Dear Kah Weng
I refer to your post below, in which you mentioned that you did not receive help, that your case was pushed from one department to another and that you had sought help from the GRC MPs but it was still no use.
There are some things which need clarification here. There are also a few things which you have not mentioned, and I thought it would be helpful to highlight them so that there is a more complete picture.
I can't comment on your experience with other agencies or MPs as I have no knowledge of this, but I can comment on your interface with me and my division.
The first communication you had with me was when I visited your block at Bukit Merah View after the GE. You were not at home, but you were aware that I was visiting because you had left a note stuck on your gate addressed to me which said that you needed financial assistance and asked me to help. Although I did not have the opportunity to see you in person, I felt you should be helped, and I left a note in reply to say that I would get the grassroots leaders and the constituency office to follow up.
They did do so. In the week following my walkabout, one of the grassroots leaders went to your unit to visit you. You were not at home. To make things easier for you, he left a Comcare application form for you to fill in, and he smsed you at the contact number you had left on the note. You then dropped off the form at the CC. You application was processed on an expedited basis, and you were given the maximum allowable financial assistance under Comcare of $600, paid over 3 months. This was disbursed by the CCC. (The maximum under Comcare is $200 per month for 3 months in one calendar year.)
I understand that your father was also until recently given a monthly allowance under a separate fund.
Not long after you received that financial assistance, you posted on my FB saying that you needed financial assistance again. I explained that you had already received the maximum allowable amount under Comcare. However, I also said that if you required further assistance over and above what had already been given, then I needed to understand your situation better to see how to help you. I invited you to come down to see me at MPS.
However, as far as I am aware, you have not come to my MPS, although I do 2 MPS a week - one on Monday and one on Friday. Thus far therefore, I have not had the opportunity to meet you and get details from you.
If is important for me to be given details about your situation to understand why you are in financial difficulty. For example, I see from your picture that you are relatively young. I need to know whether you are working. If you are working and earning, then I need to know why it is that despite the fact that you are working, you have financial difficulty, and from there, I can try to work out how to better assist you.
On the other hand, if you are not working, then I also need to understand why. If it is because of illness or disability, then I can appeal for a form of longer term assistance under a different programme. However, if it is simply because you don't have a job, then the better way to assist you would be through job assistance rather than financial assistance. With a job you will have salary, which hopefully do away with the need for financial assistance.
We are coming to the end of the year. January will be a new calendar year. You will in January be eligible to apply for Comcare again. If you wish to do so, you can get the application form at the CC. The same maximum cap will apply.
If you require assistance over and above that, then you do need to come and see me at MPS for the reasons I have explained above, and I again invite you to do so.
