COMMENT: Budget 2015 provides safety net for those who need it most

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.

Before the Budget speech was delivered there was some speculation about a Jubilee Budget of angpows to sweeten the population before the inevitable election. I suppose one could say that Singaporeans are still getting “angpows” in various forms, but it’s thankfully a little more holistic than that.

2015’s Budget has shown a willingness – albeit not a whole-hearted plunge – to move towards more redistributive policies. High income earners will have to pay more income tax, but low- and middle-income families will be receiving more support in the form of concessionary levies for foreign domestic workers, childcare subsidies, and the Silver Support Scheme that will help provide for low income earners who may not have substantial amounts of CPF monies for their retirement.

The significance of the Silver Support Scheme has not gone unnoticed. Shortly after Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam gave his Budget speech, AWARE released a press statement welcoming “the DPM’s explicit recognition of the position of homemakers and the insufficiency of CPF in providing for their needs. Silver Support will also assist those who participate in the economy without formal employment, such as freelancers and contract workers.”

This stands out for me, not because I’m a freelancer who might one day have to depend on the 2065 version of such a scheme, but because it is an acknowledgement that self-reliance is not always the answer, and that the state has a responsibility to provide a social safety net for those who have trouble being self-reliant.

Social security is not about breeding a nation of entitled scroungers who will make the country less competitive and productive. Social security is about providing a system to support people who may need some time to get a start, or get back on their feet, or have something to fall back on at the end of the day when the situation isn’t ideal. It’s about making sure that everyone, no matter how poor, can be provided with the basic necessities that will allow them to live their lives with dignity.

The Silver Support Scheme is, with any luck, the first small step towards that goal. There are details yet to come, and we should keep a look out for them, to see how far the government is willing to go for now.

But there is of course more that can be done. AWARE’s press release also suggested that the scheme should only look at the lifetime earnings of the individual, rather than his or her housing type or household income (which has to do with the earnings of other members of the family).

It’s an important point: a home should not be used as an indicator of liquid assets in one’s old age. The state should also be willing to provide support for its elderly citizens based on their individual situation, rather than placing the burden of financial support on the family, and only stepping in as the very last resort. It might be lovely for a family to financially support an elderly relative, but we should not base our policymaking on what we believe is the “desirable” behaviour. Instead, we should look at how the state can give back and help a senior citizen who has already spent long years contributing to society.