SINGAPORE – Low-income families who need some cash to pay the rent, medical bills or school fees can steer clear of illegal moneylenders and borrow from a community lending pilot programme from early next year.

The social policy experiment, which does not give out financial aid nor microloans, will be funded by a $2.94 million donation from non-profit organisation Ngee Ann Kongsi to the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

The initiative, to be launched in 2022, will be administered by the recently established IPS Policy Lab, and will involve the think-tank working with Beyond Social Services and the Yishun branch of the Singapore Children’s Society family service centre.

“The initiative aims to address gaps in current social programmes that affect the everyday Singaporean,” said IPS director Janadas Devan, adding that this was the single largest donation to the think-tank since its founding in 1988.

“While the Government continues to make efforts to support our communities, the IPS Policy Lab seeks to innovate new ideas that are not currently implemented in Singapore.”

The funding for the pilot will be around $100,000, said IPS Policy Lab head Freddy Hong.

“This experiment seeks to lend money as a last resort, so that it can tide them (the borrowers) over, and what we want to encourage is they actively seek to repay the loan,” he said.

At the same time, his team will gather empirical data to better understand when a borrower is able to repay the loan and when they cannot.

The experiment will run over 11/2 years, Mr Hong said.

Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam, who was the guest of honour at the cheque presentation ceremony on Tuesday (Dec 7), – reaffirmed the importance of IPS’ work in policymaking and the role of philanthropic organisations like Ngee Ann Kongsi.

“It is impossible for Government alone to make sense of all the issues, see all the different perspectives, let alone have all the answers,” he said.

Another IPS Policy Lab experiment in the pipeline is a pilot to help households cut debt, Mr Hong said, adding that details are still being worked out.

Ngee Ann’s donation will be disbursed annually over three years, from 2021 to 2023.

Besides the loan scheme, the money will also be used to set up the Ngee Ann Kongsi Community Fellowship, where two candidates will be selected each year to implement a community-based participatory research project; support IPS’ flagship conference, Singapore Perspectives; and run two more The Ngee Ann Kongsi-IPS Citizens’ Panel Series.

Mr Jamie Teo, Ngee Ann Kongsi’s vice-president and chairman of the donation and charity sub-committee, said: “We believe that our intended funding will empower IPS with the resources to examine issues and develop solutions that add value to public policy.”

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