S’poreans submitted 2,300 appeals for Silver Support Scheme
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — An income supplement for elderly Singaporeans at the bottom of the financial ladder has received 2,300 appeals from those deemed ineligible so far, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said in Parliament on Tuesday (Sept 13).
Most of the appeals for the Silver Support Scheme are still pending, because the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board has yet to receive more information from the seniors to “reassess their eligibility”, Mr Lim said.
To qualify for the scheme, citizens aged 65 and above must meet certain criteria pertaining to their lifetime wages, housing type and household monthly income per person.
About 140,000 seniors received their first payouts ranging from S$300 to S$750 in July this year. The income supplement is disbursed each quarter.
Without giving the figures, Mr Lim said that some of the appeals have been approved due to changes in the seniors’ circumstances, whereas others have been rejected because they “far exceeded” the threshold of the three criteria.
“There were also some marginal cases where seniors narrowly missed out on one criterion, but met the other criteria by a large margin,” he said. “For such appeals, we consider their circumstances in total and decide on a case-by-case basis.”
Member of Parliament (MP) Lim Biow Chuan quizzed the minister on the criteria for the scheme, which takes into account the income of children living with their parents.
“Residents say their children (live) with them to help them because they’re advanced in age, and because their children (live) with them, their household income has exceeded. The solution seems to be to ask children to shift out and that seems to defeat the purpose of having children look after them,” the MP said.
Mr Lim responded: “The solution is not for children to move out of the house or for seniors to move out of the house. The solution is for the children to continue to take care of the seniors.”
In response to a similar question from MP Louis Ng, Mr Lim added that ideally, the CPF Board would look at the financial support within a family, instead of within a household.
“But on the whole, no outcome is perfect. One of the key considerations of this scheme is that we’ll like to make the scheme as convenient for seniors as possible. For example, under the Silver Support Scheme, seniors need not apply for the silver support. For per-capita household income, we’re able to get information through various sources,” Mr Lim said.
Mr Lim added that the CPF Board has handled more than 28,000 enquiries pertaining to the scheme, and pioneer generation ambassadors have reached out to some 15,000 seniors to explain it.
