Poverty Line

As Singapore does not have a clear poverty line, most of us do not know exactly how many people are living in poverty and what exactly is defined as 'poverty' in Singapore.

Here's an excerpt from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports:

"Singapore does not have a national poverty line. 

Different countries adopt different approaches to help those in need, depending on their own unique situations. Some like the United States establish a poverty line to identify those who need help. Other countries such as Canada do not have a poverty line, but adopt an income threshold, determined using family expenditure data, in guiding its assessment of the populace’s needs. 

There is no hard and fast rule on how to determine needs. In Singapore, we take an approach of tailoring our social safety net to different groups, depending on their needs and circumstances. We believe that this approach is more flexible and no less effective than countries that choose to adopt a poverty line. 

Our help schemes typically cover the bottom 20th percentile of households, with the flexibility to go beyond if the family’s circumstances merit consideration. This approach allows us to provide more targeted and customised forms of assistance with real outcomes for families and individuals."

From here, we can see how Singapore manages to help those who are in desperate need.

From the excerpt below, we can also see how the elderly poor are taken care of.

"The Government has regularly reviewed its assistance programmes and subsidies in anticipation of evolving needs. Over the years, we have raised the level of help given to needy households. 

For instance, our population is rapidly ageing and more elderly would need eldercare services. To increase the accessibility of community-based eldercare services, MCYS has extended subsidies to such services up to the 50th income percentile in October this year. We have also increased funding to senior activities centres that serve low income elderly."

 Therefore, even though Singapore's poverty line is unclear, the government is still firm in providing help to those who are needy.

However, what the government can do is limited as it is difficult to reach out to every single elderly poor out there. There are several non-governmental organizations in Singapore which youths can volunteer in, to show support and care of these elderly poor. Other than helping out at NGOs, there are also many other ways in which youths can employ in order to help the elderly poor around them.

Fundraising

Youths could appeal for funds from the public, or organise events such as funfair to raise funds that could be donated to various non-governmental organisation, such as Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE),TRANS Family  Services, Centre For Seniors (CFS)

 Raising awareness of poverty issues

By educating yourself and others about poverty is an important step toward poverty alleviation: those who know about the terrible toll poverty takes on developing nations will be more likely to work for poverty alleviation in the future. 

 Taking part in community involvement program

Young people can be involved in program in which they could help the poor to build houses for example, or simply help to pack goody bags that would be distributed to the poor.

         Taking part in National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) residential project (Gold Award)

The aim of this project is for young people to initiate or undertake a project that will benefit the community. Participants are expected to create and carry out a project that will benefit the community. Regardless whether they focus on helping out a local, regional or international community, they learn how to effectively deal with issues related to poverty, education and environment, among many others. Furthermore, embarking on a residential project gives the youth an opportunity to work with people from all walks of life and to realize their goals for a better society. 

Sources: http://app1.mcys.gov.sg/PressRoom/Nationaldefinitionofpovertyline.aspx