So, are there really
30% of Singaporeans who are really “POOR” and living in poverty in Singapore?
The news said the
government denied this.
Also, recently, I saw
news about this “Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS)” being expanded and you
can apply for this card to get additional subsidy for medical services/medicine
etc if you are “poor” enough. Obviously,
if you are NOT POOR then you should NOT be eligible for subsidy! After all, the subsidy is paid using tax-payers
money and the government should not be providing subsidy to people who are not
poor, not the middle-income families as well right?
So, I checked what is
the eligibility for obtaining this CHAS additional subsidy, and this accordingto this URL...
“Singapore
Citizens of all ages are eligible for CHAS if they meet the following
criterion:
§ Household
monthly income per person of $1,800 and below; OR
§ Annual
Value (AV) of residence as reflected on the NRICs of $21,000 and below for
households with no income.
Members
of the public who are on Public Assistance (PA) scheme do not need to apply as
they are already eligible for CHAS.”
Ok, so to be eligible
for CHAS card, you must have household monthly income per person of $1800 and
below. Assuming the average of 4 people
in a family, that means household monthly income of $7200 per month. Wow!
$7200 per month household income is still considered “poor” enough to be
eligible for additional medical subsidies from the government!
So how many percentage
of the households in Singapore are earning $7200 per month and below?
I did a search and
found at this URL... which says that:
“According
to a release by the Department of Statistics, among resident employed
households, median monthly household income from work increased from $7,570 in
2012 to $7,870 in 2013…”.
So, 40% or more of
Singapore households are earning below $7200 per month and they are eligible
for CHAS medical subsidies! That is even
more than the 30% poverty rate mentioned in the news article! If these people are not “poor” (according to
Singapore’s living costs’ standard), why should they be eligible for more
subsidies? Isn’t that a waste of
tax-payers money on people who don’t deserve it?
I leave it to all of
you to think about the 2 scenarios that are contradictory:
(a) Either 40% or more
of the Singaporeans are really “POOR” in Singapore that the Singapore
Government deemed it necessary to provide more subsidies to them via CHAS
subsidy scheme using tax-payers’ money OR:
(b) The Government is
providing UNNECESSARY subsidy to people who don’t deserve such subsidy and
wasting tax-payers’ money?
Which is true?
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