The Grab Food driver known as Mr Abdullah has been receiving financial support from the Social Service Office (SSO) since October 2018, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development on Tuesday (10 November) in a Facebook post.
This is in reference to a recent story going around about a struggling Grab Food driver who has been unable to support his family as he is on hospitalisation leave to recover from a surgery for a clavicle fracture. He sustained the injury in a traffic accident while on the job.
Mr Abdullah’s plight was highlighted by Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)’s Bryan Lim in a Facebook post on 2 November. Mr Lim appealed to the public for donations of diapers, formula milk, and grocery vouchers to help the Woodlands resident’s family, specifically to care for his young children aged two and three.
The story was then picked up by the media, including MustShareNews (MS News) which also reported that Mr Abdullah had received financial aid from the SSO for a short while. Mr Lim, in a follow up Facebook post on 4 November, shared that Mr Abdullah said he received “short to mid term” financial assistance from the SSO for three months from December 2019.
Mr Lim went on, “He was ineligible to receive any more SSO financial aid thereafter because he was told that ‘his 63-year-old mum has enough CPF savings.”
Not directly referencing Mr Lim’s post, MSF said: “The [social media] post inaccurately stated that Mr Abdullah had only received Short-to Medium-Term financial assistance from the Social Service Office (SSO) for 3 months and that he was ineligible to receive any more financial aid from the SSO thereafter because he was told that his mum had enough CPF savings”
The Ministry went on to note that Mr Abdullah’s family have been on SSO support since 2018 and that the aid “lapsed” in October 2019 to January 2020 because “they did not follow through with the process of renewal of assistance by submitting required supporting documents.”
The aid resumed in January 2020 upon Mr Abdullah’s submission of the documents and family is still being supported, according to MSF’s post.
It continued, “Our SSO extended the family’s assistance in September as Mr Abdullah had sustained injuries in an accident, and is temporarily unable to work. Our assistance will cover the entire duration of his Medical Certificate period till March 2021. This will support the family’s basic needs, while Mr Abdullah recovers from his injuries.”
MSF added that the family has received additional financial support from the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore (MUIS) and other in-kind assistance from the Family Service Centre as well as grassroots organisations.
“Our SSO colleagues continue to work closely with our community partners to ensure the well-being of the family,” the Ministry asserted.
