CREDIT COUNSELLING SINGAPORE (Indebted consumers seeking assistance)

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CREDIT COUNSELLING SINGAPORE:

(Indebted consumers seeking assistance): 5.

Assoc. Prof. Ong Soh Khim asked the Senior Minister since the official launch of the Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) in 2004 (a) how many indebted consumers have approached CCS for assistance; (b) what is the distribution of these indebted consumers in terms of age groups, monthly salary, amount of unsecured debt, number of debtors and race; and (c) how many of these indebted consumers have signed up for debt management programmes to structure their repayments to the banks.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (for the Senior Minister): Mr Speaker, Sir, Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) is a non-profit organisation which helps consumers recover from serious debt problems by providing them with credit counselling and, where applicable, helping them to work out a debt repayment plan.

CCS is registered as a Charity and is a member of the National Council of Social Service. It is not a Government agency. So we do not have detailed data profile of the borrowers. However, MAS understands from CCS that they counselled over 1,100 individuals between August 2003 and December 2005. We also understand that CCS facilitated debt restructuring programmes for about 600 individuals over the period.

Mr Speaker: Any supplementary questions? We still have one minute more.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong: I have a supplementary question for Question 3, Sir.

Mr Speaker: No. We are on Question 5 now. If none, end of Question time.

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