A PART of a husband's CPF funds should be deposited into his stay-at-home wife's Medisave account, the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) proposed yesterday for the upcoming 2012 Budget.
It also calls for Medisave accounts to be periodically topped up from budgetary surpluses, in proportion to the age of the recipient as well as household income.
Aware says it wishes for an "inclusive Budget" that adequately meets the needs of all women in Singapore.
"To ensure a truly inclusive society, women's issues must be addressed fully as the nation's issues," Aware says.
Aware's recommendations are in light of Singapore's rapidly greying population, where an estimated 15 per cent of the population, or some 600,000 people, will be above the age of 65 in 2020. Currently, the figure is 9.3 per cent.
To meet the needs of those caring for aged and dependent relatives, Aware recommends for single men or women - who are caregivers and who employ foreign domestic workers - to be given the tax relief on the levy they pay to the Ministry of Manpower.
It also calls for subsidies to be given for the long-term care of elderly family members, on the same basis as for the childcare subsidy which is pegged to a monthly income of $3,500.
To support the lower-income group, Aware says the government needs to "put its money where its mouth is" and increase its budget for social programmes.
Aware says public spending on social programmes should be restored to the pre-1990 level of about 20 per cent of GDP. It adds that this should gradually increase in the next few years to around 25 per cent as the population ages.
"Given that there may be a surplus of $3-5 billion for 2011, this is an excellent time for the government to increase its spending on social programmes," Aware says.
In addition, financial assistance and other social support currently available to Singaporean women should be made available to the foreign wives of Singaporeans. Aware says this is because they are without any other form of support or safety net, apart from their own husbands.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
