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Since the resignation of the MP David Ong for Bukit Batok, SDP’s Dr. Chee Soon Juan has been very active on the ground, talking to residents, taking photos and posting them onto his Facebook.
In spite of the many anti-Dr Chee rhetoric, including The Independent’s 10 reasons why he will not be elected, I hope Bukit Batok voters will seriously consider Dr. Chee Soon Juan’s candidacy, and give him a chance so the rest of Singapore can see for ourselves, if this man is indeed a changed man.
On Dr. Chee’s Facebook, he’s been raising several worker issues such as wages, working hours and CPF. At the rate he’s going, he’ll be more workers-centric than Worker’s Party. For example, he recently highlighted a cleaner aunty who works 48 hours a week, earning $1,050 a month.
Reading his post, it is apparent that aunty’s employer is paying her according to the Progressive Wage Model , but the employer may have given her only a $50 a month increment instead of the $60 recommended by National Wages Council in 2015.
Tsk tsk tsk, this is why Dr. Chee wants to be voted in so the government can be taken to task.
With an hourly wage of $5.50, aunty should earn enough to feed herself with just 2 hours of work per day, so why does she work 48 hours a week?
A friend who felt sorry for aunty went searching for her at Bukit Batok and found her!
They had a nice chat and found out that aunty preferred Dr. Paul Tambyah (ouch!)
Anyway, back to aunty’s income, how much extra income can she get from Workfare Income Supplement? Using the WIS calculator, assuming aunty is 75 years old and knowing that she earns $1050, she’ll receive extra $117 per month in CASH (for a total of $1,050 + $117 = $1,167) and another $175 into her CPF account.
Good thing for aunty, she will get more from WIS as Minister Heng Swee Keat just announced in his 2016 Budget speech that WIS will be further enhanced to pay out more to low wage workers and in monthly instalments.
Aunty may also receive more support from Silver Support Scheme:
And GST vouchers too
All these social transfers to our senior citizens seems to be insufficient for Dr. Chee Soon Juan.
It will be interesting to hear what he can propose to help people like aunty, without cutting budget for important stuff such as education and defence (especially with ISIS bombings), and adding additional tax burdens to the sandwiched class.
