Not all households in the bottom 20% income group are eligible for MOE’s financial assistance plan for needy Singaporeans.
In the recent post on Ministry of Education’s facebook fanpage, it shared a financial assistance plan which needy Singaporean students could apply for if they are studying in government and government-aided schools.
The eligibility criteria for the financial assistance plan is:
- Gross household income of not more than $2,500; or
- Household per capita income of $625
However by referring to the household income charts, we can see that the average monthly household income of the 11th – 20th percentile is already $2,985 in 2012, excluding employer CPF contribution.
This means that some households in this income group will not be eligible for MOE’s financial assistance plan under its set criteria for applicants.
In the Department of Statistics’ Key Household Income Trends 2011, there were about 1.15 million households divided evenly into ten income groups (income deciles). So this means that there are at least 100,000 households in the second income decile (11th – 20th percentile).
So how many households from the bottom 20% income group, will not be able to benefit from MOE’s financial assistance scheme?