contents
- Video - The Straits Times Budget Roundtable: Productivity also about mindset change
- Video - Budget 2014 highlights
- Slideshow - Opportunities for the future, assurance for our seniors
- News Article - Income + Wealth inequality = More trouble for the society
- News Article - Greater urgency in productivity push
- News Article - Lower income families - help with cost of living
- Students' reflections on budget 2014
- Winners for MOF budget quiz 2014
- Budget 2014 crossword puzzle
Income + wealth inequality = More trouble for society
Data and studies on the wealth gap are needed to address inequality
Published on Feb 11, 2014 12:04 AM
By Robin Chan, Assistant Political Editor
Much attention given to inequality in Singapore in recent years has focused on income inequality. There is a good reason: Singapore’s income gap, as measured by the Gini coefficient for income, is one of the widest among developed countries at 0.478.
The Gini measures how income is distributed in a society. The closer the Gini is to 1, the more unequal the distribution of income.
To narrow this gap, the Government has made efforts to raise wages at the bottom and increase taxes on wealth at the top. Among other things, it has given cash handouts and supplemented incomes with Workfare Income Supplements for low-income earners.
It is also working with tripartite partners to boost incomes for low-wage sectors. It recently required cleaning companies to follow wage guidelines for cleaners’ starting pay.
In addition, the Government has started extracting a bigger pound of flesh from the rich through the tax system. Last year’s Budget introduced more taxes on high-end assets, including luxury cars and homes.
Some analysts are predicting more such moves to help lessen the income divide in this year’s Budget on Feb 21.
But the income gap is only one part of what separates the rich from the poor. Another – possibly more alarming – factor fuelling economic and social inequality is wealth inequality, according to a number of recent studies.
Wherefore wealth?
Income often refers to earnings from work, although it can include income from other sources such as rent. Wealth measures income accumulated over time, so it tends to have a cumulative effect over years. Wealth also includes assets in the form of property, stocks and inheritances. All these can grow in value separately from income.
A person with zero income can be very wealthy. A person may have $10 million in assets (and is hence considered wealthy) but can have zero income in a particular year – if he is not working and does not collect rent or dividends from his assets. Income and wealth must be taken together for a fuller picture of a household’s true economic power.
American think-tank Pew Research Centre last December published a report on wealth inequality which said: “Most researchers agree that wealth is much more unevenly distributed than income.”
It cited data showing that the top one-fifth of United States families earned about 60 per cent of all income but owned nearly 90 per cent of all wealth.
A separate report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last October said that the ratio of private wealth to national income in the world has more than doubled since 1970. This means wealth is growing more quickly than incomes.
“Household wealth is very unequally distributed – even more so than income,” the report said. “In advanced economies, the top 10 per cent own, on average, more than half of the wealth (up to 75 per cent in the US),” it added.
This means wealth is “arguably, a better indicator of ability to pay than annual income”, the report said.
Another reason the wealth gap is as significant as – if not more significant than – the income gap is that a build-up in wealth can become entrenched over time and is harder to redistribute.
For example, a rich family with houses worth $10 million can pass them on to their children, who may use those houses as collateral or capital to buy more property or build businesses to accumulate another $20 million for their descendants. And the cycle goes on.
So while wealth inequality has received less mention in Singapore than income inequality so far, it is arguably an even more important challenge facing our society.
Mind the gap
So how wide is the wealth gap in Singapore?
There are no official numbers on wealth distribution in Singapore. But piecing together different data gives some clues.
A global wealth report released by Credit Suisse last October said Singapore’s median wealth per adult (aged 20 and above) was US$90,466 (S$114,925), which means half of Singapore’s adults had more, and half had less than that amount. But the mean wealth per adult was US$281,764. This adds up the total amount of wealth held by every adult, divided by the number of adults.
This gap between the median and the mean is one of the biggest in the rich world, according to the Credit Suisse report. It implies that much of the wealth in Singapore is in the hands of a few. Unlike the median, the mean can go up significantly if the total wealth is pulled up by a few super-rich individuals.
Indeed, the report showed that the top 1 per cent of Singapore’s wealthiest hold more than a quarter of the country’s wealth.
It also illustrated the wealth gap in another way. Some 4.4 per cent of Singapore adults have more than US$1 million in wealth, while 20 per cent have less than US$10,000, the report said.
Of the other 215 countries surveyed, only Denmark and France had both a larger percentage of adults at the very top and at the very bottom, indicating a wider wealth gap than Singapore.
What are some reasons for this vast gulf in wealth?
One could be the property price surge. This is significant given that nine in 10 households here own their homes and the home makes up half of a household’s net wealth in Singapore.
While reports from third parties such as Credit Suisse shed some light on the wealth gap, they are not comprehensive.
Associate Professor Poh Eng Hin, who is assistant dean of accountancy at the Nanyang Business School, suggests that government agencies track wealth more closely and release the data.
This could come from a combination of numbers from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and household balance sheet data collected by the Department of Statistics.
Panel studies that track wealth of the same family or individual over time would also give a better sense of wealth inequality in Singapore, he added.
Getting a handle
Inequality in wealth has an impact on social mobility. There are reasons to believe that wealth mobility could be even lower than income mobility. That is, the chances of someone from a nonwealthy family staying nonwealthy is high, the Credit Suisse report pointed out.
Also, an increase in wealth, unlike incomes, is not necessarily directly a result of work. This raises questions about how truly meritocratic Singapore can be. This is why – even though the goal for Singapore is not to equalise outcomes, but to equalise the starting opportunities in life – there is a strong economic and moral case for higher wealth taxes.
Apart from helping to reduce inequality, it can also be an efficient and effective way to raise revenue for public coffers, the IMF said in its report last October. “In principle, taxes on wealth also offer significant revenue potential at relatively low efficiency costs.”
The IMF also said increasing progressivity in property taxes is one of the best ways to tax the wealthy, which is exactly what Singapore is doing. This means taxing second and third homes more than the first, and taxing more costly properties at a higher rate.
Raising taxes is always a sensitive political and economic issue.
But with tax revenues needing a boost to match higher government spending on social safety nets – such as the recently announced Pioneer Generation Package – raising taxes on the wealthy is likely to be more effective than raising taxes on incomes alone.
Singapore should not be afraid to take the lead in this area.
Last year, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post said Singapore’s Budget – and its imposition of higher wealth taxes – posed questions for Hong Kong’s own fiscal options: “The Singapore way may not be ours, but it does raise the question whether our top tier of wealth or income should be seen to pay more to help bridge inequality. It is a debate in which the wealthy should take part, in the interests of the city in which they prospered.”
The same can be said for Singapore. After so much focus on income inequality, it is time to kick-start a discussion on how the wealthy can contribute more to bridge inequality.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Feb 11, 2014
Much attention given to inequality in Singapore in recent years has focused on income inequality. There is a good reason: Singapore’s income gap, as measured by the Gini coefficient for income, is one of the widest among developed countries at 0.478.
The Gini measures how income is distributed in a society. The closer the Gini is to 1, the more unequal the distribution of income.
To narrow this gap, the Government has made efforts to raise wages at the bottom and increase taxes on wealth at the top. Among other things, it has given cash handouts and supplemented incomes with Workfare Income Supplements for low-income earners.
It is also working with tripartite partners to boost incomes for low-wage sectors. It recently required cleaning companies to follow wage guidelines for cleaners’ starting pay.
In addition, the Government has started extracting a bigger pound of flesh from the rich through the tax system. Last year’s Budget introduced more taxes on high-end assets, including luxury cars and homes.
Some analysts are predicting more such moves to help lessen the income divide in this year’s Budget on Feb 21.
But the income gap is only one part of what separates the rich from the poor. Another – possibly more alarming – factor fuelling economic and social inequality is wealth inequality, according to a number of recent studies.
Wherefore wealth?
Income often refers to earnings from work, although it can include income from other sources such as rent. Wealth measures income accumulated over time, so it tends to have a cumulative effect over years. Wealth also includes assets in the form of property, stocks and inheritances. All these can grow in value separately from income.
A person with zero income can be very wealthy. A person may have $10 million in assets (and is hence considered wealthy) but can have zero income in a particular year – if he is not working and does not collect rent or dividends from his assets. Income and wealth must be taken together for a fuller picture of a household’s true economic power.
American think-tank Pew Research Centre last December published a report on wealth inequality which said: “Most researchers agree that wealth is much more unevenly distributed than income.”
It cited data showing that the top one-fifth of United States families earned about 60 per cent of all income but owned nearly 90 per cent of all wealth.
A separate report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last October said that the ratio of private wealth to national income in the world has more than doubled since 1970. This means wealth is growing more quickly than incomes.
“Household wealth is very unequally distributed – even more so than income,” the report said. “In advanced economies, the top 10 per cent own, on average, more than half of the wealth (up to 75 per cent in the US),” it added.
This means wealth is “arguably, a better indicator of ability to pay than annual income”, the report said.
Another reason the wealth gap is as significant as – if not more significant than – the income gap is that a build-up in wealth can become entrenched over time and is harder to redistribute.
For example, a rich family with houses worth $10 million can pass them on to their children, who may use those houses as collateral or capital to buy more property or build businesses to accumulate another $20 million for their descendants. And the cycle goes on.
So while wealth inequality has received less mention in Singapore than income inequality so far, it is arguably an even more important challenge facing our society.
Mind the gap
So how wide is the wealth gap in Singapore?
There are no official numbers on wealth distribution in Singapore. But piecing together different data gives some clues.
A global wealth report released by Credit Suisse last October said Singapore’s median wealth per adult (aged 20 and above) was US$90,466 (S$114,925), which means half of Singapore’s adults had more, and half had less than that amount. But the mean wealth per adult was US$281,764. This adds up the total amount of wealth held by every adult, divided by the number of adults.
This gap between the median and the mean is one of the biggest in the rich world, according to the Credit Suisse report. It implies that much of the wealth in Singapore is in the hands of a few. Unlike the median, the mean can go up significantly if the total wealth is pulled up by a few super-rich individuals.
Indeed, the report showed that the top 1 per cent of Singapore’s wealthiest hold more than a quarter of the country’s wealth.
It also illustrated the wealth gap in another way. Some 4.4 per cent of Singapore adults have more than US$1 million in wealth, while 20 per cent have less than US$10,000, the report said.
Of the other 215 countries surveyed, only Denmark and France had both a larger percentage of adults at the very top and at the very bottom, indicating a wider wealth gap than Singapore.
What are some reasons for this vast gulf in wealth?
One could be the property price surge. This is significant given that nine in 10 households here own their homes and the home makes up half of a household’s net wealth in Singapore.
While reports from third parties such as Credit Suisse shed some light on the wealth gap, they are not comprehensive.
Associate Professor Poh Eng Hin, who is assistant dean of accountancy at the Nanyang Business School, suggests that government agencies track wealth more closely and release the data.
This could come from a combination of numbers from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and household balance sheet data collected by the Department of Statistics.
Panel studies that track wealth of the same family or individual over time would also give a better sense of wealth inequality in Singapore, he added.
Getting a handle
Inequality in wealth has an impact on social mobility. There are reasons to believe that wealth mobility could be even lower than income mobility. That is, the chances of someone from a nonwealthy family staying nonwealthy is high, the Credit Suisse report pointed out.
Also, an increase in wealth, unlike incomes, is not necessarily directly a result of work. This raises questions about how truly meritocratic Singapore can be. This is why – even though the goal for Singapore is not to equalise outcomes, but to equalise the starting opportunities in life – there is a strong economic and moral case for higher wealth taxes.
Apart from helping to reduce inequality, it can also be an efficient and effective way to raise revenue for public coffers, the IMF said in its report last October. “In principle, taxes on wealth also offer significant revenue potential at relatively low efficiency costs.”
The IMF also said increasing progressivity in property taxes is one of the best ways to tax the wealthy, which is exactly what Singapore is doing. This means taxing second and third homes more than the first, and taxing more costly properties at a higher rate.
Raising taxes is always a sensitive political and economic issue.
But with tax revenues needing a boost to match higher government spending on social safety nets – such as the recently announced Pioneer Generation Package – raising taxes on the wealthy is likely to be more effective than raising taxes on incomes alone.
Singapore should not be afraid to take the lead in this area.
Last year, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post said Singapore’s Budget – and its imposition of higher wealth taxes – posed questions for Hong Kong’s own fiscal options: “The Singapore way may not be ours, but it does raise the question whether our top tier of wealth or income should be seen to pay more to help bridge inequality. It is a debate in which the wealthy should take part, in the interests of the city in which they prospered.”
The same can be said for Singapore. After so much focus on income inequality, it is time to kick-start a discussion on how the wealthy can contribute more to bridge inequality.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Feb 11, 2014
Greater urgency needed in productivity push: Swee Say
Posted on Mar 4, 2014 6:32 PM Updated: Mar 4, 2014 8:01 PM
ByJanice Heng
Singapore needs “a greater and broader sense of urgency” in its productivity drive, labour chief and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Swee Say said on Tuesday.
“There are healthy signs that the economy is shifting to a new track. However, we are not full steam ahead yet,” said Mr Lim, the first minister to speak in this year’s Budget debate.
He noted that productivity growth fell two per cent in 2012 and was flat last year, despite media reports of firms which made leaps in productivity and innovation.
This, he explained, was because average labour productivity can be pulled down if less productive sectors hire more workers – as is indeed happening.
“There are many sectors in Singapore today that are growing and they are below our national average.”
These include cleaning, construction, security, retail and so on, he said. To stop such sectors from continuing to pull down the average, they must be transformed to improve skills and productivity, while sectors with high productivity should be encouraged to grow.
Mr Lim gave examples of what businesses, unions and workers – supported by government agencies – are doing, from using remote-controlled grass-cutting machines to a machine that cooks perfect soft-boiled eggs at 64 degrees Celsius.
“If Members feel these illustrations are just ‘common sense’, actually I agree with you,” said Mr Lim.
“Unfortunately, after years of high growth in manpower and unskilled labour, common sense is not so common on the ground anymore.”
And though he was glad that some firms are changing, he was also sad that some still resist change, choosing to go out of business or leave Singapore rather than upgrade their operations here.
“It is their choice. But workers are the ones who have to suffer the pain most,” he said, adding that in a fast-changing world, firms need a greater sense of urgency and a willingness to take the risk and responsibility of changing.
In his speech, Mr Lim – like many others in the House who spoke earlier – praised the $8 billion Pioneer Generation Package. It is only for those who are 65 or older this year, and became citizens before 1987.
But he also alluded to the possibility of similar moves for other generations.
One union leader was disappointed that he could not qualify for the package once he turned 65, and said there was “no hope”, Mr Lim recounted. The minister’s rejoinder was that “there is always hope.”
In future, if Singapore still does well with a clean, responsible and caring Government and a healthy budget, “maybe, the generation after us may also decide to honour our generation as well,” said Mr Lim.
“There are healthy signs that the economy is shifting to a new track. However, we are not full steam ahead yet,” said Mr Lim, the first minister to speak in this year’s Budget debate.
He noted that productivity growth fell two per cent in 2012 and was flat last year, despite media reports of firms which made leaps in productivity and innovation.
This, he explained, was because average labour productivity can be pulled down if less productive sectors hire more workers – as is indeed happening.
“There are many sectors in Singapore today that are growing and they are below our national average.”
These include cleaning, construction, security, retail and so on, he said. To stop such sectors from continuing to pull down the average, they must be transformed to improve skills and productivity, while sectors with high productivity should be encouraged to grow.
Mr Lim gave examples of what businesses, unions and workers – supported by government agencies – are doing, from using remote-controlled grass-cutting machines to a machine that cooks perfect soft-boiled eggs at 64 degrees Celsius.
“If Members feel these illustrations are just ‘common sense’, actually I agree with you,” said Mr Lim.
“Unfortunately, after years of high growth in manpower and unskilled labour, common sense is not so common on the ground anymore.”
And though he was glad that some firms are changing, he was also sad that some still resist change, choosing to go out of business or leave Singapore rather than upgrade their operations here.
“It is their choice. But workers are the ones who have to suffer the pain most,” he said, adding that in a fast-changing world, firms need a greater sense of urgency and a willingness to take the risk and responsibility of changing.
In his speech, Mr Lim – like many others in the House who spoke earlier – praised the $8 billion Pioneer Generation Package. It is only for those who are 65 or older this year, and became citizens before 1987.
But he also alluded to the possibility of similar moves for other generations.
One union leader was disappointed that he could not qualify for the package once he turned 65, and said there was “no hope”, Mr Lim recounted. The minister’s rejoinder was that “there is always hope.”
In future, if Singapore still does well with a clean, responsible and caring Government and a healthy budget, “maybe, the generation after us may also decide to honour our generation as well,” said Mr Lim.
Lower-income families: Help with cost of living
Published on Jan 18, 2014 12:08 AM
Crane operator Steven Kok earns about $3,000 a month including overtime - but even so, the sole breadwinner is feeling the pinch of higher costs of living. Though not a low-wage worker, he still struggles to support his family of five.
His wife, who is a Vietnamese citizen on a long-term visit pass, stays at home to take care of their three children aged seven, three and two.
The 28-year-old says: "I got my basic pay of $1,500 just a few days ago, but now I only have about $300 left." He gets the rest of his pay later in the month.
"It all goes on bills, school fees, milk powder, diapers. It's very stressful."
The family rents a room in Jurong, which costs about $700 a month including utilities, as they are waiting for their Build-To-Order flat to be ready.
Families like Mr Kok's can feel stretched when they do not qualify for government grants for low-wage workers or low-income families, but still grapple with high costs of living, MPs tell Insight.
Mr Kok would not be considered a low-wage worker as he earns roughly the median monthly salary of $3,000, excluding employer Central Provident Fund contributions.
Under the Workfare Income Supplement, the government top-up of pay for low-wage workers is capped at an income of $1,900.
Anyone earning above this, like Mr Kok, would also not qualify for the low-wage worker transport fare discount which was announced on Thursday.
But his family's monthly income is just under half of the $7,570 median monthly household income from work, according to the latest 2012 official statistics.
"For the mainstream group with children in schools, the issue is mostly the cost of living, especially in single-income households," said Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad.
What would help are subsidies for transport and school fees, Mr Kok says. He spends about $150 a month on transport - he has to take taxis sometimes when he ends work past midnight.
In situations like this, education grants and aid "could be given, not based on per capita income but the situation of the family in deciding whether they can get help", says Reach Family Service Centre senior social worker Wang Kim Meng.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Jan 18, 2014
His wife, who is a Vietnamese citizen on a long-term visit pass, stays at home to take care of their three children aged seven, three and two.
The 28-year-old says: "I got my basic pay of $1,500 just a few days ago, but now I only have about $300 left." He gets the rest of his pay later in the month.
"It all goes on bills, school fees, milk powder, diapers. It's very stressful."
The family rents a room in Jurong, which costs about $700 a month including utilities, as they are waiting for their Build-To-Order flat to be ready.
Families like Mr Kok's can feel stretched when they do not qualify for government grants for low-wage workers or low-income families, but still grapple with high costs of living, MPs tell Insight.
Mr Kok would not be considered a low-wage worker as he earns roughly the median monthly salary of $3,000, excluding employer Central Provident Fund contributions.
Under the Workfare Income Supplement, the government top-up of pay for low-wage workers is capped at an income of $1,900.
Anyone earning above this, like Mr Kok, would also not qualify for the low-wage worker transport fare discount which was announced on Thursday.
But his family's monthly income is just under half of the $7,570 median monthly household income from work, according to the latest 2012 official statistics.
"For the mainstream group with children in schools, the issue is mostly the cost of living, especially in single-income households," said Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad.
What would help are subsidies for transport and school fees, Mr Kok says. He spends about $150 a month on transport - he has to take taxis sometimes when he ends work past midnight.
In situations like this, education grants and aid "could be given, not based on per capita income but the situation of the family in deciding whether they can get help", says Reach Family Service Centre senior social worker Wang Kim Meng.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Jan 18, 2014
Students' Reflections on Budget 2014
Without a doubt, everyone knows for certain that the Singapore government is rich, partly due to the high amount of taxes and revenue that they collect from us. However, do you know how such an enormous amount of money is spent on Singaporeans to ensure our daily lives go on without a hitch, such as proper functioning of traffic lights and public transport? Well, the annual Budget is where the careful allocation of government funding for public resources are announced to the public for us to know how our taxes and payments will benefit the society on the whole.
Being able to attend the Budget Speech 2014 was certainly a unique and enriching experience for me as I was able to know first-hand how the government is funding various programmes and ensuring everyone in the society benefits. Before the Budget Speech, we had a short introduction and Question and Answer session by representatives from the Ministry of Finance, helping us to gain an insight on how the Budget is passed in parliament and where the government funding comes from. The light-hearted discussion enriched my knowledge about the Budget and made me more curious towards what Budget 2014 will provide for Singaporeans. As we headed to the Public Galleries in the parliament house before the commencement of the Budget Speech, we saw many familiar faces of various politicians of Singapore from where we were sited, including our Prime Minister. It was certainly a unique experience as most of us have never seen them up close. As the Budget Speech went on, we listened attentively as the Finance Minister read out the hour-long budget speech, detailing how the government will spend money on Singapore’s society. One of the main highlights of the speech was the Pioneer Generation Package with the various health subsidies for the pioneers of Singapore. I felt that this was a very meaningful component of the budget as it is important to recognise the efforts of our pioneers for their contribution to the success of Singapore today, which was essentially provided to us. Furthermore, the Budget has also enriched my economics knowledge as it provided several real word examples for the concepts we have learnt, such as how the increased alcohol and tobacco tax will imply an increase in prices for these goods while also increasing revenue for the government. Hopefully, I will be able to put these examples to good use in my essays too. All in all, I must say that the Budget Speech was certainly a new and novel experience for me that has helped me gained better understanding of various economics concepts and spurred my interest in them too. Ong Yu He 1315 |
Prior to attending this parliament talk, I viewed Economics as simply a subject that I only study to get an A by A-levels. At that point in time, although I do understand the impact economics had on our everyday life, I had no interest in it beyond an academic subject. Given the chance to attend the Budget Speech 2014, I accepted, thinking it would be a good opportunity to beef up my SGC, and adopted the mind-set, ‘If I’m going to go, I might as well as try and make it fruitful.’
On the day itself, we first sat through a quick introductory talk about the Budget Speech, as well as learning the etiquette required when parliament is in hearing. This allowed me to gain an insight to the daily proceedings of parliament hearings, which broadened my knowledge. During the speech, the many policies introduced such as the CPF adjustments allowed me to put what I’ve learned in theory into context. By quickly categorising the type of policy it would fall under, it has expanded my knowledge of examples so that I can use them in my essay writing. Further analysis of the policies help me understand the measures that Singapore put in place to account for the shortcomings of these policies that we’ve learned in the textbook. This application of what we’ve studied to real world context really puts into perspective what we have learned in class. It has also sparked my interest in Economics as its application on the real world can be interesting and it made me consider Finance as my choice of university course. Ng Hui Ren 1329 |
Winners for ministry of finance Budget quiz 2014
- Foo Zhi Jie (1312)
- Lim Wei Yang (1317)
- Ernest Koh Quey Guan (1316)
- Zhang Wen Han (1325)
- Yeo Kun Yan Gladys (1333)
- Tay Sing Ye (1333)
- Goh Hui Yi (1303)
- Tan Meng Lin (1327)
- Jessica Tan Si Ming (1319)
- Wynn Tan (1320)
- Hee Yu Sheng (1327)
Budget 2014 crossword puzzle
Across
1. The Government introduced the ___ in 2010 to provide funding for initiatives tailored to specific industries, clusters and enterprises to support enterprise productivity and restructuring.
2. Restructuring is benefitting Singaporeans through higher real _____.
Down
1. Theme for this year’s budget is “Opportunities for the Future, _____ for our Seniors”.
2. To help businesses through the period of restructuring, the 3-year Transition Support Package provides government support through ___, PIC bonus and CIT rebate.
3. _____ programme has provided 3,500 loans to SMEs over the last 2 years.
4. To raise the quality of Singapore’s foreign workforce, the Government has differentiated the _____ for skilled and unskilled workers.
5. _____ wage model was introduced in the cleaning sector to ensure that cleaners enjoy significant upgrades in their basic pay and get more when they upgrade their skills.
6. Special Employment _____ encourages employment of older workers.
7. The _____ Generation Package recognizes contributions of the generation that built up Singapore.
8. Permanent _____ Voucher Scheme was introduced to help low income families cope with cost of living.
1. The Government introduced the ___ in 2010 to provide funding for initiatives tailored to specific industries, clusters and enterprises to support enterprise productivity and restructuring.
2. Restructuring is benefitting Singaporeans through higher real _____.
Down
1. Theme for this year’s budget is “Opportunities for the Future, _____ for our Seniors”.
2. To help businesses through the period of restructuring, the 3-year Transition Support Package provides government support through ___, PIC bonus and CIT rebate.
3. _____ programme has provided 3,500 loans to SMEs over the last 2 years.
4. To raise the quality of Singapore’s foreign workforce, the Government has differentiated the _____ for skilled and unskilled workers.
5. _____ wage model was introduced in the cleaning sector to ensure that cleaners enjoy significant upgrades in their basic pay and get more when they upgrade their skills.
6. Special Employment _____ encourages employment of older workers.
7. The _____ Generation Package recognizes contributions of the generation that built up Singapore.
8. Permanent _____ Voucher Scheme was introduced to help low income families cope with cost of living.