the desperate middle class

irene ng raised the plight of the new poor of singapore. lost job, sold hdb flat still no money to survive and pleaded for cpf to let them retain some portion of the money needed to return to cpf. gan kim yong replied, 'allowing homeowners to keep part of the proceeds from selling their flats will "deplete their cpf savings and undermine their post retirement needs...this might help them meet their daily needs for a while, but we will be storing up bigger problems for the future...arranging loans from cpf is also not practical because they are unlikely to repay their loans even through instalments."' the answer will come, said gan kim yong, when the ministerial committee on low wage workers releases its final report in january. so meantime do nothing. the problem will go away by itself. or can comcare fund help to tie them over in the meantime? do people understand that there are people who are desperate for help now and cannot wait?