Mainstream media has only reported on the merits of debt assistance scheme and  neglected the difficulties on the ground and the reality.

Mr Lim (not his real name) applied for a debt assistance scheme with a bank, when he received a letter inviting him to do so, under the recently implemented debt assistance scheme – following  the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) announcement earlier this year about the debt assistance scheme to help Singaporeans in debt to reduce their  debts.

After submitting his application – he was informed that he was too old at age 62, to be eligible for the debt assistance scheme, despite Mr Lim’s clean credit report and a gross income of $82,991 and $86,572 respectively, in the last two years (he has been in the same job for 36 years).

Meanwhile, all his credit cards and credit lines have been suspended, as his outstanding balance is slightly more than 18 months of his monthly income.

If Mr Lim is running a small SME business, like many entrepreneurs in Singapore – cutting off his credit in the midst of one of our worse economic downturns, may be the last nail  in the coffin.

Also, in bad times – entrepreneurs  like Mr Lim may reduce his salary to ease his business cash flow – which may unwittingly result in hitting the 18 months income outstanding balance benchmark even sooner.

Thus, in a sense – triggering yet another nail in the coffin.

What’s the point of the Re-employment Act extending the retirement age to 65 and eventually to 67 – when some banks may apparently be paying lip service to MAS’s guidelines and initiatives?

Are some banks just going through the motion in implementing MAS’s guidelines and initiatives?

In this connection, I believe the mainstream media has only reported on the rosy merits of such policy changes, and have never reported on the difficulties on the ground and the reality, as highlighted in the above example.

Leong  Sze Hian