by MP for Aljunied GRC, Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap
Chairman Sir,
1. Sir, the SPH’s School Pocket Money Fund has done good work providing children from low-income families with pocket money to attend school. Over the years, we have heard many heartening stories of how needy children benefited from the SPMF. However, I would like to suggest a few improvements in the administration of the fund, so that the SPMF can better achieve its objective of alleviating the financial burden for children from low-income families.
2. Firstly, the SPMF acceptance criteria currently states that it is compulsory for clients to undergo Casework and Counselling with a social worker, in order to receive assistance. In many cases, however, clients do not require these counselling services as they do not face any other social or family issues. Take Client A, for example. She is a homemaker with three school-going children. Her husband is the sole bread-winner, drawing a take-home pay of about $1,500. The children do well academically since our client is able to supervise the children’s studies at home. The family also has minimal arrears because they budget their expenses carefully, yet they could use some assistance to ease their financial burden, especially since a substantial portion of the family’s household income goes to the children’s school and daily expenses.
3. Sir, making Casework and Counselling a compulsory criteria in SPMF applications could potentially deter people like Client A from applying for financial assistance under the SPMF as they may find it a hassle to go through the Casework and Counselling process when they do not have any issues to work on. Yet, the financial assistance could make a huge difference in enhancing the family’s quality of life, thereby allowing the children to better focus on their studies. From an administrative perspective, we should also free up our social workers from having to conduct Casework and Counselling for clients who do not really require the service, so that our social workers can focus their efforts on more urgent and complicated cases instead. I would therefore like to suggest that Casework and Counselling should only be required for SPMF applicants only when social workers assess that there is a real need for it. Thank you.