SINGAPORE – A record $33.5 million was doled out last year by the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) to help more Singaporeans in need.

A total of 18,600 households benefited from the community self-help group’s programmes, up from 17,000 in 2019.

The CDAC said on Friday (June 18) that new schemes this year will continue providing more aid.

One such programme will provide grocery vouchers for fresh produce to families in need who have schoolgoing children, to encourage healthier eating habits.

Project Fresh, to be rolled out in June 2021, will support 300 CDAC families by providing $30 worth of grocery vouchers per family member, up to $120 per family every month from June to December 2021.

The vouchers are for the purchase of fresh groceries items only – meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products, vegetables and fruits – at Sheng Siong supermarkets.

Another programme provides subsidies to households with schoolgoing children who need Internet access for home-based learning.

Project Broadband Access Subsidy for In-School Children (Basic), which began in January 2021, has been providing subsidies to 650 households, with a plan to support 1,000 households eventually.

These households do not qualify for existing government schemes to support digital access, for various reasons. But under Project Basic, they will receive a subsidy capped at $240 a year, to defray their cost for Internet subscriptions.

With the Covid-19 pandemic expected to continue to have an impact on the social and economic front, CDAC is enhancing its support to needy families and individuals in the community, in particular, the more challenged households with young or schoolgoing children, it said.

To this end, the quantum for the CDAC-Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations Bursary will be increased by 7 per cent from 2022.

The amount for primary school pupils will be increased to $300 a year, from $280 now, while the amount for secondary school students will be increased to $480, from $450 now.

Assuming the same number of students – 8,500 – receive the bursary in 2022 as was the case in 2021, CDAC will disburse about $3.6 million in bursaries next year.

CDAC chairman Ong Ye Kung said at a press briefing at the OnePeople.sg building in Toa Payoh after the CDAC’s annual general meeting on Friday that the cost of running the self-help group’s schemes and programmes last year was $33.5 million.

This was an increase of about $6.7 million from the year before and the largest annual expenditure in CDAC’s history.

CDAC executive director Pok Cheng Chong said that this year’s estimated expenditure is about $36 million, and is set to surpass last year’s spending.

The 18,600 households CDAC helped last year benefited from tuition and enrichment programmes, bursary and grant schemes, seniors’ programmes, among others.

Of these, about 1,500 households that faced more challenges received more focused and sustained help, said Mr Ong, who is also Health Minister.

He added: “Low-income families have been especially impacted by these changes (arising from the pandemic), especially during the circuit breaker, and CDAC therefore renewed our commitment last year to help our stakeholders through this time of difficulty and uncertainty.”

Last year, CDAC introduced additional assistance measures to help its beneficiaries whose livelihoods were hit hard by the pandemic.

These included an allowance of up to $400 per family for workers who lost their jobs.

It also collaborated with government agencies to organise virtual job fairs, seminars and talks to help those who needed to find employment.

“Last year, we did as much as we could to defray the education expenses of our beneficiaries. CDAC Bursary reopened for applications in March 2020. As a result, we saw a 45 per cent increase in bursary recipients in 2020, totalling 7,260,” said Mr Ong.

He added: “Last year was also a very special year – the Government provided an additional grant of $5 million to CDAC in 2020. The community also continued to support us with their contributions and donations, and these additional resources were very important to us and helped us to adapt our programmes.”

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