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My Messy Life, a four-part series on troubled families
- Thread starter metalslug
- Start date
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,186460,00.html?
My Messy Life
PAY IS NOT RIGHT
WORKPLACE IS TOO FAR
JOB IS TOO TOUGH
Welfare shoppers & their excuses
Social workers say some abuse system & have 'crutch mentality'
By Genevieve Jiang
December 12, 2008
The New Paper, 10 Dec 2008
THE woman and her three young children had been living in a shelter for homeless families for the past three months.
But something was amiss. The woman, whose husband was in jail, told staff at the shelter that she was getting financial help from a family service centre (FSC).
But Mr Ravi Philemon, manager of the New Hope Shelter for Displaced Families, sensed something was not quite right.
Said Mr Ravi: 'It was suspicious because she was constantly making calls and trips to two different FSCs.
'I suspected that she was a 'welfare shopper' who was getting help from various sources.'
When Mr Ravi checked with the FSCs, he found out the help the woman was getting had been duplicated - she had also been getting aid from the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund for a few months.
He alerted the FSCs.
One of them then stopped the funding.
Said Mr Ravi: 'Some needy families or individuals can be very resourceful in seeking help. They know their way about the system and can sometimes abuse it.'
The problem of welfare shoppers is not new, Mr Ravi said, and it has not improved over the past few years. Some develop a 'crutch mentality'.
Out of more than 30 families staying at the New Hope Shelter, there are usually three or four who refuse to help themselves and choose the easy way out, he said.
At the Care Corner FSC, there are two such cases out of every 10 families it helped.
At the Singapore Children's Society FSC in Yishun, social worker Catherine Maderazo said she sees one such case out of every 20 families helped.
Said the centre manager for Care Corner's Woodlands branch, Mr Daniel Chien: 'Some people are what we call 'professional clients'.
'They may be in a transition period where they do not have a fixed address. So they make use of this loophole to get help from various FSCs in different areas.'
Mr Chien said some develop this chronic dependency after being unemployed over a long period.
He said: 'We'll help them find jobs, but they will give excuses like the workplace is too far, or the job is too tough and dirty, or the pay is not right.
'Some would rather be idle while waiting for the ideal job to come along, instead of taking whatever they can get in the meantime.'
Mr Chien said such a mindset is 'dangerous' as it is easy to get into a state of inertia.
'Some clients get comfortable being unemployed and getting by with financial help. After a while, they don't see the point of finding work at all.'
Temporary help
Miss Ho Hui Ling, 26, a social worker at Care Corner FSC, said she recently helped a single man, in his 40s, with food rations and finding a job.
He had been jobless for at least a year. He claimed that he could not work because of a leg injury. He also chose to live in the streets, saying he saw 'spirits' whenever he went home.
Said Miss Ho: 'We could only help him temporarily because he was unable to show us that he was helping himself. So whenever our food rations ran out and we could no longer help him, he would survive by doing odd jobs and on handouts from friends.
'He would not be in touch with us for many months until things got desperate. Then, he'd come running back, asking for more food rations and help.'
The message that social workers want to send out is that Singapore's social safety net is a temporary measure, and helps only those who help themselves.
Said Mr Chien: 'Before more help is rendered, there is a clear set of criteria social workers have to make sure the client has fulfilled, such as cost-cutting measures. Clients need to show us their bills, their job applications and so on.'
At the New Hope Shelter, clients are not encouraged to stay for more than three months. They are given that period to find employment and shelter.
Said Ms Maderazo: 'We first apply for three months of financial help for the client. Within that time, they must show that they have made the effort to get jobs. Whether they get more financial aid after three months will depend on their efforts, and can vary from case to case.'
For difficult and stubborn cases, sometimes hard tactics come into play.
Ms Maderazo recently had to work with a couple who refused to find full-time work. They were homeless and were living off charity for two years with their eight children.
Take it or leave it
When they were recently chased out of a friend's home yet again, she offered the mother and children a place in a shelter. The father was expected to work.
They turned down the offer, opting instead to stay in a tent at a park.
Said Ms Maderazo: 'I negotiated with them at the start. If repeated efforts to work with them do not work, I have no choice but to say, take it or leave it.'
The ComCare database, which allows social workers to access data of needy families, helps sieve out welfare shoppers.
But social workers say the system is not foolproof.
Said Miss Ho: 'The database captures the help given to clients from the Community Development Councils.
'Sometimes they may be getting other help from smaller agencies but this is not captured, or not updated.'
Should social welfare agencies be more stringent in giving help?
Said Mr Ravi: 'There are two types of poor in Singapore. Those who have been poor all their lives, and the new poor, who may be thrown into a hard situation because of illness or retrenchment.
'As much as we want to be stringent so that people do not abuse the system, we cannot make things too difficult such that people who are suddenly thrown in a difficult situation are put off asking for help.'
My Messy Life
PAY IS NOT RIGHT
WORKPLACE IS TOO FAR
JOB IS TOO TOUGH
Welfare shoppers & their excuses
Social workers say some abuse system & have 'crutch mentality'
By Genevieve Jiang
December 12, 2008
The New Paper, 10 Dec 2008
THE woman and her three young children had been living in a shelter for homeless families for the past three months.
But something was amiss. The woman, whose husband was in jail, told staff at the shelter that she was getting financial help from a family service centre (FSC).
But Mr Ravi Philemon, manager of the New Hope Shelter for Displaced Families, sensed something was not quite right.
Said Mr Ravi: 'It was suspicious because she was constantly making calls and trips to two different FSCs.
'I suspected that she was a 'welfare shopper' who was getting help from various sources.'
When Mr Ravi checked with the FSCs, he found out the help the woman was getting had been duplicated - she had also been getting aid from the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund for a few months.
He alerted the FSCs.
One of them then stopped the funding.
Said Mr Ravi: 'Some needy families or individuals can be very resourceful in seeking help. They know their way about the system and can sometimes abuse it.'
The problem of welfare shoppers is not new, Mr Ravi said, and it has not improved over the past few years. Some develop a 'crutch mentality'.
Out of more than 30 families staying at the New Hope Shelter, there are usually three or four who refuse to help themselves and choose the easy way out, he said.
At the Care Corner FSC, there are two such cases out of every 10 families it helped.
At the Singapore Children's Society FSC in Yishun, social worker Catherine Maderazo said she sees one such case out of every 20 families helped.
Said the centre manager for Care Corner's Woodlands branch, Mr Daniel Chien: 'Some people are what we call 'professional clients'.
'They may be in a transition period where they do not have a fixed address. So they make use of this loophole to get help from various FSCs in different areas.'
Mr Chien said some develop this chronic dependency after being unemployed over a long period.
He said: 'We'll help them find jobs, but they will give excuses like the workplace is too far, or the job is too tough and dirty, or the pay is not right.
'Some would rather be idle while waiting for the ideal job to come along, instead of taking whatever they can get in the meantime.'
Mr Chien said such a mindset is 'dangerous' as it is easy to get into a state of inertia.
'Some clients get comfortable being unemployed and getting by with financial help. After a while, they don't see the point of finding work at all.'
Temporary help
Miss Ho Hui Ling, 26, a social worker at Care Corner FSC, said she recently helped a single man, in his 40s, with food rations and finding a job.
He had been jobless for at least a year. He claimed that he could not work because of a leg injury. He also chose to live in the streets, saying he saw 'spirits' whenever he went home.
Said Miss Ho: 'We could only help him temporarily because he was unable to show us that he was helping himself. So whenever our food rations ran out and we could no longer help him, he would survive by doing odd jobs and on handouts from friends.
'He would not be in touch with us for many months until things got desperate. Then, he'd come running back, asking for more food rations and help.'
The message that social workers want to send out is that Singapore's social safety net is a temporary measure, and helps only those who help themselves.
Said Mr Chien: 'Before more help is rendered, there is a clear set of criteria social workers have to make sure the client has fulfilled, such as cost-cutting measures. Clients need to show us their bills, their job applications and so on.'
At the New Hope Shelter, clients are not encouraged to stay for more than three months. They are given that period to find employment and shelter.
Said Ms Maderazo: 'We first apply for three months of financial help for the client. Within that time, they must show that they have made the effort to get jobs. Whether they get more financial aid after three months will depend on their efforts, and can vary from case to case.'
For difficult and stubborn cases, sometimes hard tactics come into play.
Ms Maderazo recently had to work with a couple who refused to find full-time work. They were homeless and were living off charity for two years with their eight children.
Take it or leave it
When they were recently chased out of a friend's home yet again, she offered the mother and children a place in a shelter. The father was expected to work.
They turned down the offer, opting instead to stay in a tent at a park.
Said Ms Maderazo: 'I negotiated with them at the start. If repeated efforts to work with them do not work, I have no choice but to say, take it or leave it.'
The ComCare database, which allows social workers to access data of needy families, helps sieve out welfare shoppers.
But social workers say the system is not foolproof.
Said Miss Ho: 'The database captures the help given to clients from the Community Development Councils.
'Sometimes they may be getting other help from smaller agencies but this is not captured, or not updated.'
Should social welfare agencies be more stringent in giving help?
Said Mr Ravi: 'There are two types of poor in Singapore. Those who have been poor all their lives, and the new poor, who may be thrown into a hard situation because of illness or retrenchment.
'As much as we want to be stringent so that people do not abuse the system, we cannot make things too difficult such that people who are suddenly thrown in a difficult situation are put off asking for help.'
u voting for him next election?
Definitely. I have always voted for him since the delphi poll days ...
Messi !!!
According to the beggar Nicole Seah, I am suppose to pay hundreds of thousands in taxes to feed these LAZY leeches 
FUCK NSP!
FUCK NSP!
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