U-Save), Service and Conservancy Charges and rental rebates on top of the GST Credits, Senior Citizens Bonus and Growth Dividends. These families will

also receive top-ups to their Medisave accounts and their children's post secondary education accounts. Prime

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Minister Lee had also announced an additional support package amounting to $256 million during the National Day Rally. This comprises a 50% increase in the total amount of Utility-Save rebates and a 50% increase in the remaining instalment of Growth Dividends (GD) to be given out in fiscal year (FY) 2008. With this 50% increase in Utility-Save rebates, HDB households could receive between $120 and $330 in total Utility-Save rebates in 2008, depending on their flat type. Taking all this help together, a low-income family of three living in a 3-room HDB flat could receive benefits of about $5,400 this year. This sum includes Utility-Save rebates of $310 and would help to offset the recent increase in their cost of living.

HDB households will also continue receiving Utility-Save rebates over the next three years as part of the GST offset package which was announced in 2007. Those living in smaller HDB flats will get more rebates. This will help low and middle-income households to offset utility bills directly.

Nonetheless, there will be those families who need more help. The ComCare Work Support Programme is a nationwide workfare-based programme which seeks to help workers upgrade their skills and find a job. In the interim, it provides such families with financial assistance, help for their utilities, rental, and service and conservancy bills, childcare and student care subsidies, and medical and educational assistance. Currently, about 4,000 households benefit from the Work Support Programme.

As part of the Many Helping Hands approach which encourages active partnership between the Government and organisations from other sectors of society, Singapore Power Services has offered the "Pay-As-You-Use" (PAYU) scheme to help families with significant arrears to have their power supply

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reconnected while allowing them to settle their arrears over time. PAYU also enables households to better manage their electricity consumption.

Mr Speaker, Sir, Community Development Councils (CDCs) are free to formulate their own schemes and programmes which are tailored to best meet the specific needs of their local communities. North West and South West CDCs' provision of utility vouchers to vulnerable families within their districts are commendable examples of such ground-up efforts. Besides utility vouchers, there are also other avenues available for families who need assistance with utility bills. For example, grassroots leaders can tap on the Citizens' Consultative Committee (CCC) ComCare Fund to provide needy families with temporary cash assistance to settle the bills. As announced in March 2008, the Government will be topping up the CCC ComCare Fund by $5 million over the next four years. With this boost, there will be $6.25 million per year available in the CCC ComCare Fund.

Besides paying for utility bills, CDCs also have in place programmes to meet their communities' unique and more pressing needs. For example, some CDCs fund meal delivery programmes or food ration distribution efforts for needy residents.

In addition to this, we have in place ComCare Local Networks (CLNs) that encourage greater collaboration between the various social service agencies, such as the CDCs, Grassroots Organisations (GROs) and Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs). CLNs allow these agencies to share best practices and ideas on how to assist the needy in their districts more effectively. CLNs also provide a platform for successful local schemes to be surfaced to the relevant Ministries for consideration of possible replication on a larger scale.

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There are adequate resources and many helping hands to ensure that no one falls through the cracks. Those who need help to make ends meet can approach their Community Development Council, Family Service Centre or grassroots leaders for help. They can also call the ComCare Call service at 1800-222 0000.

Assoc. Prof. Kalyani K Mehta (Nominated Member): I would like to thank the Minister of State for her response. I want to find out roughly how many families have benefited from the voucher scheme in these two CDCs.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: Like I said, the voucher scheme is a local scheme. It is $10 per voucher, and the South West and North West CDCs give each CCC up to 100 vouchers. So if you ask me, the CCC ComCare Fund available per CCC is about $50,000 to $60,000 a year, which is much larger than the value of these utility vouchers. So we leave it to the Mayor to decide which one is more effective. But we feel that a token of help is still better than none.