Diary of Someone in Transition – Sydney Vs Singapore (Welfare programmes)
Scenic Sydney’s harbour front - Opera House
I arrived Sydney early yesterday morning and stepped into a 8-degree winter weather brrrrrrrrrrrr.
It was freezing cold for me as I tried to put on another long sleeved tee when I stepped out of the airport. A smelly cab driver from Jordan also did not help the crumpy feeling I had when I arrived into Sydney at 5am. I hate plane rides as I could not rest easily and my chronic backache flares up especially when I sat for more than 2 hours at one stretch. I am a poor traveller for those who knew me.
Nevertheless, it felt good to return to my family whom I have not seen for six months. Nothing beats absence makes the heart grows fonder feeling.
My daughter has grown and she looked matured at age 15. However, her girlish squeals still very much resonated from her sharp voice. God has she grown! Her face took on a more matured countenance as she hits adolescence – a period that mostly cause young people to get moody and temperamental.
We talked like never before today catching up on times lost and events that happened when we were absent from each other’s life.
My wife journeyed to work this morning as I went to bed after going sleepless in the British Airline plane. we will catch up more later when she return from home.
Sydney is a vibrant city but now is a little beseiged by the rioting by Indian students who complained against apparent “curry bashing” in West Sydney. Indians were seemed to be targetted by the Lebanese for gang crimes.
It is true that Sydney is not as safe as other states due to it’s high influx of foreigners in r3ecent years. Many foreigners tend to flock to Sydney during the early waves of immigration as it is a vibrant city now containing close to 8 million people. Many people in fact mistaken Sydney as the capital city of Australia.
We all know that this is not true – Canberra is the capital of Australia.
There are at least 2 million people unemployed in Australia now. However, they have unemployment welfare for a year subject to conditions. Each month, the unemployed will receive around $800 in unemployment social welfare. The social welfare system is deemed as over generous and also costly to the state.
This is one main reason why the people here pay ridicuously high taxes to fund such expensive welfare social programmes. Sometimes, people avoided promotion here as it does not help that whatever money they have earned half of it (yes maximum taxes is 50%) is given to the state coffers to fund such expensive welfare programmes that only help the state government to get re elected again.
Just today, I heard that the state government in Sydney has raise GST to fund their expenses. It only goes to show that high welfare equates high taxes. The state coffes here is always in deficit due to the high welfare system that the state believes in. The railway system that needs money to upgrade into western Sydney is still in doldrums due to a ;ack of funds. The Sydney railway line has not being upgraded since a decade ago and many in the outskirt region of Sydney have to either drive or take change different transport modes to go to work in the city.
In Singapore, however, our welfare programmes may be too focused on just helping the poor which now forms about 20% of our population. If you earn below $1000 a month you are considered poor? if you earn above $1800 you then are not entitled to any welfare from the government. The type of HDB homes you stay also may be the reason why you could not have access to our welfare handout never mind that you only earn $1500 a month to feed your family of four. If you stay in a HDB 5-room, then good luck to you. Unless you sell away and downgrade to a 4-room flat, you are deemed “rich” and able to afford a lifestyle befitting the 5-roomers.
I know for sure that CDC will not grant any welfare to anyone staying above HDB 4-room. Those staying in private homes are largely shut out of our welfare schemes except for retraining or job counselling.
Thus such welfare programmes, meant to help the poor mostly, may seem to be too narrow based and often people fall through the safety net as they are cut off due to stringent rules. i have also heard how applicants who could not produce even one mandatory form were dropped from welfare application scheme.
Moving forward, I find that Sydney needs to perhaps scale back it’s overly generous welfare programmes. Already, few months back, they have abolished dishing out monthly transport grants to all school going children. This grant is given to ALL school going children regardless of their wealth status. Each school going kid will get around $100 a month and it costs the government around $800 million just by funding such a transport subsidy for school going children. Surely, welfare must be given to those who deserve them. In this regard, Singapore perhaps is doing the right thing by only giving out aid to those who need it.
The only grouse of our need-based system is that it is too strict in it’s application and naturally restrictive in it’s selection on whom it wants to help. By placing too many check in place to screen out potential abusers, it has actually also deter needy applicants who may not take too kindly to it’s overly stringent application procedures.
A potential aid applicant needs to fill up a 5-page financial aid form not unlike those use by financial planners. Only this time, it will dictate your CPF balance, job history, savings account and family members detailed information. Much investigative work is also needed due to the complex application system used with some aid recipients receiving their assistance only many weeks after application.
Permission has to be given to aid officers who then will check out your CPF and savings account balance. You also need to produce most of your family members information staying together with you never mind that they can be a sister or father in law who are earning an income but not contributing to the household. This is to facilitate their calculation of per capita income – used by aid officers to determine whether that you have exceed their minimal income quota before aid can be given out.
For example, if members of the same household earn a total income of $3000 a month and there are six people staying in the same roof, then $3000 divide by 6 members give you $500 per capita income for that household. If I can remember correctly during my stint working in CDC, any aid applicant with a per capital income of $300 and above will automatically be denied aid.
Such a scheme is not only flawed but also erroneous in aid calculation. For example, it never takes into account how money is used by the family. Some families with young children and aged parents staying together definitely use up more money than those with just working adults staying together. Sandwiched families continue to be sidelined by such complex strict application procedures.
It is hope that our government will relax some of it’s procedures for aid applicants so that our new poor – the lower middle class – will be able to receive some form of assistance in this down turn especially when many breadwinners are jobless.
I believe that people back home are very self reliant and will not resort to hand out unless necessary. Many people that I met during Transitioning work never go to CDCs for any welfare. They prefer to depend on their own network and also their ego simply does not allow them to seek financial aid easily. The government’s fear that our people will abuse welfare has to change.
No related posts.
Comments
No comments yet.