April 8, 2024

In April 2020, the Singapore government launched the GoWhere Suite, an all-in-one portal to direct citizens to the resources they needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, one of the key websites in the suite, the SupportGoWhere site, has been used extensively, receiving 4.8 million visits as of June 2022. As society progresses, the government’s approaches toward support strategies must be adapted accordingly. Pertinent areas of discussion include how support policies ought to be implemented and how individuals can qualify for support.

Associate Professor Irene Y. H. Ng (NUS Social Work) and fellow researchers look at the factors that drive low-income families back to welfare in “The Importance of Considering Debt and Young Children in Activation: A Survival Analysis of Return to Welfare” (Social Policy and Society, 2023). The authors provide an analysis of the research on activation, a welfare strategy where policies focus on employment, as well as the policy implications of this research in the Singapore context.

Upon reviewing the research, the authors find that while researchers have made substantial findings about the transition from welfare to employment, limited work has been done on the lasting financial independence of more former beneficiaries. In particular, vulnerable, low-income families tend to return to welfare due to several barriers to self-sufficiency. The paper employs survival analysis on data obtained from a national government assistance program in Singapore and identifies two key factors – debt accounts and young children – driving these families’ return to welfare, although the authors note that insufficient research has been done to study this in full.

The authors provide several policy implications, such as considering how debt interventions can be implemented to mitigate these issues and improve financial independence. They also note the limited effect of financial education schemes and suggest more attention be given to debt restructuring and alleviation. Finally, their paper furthers developments in family policy research, considering potential support for low-income families with young children.

Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746421000518