I refer to the Ministry of Education’s reply “Use of funds to repay CPF education loans under review” (Straits Times Forum, Apr 3) to Mr Foo Der Ho’s letter “Unable to use NS cash award in education account” (Mar 27).
It states that “The Post-Secondary Education Scheme helps parents save for their children’s post-secondary education by maintaining a Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA) for each eligible child.
The PSEA funds can be used for payment of tuition fees for post-secondary courses undertaken by the account holders or their siblings at approved institutions.
The PSEA is not a bank account and its use is currently limited to publicly funded local institutions.
Any unused funds in it will be transferred to the account holder’s CPF Ordinary Account when he or she turns 30. These will earn interest at the prevailing CPF interest rates and the account holder can tap these funds for housing and retirement.”
How many cannot use their PSEA money?
– This is perhaps another classic example of transfers and benefits to Singaporeans that some may find it difficult to use or may never have the chance to use it at all.
Since the PSEA can only be used for tuition fees at publicly funded local tertiary institutions – what happens to the hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans who do not study at a public tertiary institution because they were unable to qualify for admission, unable to finance their studies and went to work, etc ?
Objective is for education, but cannot use to repay education fees’ loan?
As to “We are reviewing the feasibility of allowing the PSEA to be used to repay CPF education loans”
– don’t you find it ironic and illogical that “This is part of the Government’s efforts to encourage every Singaporean to complete his or her post-secondary education. It also underscores the Government’s commitment to support families in investing in the future education of their children” – and yet the PSEA cannot be used to repay CPF education loans incurred under the tuition fee loan scheme to pay for their tuition fees incurred for tertiary studies?
Chas scheme?
Next – let me cite another example of transfers and benefits that may not really help Singaporeans.
On the same day in the same newspaper forum, there was a letter from Ms Tan Say Yin (“Health aid scheme: Improve application process””, Straits Times Forum, Apr 3), which said “I received a brief reply stating that I was not eligible for it due to my income level. I did not understand this as I had clearly stated that I was retired.
I called the Chas hotline and was told I had to wait 12 months after my retirement before my application could be considered. This should have been spelt out in the application form.
So, 12 months after my retirement, I submitted another application and the same rejection letter was sent to me.
I called the hotline again. This time, I was told I would have to wait 15 months as mine was an appeal case. This should also have been stated in the rejection letter, or by the Chas staff when I spoke to them for the first time.
I submitted my third application 18 months after my retirement – only to be rejected again.
When I called again, I found out my application was rejected because the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board had indicated to the Chas administrators that I was still working.
I had declared in my application that I was not employed, so why did the Chas administrators not contact me to clarify such conflicting information?
I submitted my CPF statement to prove I had not received any income for the last 18 months, and finally had my application approved.
The Chas application process could be better managed.
Staff manning the hotline ought to be trained to handle inquiries better, instead of dishing out rote statements or brief responses. Those reviewing the applications ought to check on discrepancies instead of rejecting applications outright.”
In this connection, from the recent reply (or rather reply which did not answer the question) in Parliament on the question of how many of those eligible have the Chas card – I estimate that perhaps as many as 1 in 2 of those eligible may not have gotten their Chas card yet, after more than 2 years of the implementaion of the scheme.
Uniquely Singapore!
Leong Sze Hian
