Low-income families applying for public rental flat to get auto support
Families with children applying for a public rental flat will be automatically placed under the Community Link (ComLink) programme if they are eligible.
This ensures that low-income families are rendered assistance once they move into the flats.
This new scheme was announced by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister-in-charge of Social Integration and Minister for National Development, at a Forward SG public engagement on Friday.
The event at ITE College West saw about 200 staff and volunteers from social service agencies, social service offices, and the public discussing ways to increase social mobility.
ComLink was started in 2019 to help coordinate social service support for poor families with multiple woes. For instance, some may be unable to work due to health and caregiving issues.
Under the new scheme, a ComLink officer will contact the families even before they move into their rental flats and link them up with relevant assistance, as well as check in on them.
Mr Lee cited the example of a Bukit Batok resident known as Mr Shah, who struggled to support two young children with his wife, Madam Lina, after he got into an accident at work.
A ComLink officer worked with the Bukit Batok social service office to provide ComCare financial assistance to the family, arrange for the children to attend KidStart playgroup sessions, and encourage the parents to enrol their children in pre-school.
Aside from government support, social service agencies such as Fei Yue, YMCA and Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (Minds) also will come in to help these families with financial or other aid.
The Housing Board received 10,240 requests for rental flats in 2021, of which 3,230 applications or 32 per cent were approved.
There are around 51,100 households living in public rental flats.
Mr Lee said the ComLink initiative has reached out to about 11,000 families in public rental housing as at October to find out their needs.
The programme is being expanded nationwide to 21 towns over two years to cover 14,000 families with children who live in rental housing.
ComLink, which is under the Ministry of Social and Family Development, has secured about $2.7 million in donations for its programmes as at October.
Ms Fadzilah Zubir, 38, who attended Friday’s event, said she injured her spine after her chair at her workplace broke in 2014 and she fell.
The divorced single mother to a 16-year-old son has not been able to work since.
After moving into a public rental flat in Bukit Batok, she applied for ComLink, which linked her with ComCare financial aid and various social service agencies to help her with her medical and living expenses.
Minds chief executive Kelvin Koh said: “The scheme will take anxiety away from rental housing families, who won’t need to do another set of applications since the moment they are on the rental scheme, automatically their income (is noted) and the rest of the services (needed) come in.”
“Hopefully, with this first step, we can then rope in various entities to come in to address the help such families need.
“Because until we are able to sense and make sense of who these families are and what their needs are, the chances of us being able to develop programmes that are targeted and effective to address those needs are not always 100 per cent (effective).”
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