By Leong Sze Hian
According to the article “Parliament: Transformation budget for future” published in My Paper on 5 March, the Finance Minister was quoted as having rebutted opposition MP Low Thia Khiang’s (Hougang) claim that the Government had depressed wages of lower-income citizens by letting in more foreign workers.
Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: “By allowing the economy to grow rapidly in the second half of the (last) decade, we were able to bring unemployment down and grow the incomes of Singaporeans.”
Ample statistics were cited: the unemployment rate for residents fell from six per cent in 2003 to 2.4 per cent by end-2007; median income grew by 20 per cent over the decade after adjustment for inflation, while that of low-income households grew by seven per cent over the decade.
Firstly, is the seven per cent figure quoted for the lower-income households also adjusted for inflation?
To put things in perspective, the bottom quintile of households’ income declined by about 1.7 per cent per annum in real terms from 1998 to 2008. In 2009, median income dropped by a further 2.5 per cent in real terms.
In Parliament, Mr Tharman also gave an example of a couple in their mid-20s earning an income in the lowest 20 per cent bracket. Together, they earn about $1,500 a month, own a three-room flat and have two children.
The Finance Minister said that over the next 60 years, this family can expect help totalling about $460,000, after accounting for inflation. (Source: “No lack of help for low-wage workers”, ST, 5 Mar)
There is no detailed break-down of how the $460,000 is derived. How is the inflation adjustment done? For example, does it mean that a $1,000 benefit adjusted for inflation at two per cent may be counted as an increasing amount every year such that it will be $2,208 and $3,281 in the 40th and 60th year respectively? Are there any countries in the world that calculates social benefits to citizens in this way?
The mainstream media also reports that from this year’s budget, each Singaporean in the bottom 10 per cent of income earners will get $869 in benefits, including GST credits, living cost rebates and top-ups to CPF accounts.
Most of these benefits are not extra cash that can be utilised.
For example, Medisave top-ups can only be used for medical expenses.
Top-ups to Post-secondary school Education Accounts can only be used when the children enter tertiary education, by which time the increase in fees may be more than the top-ups
Only 29 per cent of Workfare is paid in cash with the balance 71 per cent credited to the CPF account (not the Ordinary Account).
GST Credits are to offset the GST increase and not extra cash per se.
Electricity tariffs, property taxes, and Service and Conservancy Charges have all increased over the years.
While there are course fee subsidies given for Workforce Development Agency-approved courses as well as bonus payments upon completion of training under the new Workfare Training Supplement scheme, how can we assume that the lower-income family will be able to find the time to go for such training?
On subletting concerns, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that of the 682,000 flats that have fulfilled the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) and are eligible for subletting, only 23,200 or three per cent are sublet, which suggests that most flat owners are buying their flats for occupation, and not rental.
However, according to the report “More turn to sub-letting HDB flats” by Channel News Asia on 9 November 2009, between April last year and March this year, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) approved 22,754 such applications, or 4,019 units more than in the previous year.
So, is it that only 23,200 flats are sublet in total, or 22,754 sub-let applications were approved in just one year?
Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said that the Government hears and understands Singaporeans’ concerns about the influx of immigrants in recent years. So it has refined the requirements for permanent residents (PRs) and new citizens, even as it continues to take them in to top up Singapore’s declining population. As one indication, there were 59,500 new PRs last year, down from 79,200 in 2008, and 19,900 new citizens, compared to 20,500 a year ago.
However, with unemployment rising to an average of 87,000 in 2009 during Singapore’s worst recession, is it justified that the yearly intake of new PRs and citizens declined by only 20,300 or 20 per cent?
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our pledge is outdated. “we the citizen ……..” citizen is only slightly more half of the occupants so carried less weight. May I suggest:-
” We the OCCUPANTs of singapore, regardless of nationalities,race , language, religion or sexual orientation pledge ourselves as one unitied working machine so as to achieve targeted economic growth at all cost in order to maintain our well paid goverment. blar blar blar …………(need input from valued commentators) …….”
TGIS — thank god it’s SUNDAY
Mr Leong for Accountant General!
DH, singaporeans are not against foreigners. Many singaporean businessmen love them as they are potential customers. What singaporeans are concerned is the policies that allow such a huge influx within such a short time. In short , the extent and the control. You are putting words into people’s mouths. you should be careful. Look at the Productivity. What kind of talent has been let in? i suppose top class talents. But how do you explain the drop in productivity?
These ministers could not do the real work.
So, they have to lie in order to survive and claim they have done their work.
We cannot allow such situations.
We need to make these pigs work hard for their monies.
People above a certain age like LKY shouldn’t be in leadership position. They cocked up the show all the time.
Even Chinese Ministers are younger than ours.
The govt knows how to play around with the statistics,its either they are being ignorant to the fact that the general public will start questioning them as of now,we have been facing a pleathora of problems as of late from joblessness to homeless to no basic necessasities of food,water & a roof above people’s heads,look @ the income bracket,who gets affected,almost 90% of S’poreans,the remaining 10% are extremely well-to-do.
My only option i see here is to migrate to a better place,look @ NZ & Down Under,they want S’poreans to stay & contribute to their economy,well,@ least theit govts recognize our efforts & work ethics mentality,S’poreans are amonst the hardworking people in the world,look @ our number of hours in a office for a week,we can easily clock in btw 60-70 man hours per wk,that includes weekends & PHs.
We have to vote for an alternative govt,sone one who is willing to stand by its people,some one with a backbone,some one who is willing to give their all for the people,now that is no lie that a statistic can offer!
On the $460k, I hope that you can write in to ask Tharman for his methodology. I too am very interested as to how he got $460k.
To me, voting for another gonmin is my only option. I am still trying to find a reason to let them continue another 5 long years.
The Usual Approaches …
Statiscal Massage
Ambiguous figures given somewhere and somehow missing clarity
Inflated-adjusted ?!? (Low income and media income and high income clusters have different inflated rate)
Lying with statistics has become the modus operandi of PAP.
Well, its very easy when you control all datas & no transparency ( outsider no access to it & no
YoursSingapore, YoursStatistics, PAP can put their arrow at the bull-eyes first then draw a circle around it
There might be something more sinister.
Notice how smart the gov think themselves of when they start giving nonsense of putting money into CPF instead of giving real cash. And in doing so, start praising themselves and preaching to the world how generous and compassionate they are in the eyes of the world. Even more when they quote billions and billions of dollars injecting into these wonderful scheme until you realize you have totally no idea where is the source of money comes from, more to me like a paper imaginary money, which ST is so fond of talking about nowadays in defense of billion dollars loss by the incumbent party. As a stingy gov, they already calculate this gameplan well, of how they will masquerade as a whole plan to give little but use the media and image to make the whole scheme look big through talk of billion dollars injection. So when next election over, they will just justify it by saying that GST increase and other price hike are necessary due to make up for those budget deficit. Wow, using physical cash of citizens to compensate for loss of “imaginary billion dollars”, that is very creative of SinGov.
Better still, they have already knew that unlike real physical cash, and difficult to manipulate, they now resort to so call injecting money into CPF which not many can use it directly as compare to giving physical cash. Cash is king and anything else is just pimp. Anyone can promise you heaven and sky as long as you would not get to see it and touch it.
Look like all these years, those elite frogs always stay in the well, thinking Singaporeans are still daft as today as they are in yesteryears.
I agree with “ames Michael Parthi -Mar 7, 2010 8:25 “, the natives should all migrate to NZ since we are being displaced/replaced by foreigners faster than the bugers served at Mcdonalds.
By the way, serioulsy think Singapore should change its name to “Chindia”, since very soon majority of the citizens will comprise of new migrants from China & India.
@aurvandil
i’m not surprised at the $460k- the key is over 60 years.
if you think about it, it is $7,666 a year. (which is abt 40% of their annual income) now if you think about the things lower income families get- workfare, subsidies in education, hospital, childcare, housing, utilities, conservation rebates, GST rebates, it probably adds up to that.
i think as Mr Leong points out, most of this is non-cash, supply side subsidy. meaning they give money to the providers of service (i.e. hospital, schools, etc) rather than the people themselves. That stems from the govt philosophy not to trust people with actual money, thinking that giving direct cash breeds entitlement mentality.
i guess one of the main question is if subsidies should be restricted (direct) or unrestricted (in cash).
It is all wayang…
Every male Singaporean Citizen who has been through NS will know verse of a song…
“They give me 100 dollars but take back 99″..
Even resale HDB flats in Queenstown now cost SGD 1 MILLION !!!
Tell me…
What exactly is HDB flats ??
Are they truly affordable..
Are they truly public housing for the masses??
No lying.
Not telling the truth too.
Hi Mr. Leong,
I am so glad that you wrote this piece of insightful comment. While reading Tharman’s report, I had the lingering suspicion that the facts were inaccurate as they did not correspond to the ground feel at all, and worst seems to be at polar extreme with what is the reality.
Reading your comments have justified my suspicion. Thanks.
Btw, like to remind all that Tharman Kacangputi was once charged under Official Secrets Acts before he became FM. So question remains, why is our garhment colluding with ex-criminal for charting our financial future? And do you trust a CROOK to decide your economic future ? You decide.
What happened to the ‘ Old PAP ‘ theory of teaching a man to fish.
Now it seems for the next 60 years the PAP is just going to be feeding this family.
When will this family be able to break away from this vicious cycle, or has been pre-determined that such families will never be able to break away.
For the next 60years…..what a policy…what a timeline…..
With people like ‘ frog kings ‘ on the throne, its like a certainty for the ‘ New PAP ‘ to keep Singaporeans as a well frog.
RW
Without the methodology, we can only guess how Mr Tharman got $460k.
If we had the methodology, we could do a detailed analysis to see if it is valid and reasonable. It woud be very suspicious to flash a number in Parliament and then refuse to tell people how the number was derived.
Thanks for this Sze Hian.
Just vote them out. Completely out of government. Singaporeans need to remind the PAP that they are our servants, SERVANTS ! and not our masters. After that, perhaps they can cut the arrogant attitude like the entire counrty belongs to them. Bum MPs and useless ministers no longer exist, and we won’t have to deal with bullshit “panels” and “organisations” and pay them $$$ for “cost recovery”.
There is no corruption here, definately not. After all, why should there be when you can openly declare what you want to be paid ???
singaporeans should just be prepared to boot this papies bandits out of the country, its no use reasoning with liars as they will only come out with more lies to confuse you, these crooks need to learn their bloody lesson when electon comes, you just have to get rid of them.
one day, an old man met a robber,
robber: old man, handover your money if u want to live to see tomorrow.
old man: ……..nah, that’s all i have, pls spare my life.
robber: take out your watch and shoe.
old man: wat lau, these old stuff u also want…?
robber: that is for the GST.
old man did what was told and about to turn and walk away,
robber: hey wait,
old man: what u want more?
robber: don’t say i am heartless, nah i give u back these small change.
Old man: what’s that for?
robber: that’s the rebate, u old daft.
old man: ………..#%@&$@#!……….
@aurvandil
true, without the methodology, it is all guesswork. I guess a parliamentary debate is not really the place to discuss methodology and statistical analysis. But personally, i don’t seen any reason to doubt the figure- $7,000 is not really an out-of-the-world figure if we were to do a simple ballpark estimation.
if you look at GST credits alone, lower income families get about 1k plus already. Workfare gives them ranges from $60-$800. HDB has grants specially for low income families (about 40k which is $1333 per year over a 30yr loan period). Considering MCYS, MOE and other ministries has a range of schemes specially for lower income families (especially for families with kids), it is not that difficult to hit $7000.
for me, i am less worried about the accuracy of the figure and more on the adequacy of the figure. is $7000 enough given the cost of living? and also, how about the people who missed the cut-off? a family that earns $1600 is only $100 richer, but doesn’t get a lot of the benefits. these are probably bigger things to worry about.
but who is counting? count what ? hahahaha
Too bad Kum Hong is not NMP. He could have asked basis for the $460,000.
All Sylvia and Low care for is $. Same as PAP MPs. Taz why PAP wants more NCMPs? They want Wayang MPs like Sylvia.
Mr Leong has all the talents needed to Manage the Entire Audit.
Half price S&CC a few months. Now, hike.
RW
Agree that it is hard for Ministers to explain in full the methodology during a speech in Parliamanet. Numbers which are cited by the Minister however can and should be verifiable. Hence the request to write in and get the methodology. Uncle Leong is a good person to do this as he has a column with many readers. I hope he can help those of us who are interested to obtain and publish the the methodology.
Agree with RW that the real question is on adequacy.
There has been criticism that the welfare given out in Singapore is stingy, and that it does not allow the underprivileged to live a “dignified life” (as quoted from another TOC article by RP)
On the other hand, there is the economist’s argument that by giving enough welfare for people to be comfortable, it takes away the incentive to find a job. Why should I work 8 hours a day as a cleaner for $800 a mth if my unemployment benefits pay me more?
There is also the social worker’s argument that some segments of society are unable to work, not because they dont want to, but simply because they are unable to. Some examples are the physically handicapped or mentally infirmed. More should be provided for these groups, because no amount of “incentive” will get these people to work anyway.
Skeptics of the social worker’s argument would point to a simple analysis of SAF’s downgrade system. If people can come up with all ways and means to down-PES, I assure you, there will be even more incentive for them to find all ways and means to be categorized as “physically handicapped or mentally infirmed” in order to get a lifetime pension.
XiiAoGeNgEnX,
so why didn’t you question the same on minister’s pay and those gahmens’ pay as well ? Why is it that all this crutch mentality of taking advantage of welfare or whatever applies only to lesser mortal and not God and demo-god of Singapore ?
The most important factor of why people negatively feel that all this budget thingy are that people are no longer daft to trust in this gov that they are helping the citizens. the mentality of PAP is more like helping themselves.
It’s kind of funny really. If S$460,000 is real, I’ll bet they will not hesitate to show us the real statistics. Maybe Tharman can enlighten us with some real life examples of such low cost families who have enjoyed such benefits. I’m sure the Shitty Times would be more than pleased to publish such examples.
If they can’t, does it mean they are liars ?
Here’s a reality check.
The estimated accumulated reserves of Singapore are S$200 bil.
If you give every low income family $460k, we will only be able to help 40,000 familes before the reserves are exhausted.
There are approximately 1.2 mil households in Sg. It seems extremely unlikely that we will help only 40,000 familes and give nothing to the remaining 1.16 mil.
As I have not been able to make the numbers add up, I would very much like to see Minister Tharman’s methodology.
The Government’s figures, whether they are handed out by Ministers or by the Department of Statistics, the CPF, the HDB or the MOM are always data which one cannot analyse. They give you derived data or aggregated data. They do not give you base level raw data.
For example, how many Singapore citizens earn less than $1000 per month? One can try and guess what it is from household data and other data. The fact is, the Department of Statistics does not provide the data. WHY???
How many Singapore citizens do not have any money going into their CPF even though they are employed? Does anybody care? The Government most certainly knows, but does it care about employers breaking the CPF law? It appears not.
The government still has not answered the main questions
1) how did Mas Selamat escape from detention centre?
2) Temasek and GIC lost billions, where is our money?
3) Oil prices go up, electricity prices go up. Oil prices go down, why electricity prices still same?
Hi vincent tan,
There is a version of the Singaporean pledge here:
http://mindbloggingstuff.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-singapore-national-pledge.html
We, the residents of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people; regardless of race, language, religion and nationality, to build a democratic society, based on depressed wages and income inequality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our ministers, whose salaries are pegged only to GDP growth.
The cartoon Pinnochio lokks like trhe RP SG, the more he tell lies, the longer the nose is!
Hi Jackson,
More questions that people really want answered:
(4) What is the cost price of each HDB flat?
(5) Can the government break out employment statistics for citizens and PRs?
If only majority singaporeans have Read and Understood the Valuable Insights offered by Mr Leong.
This is where one of the the bottlenecks lies.
Vote IN for ANY opposition who do not really knows how to massage statistics, who dont tell partial truths, who dont cover up, who dont screw citizens backsides – IS STILL MUCH MUCH BETTER than voting for those who earn $1,00os of DAILY salaries, BUT who tell lies, coverup wrong doings, mislead citizens, who tell citizens ‘serve you right for me to bring in foreigners’, and FINALLY LOST $$ Billions of OUR HARD EARNED money, AND who keeps on year after year after year INTENTIONALLY delay and delay us from getting our PCF.
Am I wrong ???
LOL, is that a fact?
Then why didn’t the Government “let the economy grow rapidly” last two years? They lost the switch? It blew a fuse? Is it okay now? Could they also now let the world economy grow rapidly and thus recoup the losses?
LOL
Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: “By allowing the economy to grow…”
It is very sad that Tharman seeks to misrepresent by using statistics. Thanks Sze Hian.
I’ll make sure my folks vote for the opposition.
Recently, I received a statement of account from the Ministry of Education on the Edusave Accounts of my children, who are no longer in the local education system. Out of curiosity, I called up the Ministry to enquire whether the funds can be transferred out in cash into their savings accounts or otherwise to me, as it is unlikely that they will continue their tertiary education in Singapore. In reply, I am told that the funds if unused will be transferred to their CPF accounts once they come back to work in Singapore. This tells me a lot about their so-called generosity and how they will lead you through a paper trail to make you feel rich and appreciative but yet end up still in need.
garment $ where got so easy to take one, they take our $ very easy and fast , try to get subsidy on edu/ medical claim/ etc…see for yourself how many agency and steps u need to go through before they decide to give u a little…
in the west , they dare to take ( high tax) , but they dare to give
but , here garment take , but never give, and want to take even more evertime…
@7,666.00 per year = $460,000.00 over 60 years – If they live to eighty five. And what will a minister earn over the next 60 years ..? averaged @ $1.5 M X 60 .. a total grand sum total of $90 million over 60 years is what an average minister will be paid. Multiply that by lets just say 10 ministers… that will make it $900 million vs 10 families who will get aid totaling $4.6 million..
let me simplify it…
$900 million for 10 ministers over 60 years
vs
$4.6 million for 10 families over 60 years
I believe the writing is on the wall…..
//b
“…can expect help in the next 60 years … totaling $460,000.”
**************
Tharman forgot to add in ….
“past results do not guarantee future performance…audiences to exercise own discretion…”
@Stateless Singaporean
as long as the funds go back into their coffers, you cannot use them elsewhere. As long as they are able to tie up your funds, they will find a way to make more money out of your money for themselves. Go figure…
//b.
There are two things that the PAP government always like to hoodwink Singaporeans when it comes to money:
1) The liquidity of money.
2) The time value of money.
It may seem at first glance that the government is immensely generous, but upon closer inspection those handouts are not only pittance in comparison to what it has been taking from Singaporeans.
Take for example, GST credits, medisave top-ups, learning/training bonus, education rebates etc. All are highly conditional and circumstantial for you to reap the benefits. A very obvious example will be single, unmarried people without children vs top-ups to post-secondary school Education Account. Utterly useless and irrelevant.
Medisave top-up is only for those aged 50 to 70+. If you’re younger, too bad for you. In any case, that pittance the govt dishes out will not be enough to cover the fee for wisdom teeth extraction.
Also, the time value of money. A dollar today is not the same as a dollar tomorrow. Projecting perceived benefits for the next 60 years is foolishness. In addition, a dollar locked up today means a dollar less to your disposable income. However, that same dollar, when locked up in the CPF, allows the government to invest in winning ventures such as UBS, Merill Lynch, Stuyvesant Town, Bank of America, Barclays, Shin Corp etc.
Once Singaporeans fully understand the concepts of 1) the liquidity of money, and 2) the time value of money, they will realize that they have been ruled by a bunch of kleptocratic scrooges.
I am shocked and disturbed by the perceived situation that singaporeans generally bochap about the debate and i suspect they may not know WHY they need to be concerned especially when we learn about the insights from Mr Leong, a fully qualified expert on the matter.
Is People understand how politics and policies and budgets affect them directly or indirectly, they should have woken up their ideas!
Despite whatever and ever, the People, perceivably seems to remain unchanged. To be fair, a small pocket of citizens have woken up and discussing actively on the net.
Thanks to USA DOD for the invention of the Internet for without which we can only wonder what the world will be like.
From obiousLEE
“By the way, serioulsy think Singapore should change its name to “Chindia”, since very soon majority of the citizens will comprise of new migrants from China & India.”
If u make that statement in the year 1940, the statment will be more correct.