How are the retirees and jobless seniors, those above 60, coping with inflation and high cost of living in Singapore? Many of these seniors spent their productive years at a time when cost of living was much lower and their salaries were also much lower. Some were from the time when earning $1,000 pm was considered good income. Many of the middle class were very happy with a $3,000 dollar salary. With such incomes, their CPF and savings are minimal in today's high cost of living. Many would have spent everything, with little or nothing left in their CPF. And many would have to get by with nothing and hopefully getting some support from the govt to live their next 10 or 20 dying years.
Of course there are the natural aristocrats that are stilling gainfully employed and earning tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands today, and financially very comfortable, without a worry. These clever and lucky people are an exception from the hoi polloi that are struggling to fill their stomachs and paying the bills but with nothing to pay, no sources of income and an empty CPF. The people falling into this category is growing by the day, and having to face the high cost of living, with fees, fares, bills all going up, never ending increases. How are they going to get by?
The financial planners are talking about passive income to add to the wealth of an individual. No one is talking about passive expenditure, things that one has to pay without doing anything, without stepping out of the door. The bills for passive spending is no small matter and unforgiving. Pay you must. The conservancy charges, PUB bills, phone bills, GST and food bills.
How much would a person need to pay a month to live in Singapore? Some are talking about $1,500 a month. To some this is small change. To many of the retirees and seniors, this is like a mountain to climb when there is no income and absolutely nothing left in the saving. Let's look at some basic ballpark figures, the absolute minimum to get by. $50 for conservancy, $60 for PUB bills, no phone or TV bills, forget about the GST. Just look at food alone, the bare minimum, $15 a day for 3 meals, and plain water. No transportation, just hang around the neighbourhood or walk to wherever.
Just these alone, it would add up to $560 per month. Pray no sickness and no medical bills. $560 is the absolute bare minimum a person must spend a month just to be alive, with no luxury or entertainment or amusement. For a senior with no income, how is he/she to get by, to get the money to pay the bills? Lucky if he has a roof over his head. But not paying PUB bills could lead to no water or electricity supply, no gas as well.
There are many seniors in such a desperate state. And every now and then, the media would report happily of increases in bills, fees or fares as a normal thing. The govt often even said that increases are to help the poor. Really, how?
How is the govt going to help these poor jobless seniors with no income and no savings? Maybe this is an issue for the Presidential candidate to talk about. But whatever they promise, it is not their job, not within their power to do so. It is not part of their job. Presidential candidate must not make empty promises about things that they have no power to do so, not within in their job specs.
The only people that can do something for the jobless, penniless seniors are the ones in power, the one that is raising the cost of living and making the people pay and pay, got money or no money, just pay. This kind of poverty is structural and systemic and needs to be tackled systematically, not on a case by case basis or when someone is jumping off a flat or starving inside an empty flat. There must be a policy, a masterplan to help the seniors that are still alive and trying to be alive. $1,500 is needed to live a decent minimalist life, $560 is not even near to $1,500 to just be alive.
What is the rich govt that can lose tens of billions without blinking an eyelid going to do to the no income, no money seniors in their dying years or days? More fare hikes, more fee hikes, more GST hikes....to help the no money seniors? This may not be an existential problem for the govt to worry about. But it is an existential problem to the no money and still alive seniors. Some seniors may already be on some govt aid schemes. But many are out there, for some reasons, not asking for help from the govt. As a systemic problem, would the govt work on it and provide assistance to these seniors without them having to beg for alms? Piece meal solutions can only last a few days or a few months. Many seniors have 10, 20 or more years staying alive.
PS. Compulsory medical and life insurance are forced passive expenditure on the seniors and retirees and would add another $200 to the $560 absolute minimum, making the absolute minimum to $760. This is just a rough estimate. Could be much more.
