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Housing, healthcare and job security top Singaporeans’ concerns: OSC survey

Chiu Peace
Public housing, public healthcare and job security emerged as top priorities today, across most income levels. (Photo and caption by OSC)

Singaporeans have ranked public housing, public healthcare and job security as their top priorities, according to an “Our Singapore Conversation” (OSC) survey of 4,000 Singaporeans.

The survey was conducted to complement findings from OSC dialogues to find out more about the kind of country Singaporeans want for the future and how to get there. The findings from the survey and dialogues are detailed in “Reflections”, a 48-page newsmagazine launched on Saturday.

Particularly noteworthy is that public housing and public healthcare emerged as the top concerns for lower-income Singaporeans, while those better off placed more importance on public healthcare and job security. Being able to live in a safe and secure environment was also a primary concern for those earning S$7,000 or more a month.

Healthcare

In an article featured in “Reflections”, having a sense of assurance that we can all have access to quality healthcare was identified as Singaporeans’ No. 1 hope.

OSC committee member Lim Ru Ping, who facilitated two vernacular dialogues for the elderly, said, “I often hear complaints from senior citizens that MediShield and Medisave are too inflexible. They feel they don’t really have a say in how they want to use their savings.”

Participants at OSC dialogues suggested making MediShield compulsory, changing Medifund and Medisave rules to avoid placing too much burden on adult children who have to bear their parents’ healthcare costs, and to have individuals pay higher Medifund and Medisave premiums during their youth so that they can pay less when they are older.

But several participants were also wary about abuse in a welfare system and understood that more subsidies meant higher taxes. The Ministry of Health is reviewing the subsidies and 3Ms framework.

Housing

Public housing was another red-button issue that got Singaporeans talking, in particular whether an HDB flat should be treated as a home or an asset.


A Ministry of National Development (MND) poll showed that most Singaporeans hope for their HDB flats to remain as both their homes and assets. Among them, six in 10 said they wanted their flats to be first and foremost homes, then as assets that they could use for building a better life or for retirement.

While many agreed on the need for affordable new flats, there were various suggestions on how this should be achieved while maintaining fairness to past buyers.

These included extending the Minimum Occupation Period to reinforce the principle of owner-occupation, returning a portion of the sale proceed or net profit to the government when the flat is sold in the open market, and shortening the current 99-year lease provided home owners can extend it when their finances improve.

Another issue raised by single parent Faith Lim, an OSC dialogue participant, was about HDB ownership for families going through breakups.

Lim revealed that she had to make a quick decision to divorce her then-husband when her marriage broke down four years ago. That’s because she was not allowed to rent or buy an HDB flat as she owned a landed property with her then-husband.

Anxious to give her children a permanent home, she was left with no choice but to divorce her then-husband quickly.

5 core aspirations

Five core aspirations of Singaporeans were also identified from the discussions at OSC dialogues.


The OSC committee said the core aspirations and priorities embody a desire for a shift in policy directions in areas such as housing and healthcare, and recalibration of Singapore’s education.

What also emerged was a desire for individuals and the community to take on a larger role, to strengthen collective responsibilities and render more help to less advantaged Singaporeans.

As such, PM Lee is expected to address healthcare, housing and education issues, including tweaks to the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), during his National Day Rally speech on 18 August, added Minister Heng.

The OSC committee said these findings have since been passed on to various ministries for consideration.

Here are other findings from the survey and dialogues on the aspirations of Singaporeans:



Here’s a video shot by a group of film students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic capturing some of the views of  the Singaporeans who took part in the year-long "Our Singapore Conversation" process.