Household Income For Lower Income Group in S’pore Drops By 69% In 2020

COVID-19 has impacted all of us in significant ways.

From panic buying, circuit breaker and phase-based reopenings, 2020 was a much different year than we thought.

I’m also sure you’ve come to hear of many stories of people’s jobs being affected last year because of this pandemic.

Working from home, taking a pay cut or even being let go altogether.

And for those in lower-income families, the blow was huge to quite a number of them.

Household Income For Lower Income Group in S’pore Drops By 69% In 2020

On 9 Feb, a study done by Beyond Social Services, a charity who helps low-income families, was released.

The study, done between April and September 2020, showed median household income these families dropping from $1,600 to $500.

Which is roughly a 69% drop overall.

Over 1,000 applicants of the Beyond’s Financial Assistance Fund (FAF) were surveyed.

80 per cent of them living in public rental housing.

Median per capita income also fell immensely, from $425 before the pandemic and fell to $113.

Support For Low-Wage Workers

The Straits Times detailed several reports of these workers who struggled because of the pandemic.

These included single parents who had to take care of her children while taking a wage cut and shifting to a different work location, costing her more expenses.

Dr Stephanie Chok, the founder of the study mentioned earlier, said that low-income families were hit really hard even in areas beyond finances.

“Recovery efforts need to pay heed to the differential impacts of this pandemic so that our new normal does not replicate or further exacerbate inequalities for vulnerable communities.”

The report also suggested strengthening employment rights and social protection schemes for such workers.

This would include the extension of rent waivers for public rental flat residents and debt relief schemes.

Overall Median Household Income Falling

And while the low-income families were hit the hardest, that’s not to say others weren’t affected too.

On 8 Feb, a report released by the Department of Statistics (DOS) showed that the overall median household income in Singapore fell.

It also showed specifically how bad lower-income households were hit, with the bottom 10 per cent having real incomes dropped by 6.1 per cent.

This was significantly more than other households with real declines of 1.4 per cent to 3.2 per cent.

Resident households received $6,308 per household member on average from various Government schemes in 2020

This included those households with no working person and was higher than the $4,684 received in 2019.

Those living in one and two-room HDB flats received $13,670 per household member on average.

Featured Image: Trong Nguyen / Shutterstock.com