The SDP welcomes the Government's plan to provide financial assistance to the elderly through the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP). It is important that as our people age, we accept the responsibility of taking care of them as they have contributed to this nation when they were younger.
It must be recognised, however, that the PGP is an ad hoc measure to address the difficulties of the elderly. The Package raises an important and rather glaring point about the social security system as a whole. How did it come to the stage where our elderly, having worked their entire lives, find themselves unable to retire with peace of mind?
In fact, those currently in the retirement in Singapore have been struggling all these years to make ends meet. Many have suffered greatly and needlessly because the Government have neglected them.
It took the suicide of 95-year-old Lu Dai Hao, a former Samsui woman and someone who worked all her life, to wake up the Government. Madam Lu was ill but could not afford her medical expenses and did not want to financially burden her daughter. She calculated that it was better to take her own life last year. This shocked Singaporeans even though the plight of people like Madam Lu is not uncommon.
Madam Lu's death was a serious indictment of the present system and the Government knew that it had to do something. Hence, the PGP. Singaporeans must ask why it took the situation to deteriorate to such an extent before the Government was willing to take action. And even then, the PGP does not go far enough to enable our elderly to survive in retirement, it does not address the wider problem of those in need.
If the Government is sincere about ensuring that retirees and the elderly are taken care of, it must review the social security system, not just introduce stop-gap measure like the PGP. It should start with the release of our CPF money currently withheld under the Minimum Sum Scheme. Our retirees depend on these hard-earned savings.
The SDP has laid out our
National Healthcare Plan to tackle the medical needs of the elderly and we will address the issue of funding our retirees in our forthcoming policy paper on the economy.
