The study found that housing, healthcare, education and childcare accounted for a significant proportion of spending for all household types - 28 per cent of the budget for two-parent households, and 39 per cent for single-parent households. He suggested that there were two options, either rebalance the private and public provision of public services such as education and healthcare, or improve wage interventions such as PWM. While the study offers a scientific benchmark for policymakers to refer to, it does not prescribe a way to help close the gap, said Dr Ng. The Silver Support Scheme covers only 11 per cent to 21 per cent, the study found. The CPF Basic Retirement Sum, which pays out $800 a month, covers only 56 per cent of what a single elderly person needs. Workers who are 60 years old and above make a median monthly wage of $2,330.īut elderly people depending on Central Provident Fund payouts may find themselves short, while those needing public assistance would be a long way from achieving a basic standard of living, the study found. Income data suggests that older workers would have just enough to cover this. He added that if such households depend on employment in PWM sectors such as cleaning as their only source of income, they are likely to experience significant financial strain, calling for wage intervention to go further than the PWM currently does.įor elderly households with one person, basic needs will cost $1,421 a month. "Clearly, interventions currently available are not enough for working households with children," said Dr Ng. ![]() The Progressive Wage Model (PWM) and Workfare Income Supplement were also inadequate in helping to make up the difference, with wage levels under these schemes coming up to about 60 per cent of what the single-parent and two-parent households need. The youngest workers, as well as those without tertiary education and those in certain low-wage sectors, would fall short if they belonged to these single-parent and two-parent households.įor example, cleaners and labourers take home a median monthly income of only $1,535, while salespeople make $2,345. However, the study found that some groups were at risk of falling below this minimum. The study's authors suggested that this can be a starting point for a socially acceptable living wage for Singapore, which will allow people to meet their basic needs. It also updated its findings on households with a single elderly person, by accounting for inflation, among other things.Īdopting the household budgets as benchmarks and comparing them with data on actual income from work, the study found that after taking major taxes and benefits into account, workers earning the equivalent of the median wage in 2020, which stood at $4,534, will make more than enough to cover the needs of the single-parent and two-parent households.īased on the study, the average wage per working parent needed to meet the basic standards of living is $2,906 per month. This time, it covered younger households, including those with a single parent with one child aged two to six, and those with parents with two children, one aged seven to 12 and the other aged 13 to 18. The LKYSPP-NTU team had done a previous study in 2019, focusing on elderly households. The MOF said the budgets arising from the study were in excess of the basic needs for an average household. This method differs from other methods of assessing needs, which typically depend on experts and household expenditure. Instead, these budgets apply universally for all Singaporeans, he added.Ī total of 196 participants of different genders, ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds took part in 24 focus group discussions. These lists were then combined to form the budget of various configurations of households.ĭr Ng said a critical pillar of the MIS approach is to ensure that each focus group is economically diverse, so the budgets resulting from the discussions are not just for particular segments, say the rich or poor. The researchers went to shops or websites mentioned by the participants to find out the real price of each item. ![]() Based on this definition that emerged from focus group discussions, researchers then convened more focus groups for people to come up with lists of items people from different stages of life will need.
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