The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) had to defend themselves after a post about its alleged cold-heartedness went viral on Facebook.
Jose Raymond — former Singapore Environment Council executive and current member of the Singapore People’s Party — took to his Facebook page to publicize a case of a disabled man who allegedly had a request for financial assistance rejected on unfair grounds.
This is the 59-year-old applicant’s apparent situation:
- He’s visually handicapped
- He has kidney failure, but his dialysis treatment is covered by the Ministry of Health and the National Kidney Foundation
- He has been declared medically unfit to work, and cannot earn income
- The rental of his one-room flat in Toa Payoh is paid for by a temple
- He only gets to enjoy one meal a day, delivered in kind by a well-wisher. He also gets by with some help from kind samaritans
- He does not have any children or family members to rely on
- He receives a $620 payout every month from his own CPF Account
The MSF letter obtained by Raymond showed that the man is unable to get long-term financial assistance as he is already receiving the (measly) $620 every month — deemed as “a source of income”.
“As you have a source of income, we are unable to assist you with the financial assistance,” wrote MSF officer Ian Chow in the rejection letter, dated May 21, 2018.
Naturally, folks didn’t take the revelation well, accusing the ministry (and the ruling government) of being heartless. The anger mostly stems from the fact that the CPF payout — our own money from a life-long compulsory savings scheme — is considered a “source of income” instead of “drawing from savings”.
Even after MSF clarified the situation of the applicant and why they rejected his request, the concern remained unanswered. According to a post on the MSF’s own Facebook page, the man dubbed Mr. T was deemed well-off enough to not qualify for the ComCare Long Term Assistance scheme.
Someone who claimed to be a personal friend of Mr. T poked holes in MSF’s explanation. Another commenter pointed out that Mr. T does indeed meet all the circumstances to qualify for the scheme.
MSF offered no response to the criticisms, and the fate of Mr. T remains unknown. Hopefully, he does get the help he needs to sustain himself in one of the most expensive places on earth.
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