Jimmy (not his real name), age 47, came for financial counselling with his son who is in primary 5.
His son takes the first MRT train in the morning to his school in Woodlands, from the homeless shelter where Jimmy, his wife and son, have been staying for about 4 years.
They live in a room in a shared 3-room HDB flat with another family.
Their rental to the homeless shelter is about $100 plus a month.
Jimmy had a stroke in March and was hospitalised for about 7 weeks. He can hardly walk now with the assistance of a walking stick cum chair.
Since he is unable to work, they are currently surviving on his wife’s take home pay of about $1,040 a month, as a logistics assistant.
His family has been served with an eviction notice from the homeless shelter, and he has been offered a room in another shared 3-room flat under the Interim Housing Scheme (IHS) at a rental of $300 plus a month.
He tells us that if they pay $300 plus out of his wife’s take-home pay of $1,040 – they won’t be able to make ends meet.
Also, the distance to his son’s school would be even longer.
He was seen by a social worker from the Ministry when he was in the hospital, and he was advised that it would take about 2 months to process his application for financial assistance.
In the meantime, he is in dire straits.
Since the social worker at the hospital waived all his medical fees and also gave him a certificate certifying that he has qualified for free medical treatment (recommended assistance from MediFund: 100%) for the next 6 months – why does it take about another 2 months to assess his application for financial assistance?
We saw a bank passbook (see attached picture) in his file and asked if we could take a look. The account balance is only $30 plus and he said he doesn’t know how his family will survive until some financial assistance is approved.
Jimmy’s problems began in 2003 when he was retrenched from his $3,500 job as a technical specialist in a corporatised public agency.
He says that his job has been taken by a much cheaper foreign worker.
He has been struggling to make ends meet, on and off since his retrenchment. His last job was as a prime mover driver with a salary of $1,600.
His MP wrote a letter of appeal in August 2011 to his former employer, the corporatised public agency to re-hire him – but was rejected in January 2012.
He has seen his MPs for more than 10 times for his various problems – HDB rental flat, housing, job, etc.
He has successfully applied for a 3-room BTO flat which will only be ready in 2017.
We would be grateful if anyone has any suggestions or ideas as to how Jimmy and his family may be helped.
SY Lee, Leong Sze Hian and financial counselling volunteers
