On March 17, SMU's Lien Centre for Social Innovation launched a handbook on poverty issues to gather suggestions from experts on how to tackle poverty problems. At the launch of the handbook, SMU School of Economics Advisory Board economist Yeoh Lam Keong said that automatic schemes such as the Workfare Income Supplement scheme reduce the chances of individuals falling through the cracks as they do not know what help they can get, or refuse to apply out of a sense of pride.
According to a research paper on measuring poverty to be released by SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation, the average household expenditure on basic needs of $1,250 a month for a four-person household determined by the Department of Statistics two years ago is the average spending on food, clothing and shelter for those living in a one- to two- room flat.
Mr Yeoh Lam Keong, an adviser to SMU School of Economics, believes Singapore's social policies are not future-ready and serious structural problems are creating a growing underbelly of poverty. The former Chief Economist of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation is also a senior adjunct fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and a fellow of Civil Service College.