As at January this year, there were 410,000 Lasting Powers of Attorney registered by the Ministry. Momentum has built up, as the benefits of making LPAs become more widely understood.
My purpose today is to highlight two groups of people who may not be benefiting from the LPA regime for different reasons. They are first, those without any relative or friend to appoint, and secondly, our low-wage foreign workers.
First, those without any relative or friend to appoint. My party colleague Kenneth Tiong has elaborated on why the current LPA regime is not adequate in requiring named individuals and not organisations to take on professional doneeship to manage one’s personal welfare. I agree with him that we should consider enabling a donor to appoint the Public Guardian or the Public Trustee as donee, as we see in jurisdictions such as Australia. Such an option will assist these donors, as the appointment will withstand the passage of time.
The second group who currently have difficulties with LPAs are foreign workers in Singapore under work permits. Though they are relatively young, some of them work under conditions where the risk of serious injury including mental incapacity is ever present. Examples include those in physically-demanding industries such as the construction and marine sectors. These migrant workers do not have next of kin in Singapore, and their friends may not be conversant with navigating Singapore’s systems and services. Should they suddenly lose mental capacity, they would benefit if a donee could assist them to make decisions about their personal welfare or manage their funds e.g. to send money back to their loved ones at home.
It is heartening to know that Singaporeans are on standby to help. These include volunteers who care deeply about migrant worker welfare and wish to contribute. There are also lawyers who are willing to issue LPAs without charge or to take on the role of a volunteer donee, if needed.
However, the issue the workers face is the high cost of registration of LPAs for foreigners. The registration fee for non-citizens and non-Permanent Residents is currently fixed at $230. For our low-wage migrant workers, this fee is prohibitive, accounting for a significant portion of their monthly salary. To them, it is simply unaffordable.
The Public Guardian should not have a blanket registration fee for all foreigners, which applies to our high wage employment pass holders and low wage work permit holders alike. Our low wage foreign workers work under tough physical conditions and we rely on them to do much of the work that Singaporeans are not inclined to do. The least we can do is to make it practical for them to make their LPAs either without charge or at a nominal fee. Such a gesture would go a long way to showing that we really care.
