The New Paper visited Liza and her family on two occasions. Bit by bit, Liza opened up.

"We have to work to pay off the housing loan," she said. "I need help but I don't know where to go to start."

The family of six live in a four-room flat in the West.

"Of course, I am worried about my children. But my priority is to have a roof over our heads and food on the table and to pay off all the bills."

She declined to say how much they owed.

"I have never heard of family service centres. I don't know where to go to get help. But I do need help managing my situation right now."

Liza said her problems began soon after she and her husband bought their flat in 2005.
She said they were advised by their housing agent to take a bank loan.

Until then, the couple, who have O-level qualifications, were living with his parents. She said they wanted to move out as things were getting "uncomfortable" with her in-laws.

She declined to elaborate.

At that time, things were still manageable as she had only two children and their combined income was $2,600.

But in 2006, Liza had to stop working to have her third child.

"I stayed at home to take care of them. That was when the bills started piling up."

The housing loan became their biggest burden.

She said that initially, they paid their monthly housing instalment of $500 using her husband's CPF contribution. He was earning $1,200 a month.

But soon, his CPF was not enough to keep up with the monthly instalments and they stopped paying.

She said: "My husband's salary just went to food and groceries for the kids. We didn't have enough cash to pay for the housing instalments."

Once they defaulted on their housing loan instalments, arrears began piling up.

She said: "We just kept ignoring the letters as we had to worry about paying the other bills."

She could not show us any documents to indicate how much they owed on the flat or for unpaid bills.

Last June, she decided to go back to work to help her husband pay the bills.

She got a job in administration which earned her $970 a month.

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