A Worry for Young Singaporeans

The rising cost of living in Singapore, one of the world's richest countries, is a major concern for the young population, a survey conducted by Singapore Polytechnic has found.

In the last three weeks of June the Mass Media Research survey interviewed 825 people between the ages of 15-35 living in Singapore, and found that nearly 100 percent said financial stability was among their top three aspirations, along with strong family relationships and work-life balance.

Nearly all participants also said they hoped to see Singapore as an affordable place to live in five years' time.

Singapore was recently ranked as the world's seventh most expensive city in Expatistan's Cost of Living index, while its property market is among the world's top ten most expensive, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Tight supply has led to a 60 percent spike in residential property prices since 2009. A new 1,000 square-foot condominium, for instance, is priced at an average of between S$1 million (US$784,683) and S$1.2 million. Meanwhile, the cost of buying a car is also high, as the law requires drivers to purchase a permit - a Certificate of Entitlement (C.O.E) - on top of the price of the vehicle.

A 10-year category A C.O.E. sold for S$72,369 (US$56,786) this month, according to Onemotoring.com, a web portal serving motorists and vehicle owners in Singapore.

It's no wonder, therefore, that young Singaporeans are fretting over whether they will be able to fund the standard of living they have become accustomed to while living with their parents.

21-year old Firdaus Sukiman, a student and part time worker in a coffee shop, told CNBC that the rising cost of living in Singapore was a concern for him.

"I feel like I'm under pressure while I'm studying to juggle two jobs as well," he said.

"It's not for the sake of necessities, it's so I can have money to enjoy myself and buy a beer on the weekends and alcohol is so expensive in Singapore."

Furthermore, Bobby Chen, a 31-year old Singaporean entrepreneur, told CNBC nearly all of his friends still live with their parents because they're unable to afford living on their own.

"Singapore is a small country and rental prices are high. It makes sense to live with your parents so you can save more. Unless you are very successful you would not be able to buy a private condominium while you're young," he added.

For 21-year old Firdaus, buying his own place was also something he imagined he'd have to spend a long time saving for, while he described buying a car as "unrealistic."

"Buying a car is something I'd look to do much later on as the prices of C.O.E.s are so high. My family is relatively wealthy and we'd still rather depend on public transport and taxis rather than buy a car," he added.

The survey findings also challenged perceptions of Singapore's youth being obsessed with material wealth, given the city state's abundance of shopping malls, designer goods and luxury hotels and cars.

It found participants described their top three concerns as happiness, peace of mind and friendship. They also hoped Singaporean society would in five years' time be more focused on work-life balance rather than academic and material achievements.

Another trend to emerge from the findings was that 61.5 percent of those surveyed have considered moving abroad, or have already done so to achieve their aspirations, while the remaining 38.5 percent are more firmly rooted in Singapore. This group showed more inclination to get married and start a family.

Poor Suffer as Living Costs Rise 25%

Living costs have risen 25% in the past five years and placed an "unprecedented" financial burden on the poor, a report has found.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said rising childcare and energy costs, coupled with stagnating wages and benefit cuts, widened the poverty gap.

Worst affected are pensioners and single people, it said.

The government said it has "taken action" and universal credits would make three million people better off.

The Minimum Income Standard (MIS), released on Friday, looks into goods and services the public think people need in order to have a minimum acceptable standard of living.

Report author Donald Hirsch said: "From this April, for the first time since the 1930s, benefits are being cut in real terms by not being linked to inflation.

"This combined with falling real wages means that the next election is likely to be the first since 1931 when living standards are lower than at the last one."

"This year's report demonstrates how the price of a basket of goods needed for an acceptable living standard has risen far faster than average inflation.

"This has combined with low pay increases to create a widening gap between income and needs."

Deepening poverty

The basket of goods used to judge these figures include day-to-day products such as the weekly food shop and clothing, as well as single-purchase treats such as holidays.

Cuts to benefits and tax credits... combined with stagnant wages and the rising cost of essentials is resulting in an unprecedented erosion of living standards”

Katie SchmueckerJRF policy and research manager

Everyday items found in most homes, from cleaning products to household furnishings, have also been accounted for and broken down to make the total annual figure.

Since 2008 the JRF said real inflation had climbed by 25% rather than the 17% increase as judged by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the method used by government.

It also found that in the past 12 months pensioners, and those living alone, had been hit hardest with 4.2% increases in their costs compared with the 2.4% rise as indicated by the CPI.

A couple with two children have seen the cost of living rise to 3.7% and lone parents with one child to 3.3%.

Freezing child benefit, tax credits "uprated" by 1% and the increase in the cost of essentials, it added, meant a working couple with two children will be £230 worse off a year, a working lone parent £223 and a single person worse off by £49 per year.

This comes on the back of another report, published by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England, that said an additional 500,000 children will be pushed into poverty by 2015 on the back of government spending cuts as well as tax and benefit changes.

Stagnant wages

Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at the anti-poverty think tank, JRF, said: "The public have told us their everyday costs have soared above wage levels, driving up the amount they need to make ends meet.

"Cuts to benefits and tax credits, especially cuts to support for childcare, combined with stagnant wages and the rising cost of essentials is resulting in an unprecedented erosion of living standards."

The JRF said a single person now needs to earn £16,850 a year, a working couple with two children needs to earn £19,400 each, and a lone parent requires earnings of £25,600, in order to meet basic needs.

A full-time worker on the national minimum wage earns around £13,000.

A government spokesman said: "The dynamic and behavioural changes that will result from our tax and welfare reforms will help improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities.

"The government has already taken action to help families with the cost of living, including: increasing the tax-free personal allowance to £10,000, which will save a typical taxpayer over £700; freezing council tax for five years, saving a typical household £600; and freezing fuel duty which has helped to keep fuel prices 13 pence per litre lower than they would otherwise have been.

"Furthermore, our welfare reforms with the introduction of the Universal Credit will make three million household better off - the majority of these from the bottom two fifths of the income scale."

Sam Bowman, research director at the free-market group the Adam Smith Institute, added: "The JRF are right to highlight the fact that rises to the cost of living tend to hit the poorest the hardest.

"I think it's probably a mistake, however, to point to benefits cuts as the main causes of this squeeze."

College Students Battle Hunger

BY TARA BAHRAMPOUR 

When Paul Vaughn, an economics major, was in his third year at George Mason University, he decided to save money by moving off campus. He figured that skipping the basic campus meal plan, which costs $1,575 for 10 meals a week each semester, and buying his own food would make life easier.

But he had trouble affording the $50 a week he had budgeted for food and ended up having to get two jobs to pay for it. “Almost as bad as the hunger itself is the stress that you’re going to be hungry,” said Vaughn, 22, now in his fifth year at GMU. “I spend more time thinking ‘How am I going to make some money so I can go eat?’ and I focus on that when I should be doing homework or studying for a test.”

A problem known as “food insecurity” — a lack of nutritional food — is not typically associated with U.S. college students. But it is increasingly on the radar of administrators, who report seeing more hungry students, especially at schools that enroll a high percentage of youths who are from low-income families or are the first generation to attend college.

At the same time that higher education is seen as key to financial security, tuition and living expenses are rising astronomically, making it all the more tempting for students to cut corners on food.

“Between paying rent, paying utilities and then trying to buy food, that’s where we see the most insecurity because that’s the most flexible,” said Monica Gray, director of programs at the College Success Foundation-District of Columbia, which helps low-income high school students go to college.

‘Forcing Students to use Food Banks’

Growing numbers of students are turning to food banks as they struggle to afford to feed themselves, leaders of the National Union of Students (NUS) will warn on Monday.

Many other universities are now considering setting up their own schemes, Brittany Tomlinson, the NUS student welfare officer at Hull University, told The Independent.

“Last year it was nearly 100,” she said of demand for food parcels. “This year it has gone up to 200. The reasons are the rise in the cost of living and also some students are getting their student loans quite late. We’re lucky here with the support we’ve got for the food-parcel service from the university,” she said.

“There is no question that this is a growing trend. I know five or six unions [at different universities] across the country which are planning to do something.”

Colum McGuire, vice-president of the NUS, said: “Student unions have been in touch with us to raise the alarm that there is an increase in the number of students using food banks. We are really concerned about this.

“We all know that students incur an automatic debt by choosing education but what I don’t think people know enough about is the day-to-day cost of living.

“People are struggling... Our members report that they have to provide food parcels to students who literally cannot afford to eat.”

In addition to the Hull initiative, further education students at Walsall College in the west Midlands have begun issuing vouchers to allow three-days’ emergency access to the Black Country Food Bank. The college is also offering free breakfasts.

At Wolverhampton, the university is offering free loans to first-year students who are experiencing delays with funding.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said a higher number of disadvantaged students than ever were going to university, adding: “Over half a million are eligible for more non-repayable grants for living costs in 2012-13 than the previous year and almost  1 million students are eligible for more maintenance support in 2012-13 than students were in 2011-12... Young people don’t have to pay upfront to go to university.”

A spokeswoman for the Student Loans Company said there had been no delays to payments, but there was a surge of late applications by students “even after term started”.

In October and November, it received 70,000 applications “meaning many students were starting university without having their finances in place as they hadn’t submitted an application to us”.

* A university chaplain has told how he has referred five students to food banks within his city in the past fortnight.

Sunderland University chaplain, Reverend Chris Howson, said he had seen a record number of people having to resort to using food banks in the past year. 

He was speaking as four workers from Sunderland Minster went hungry for a day to highlight the plight of people living on the breadline.

“The Minster has had to deal with a record number of people going hungry,” he said. “The bigger picture is the massive need for food banks.

“We want to make the point that in the UK today no-one should have to rely on food parcels.  In universities across the country, students are having to take food out (from food banks).”

Rakyat and Rising Cost of Living

By: Selena Tay

Our currency the Malaysian Ringgit is falling against the British Pound, the US Dollar and the Chinese Renminbi since December last year. This will make our imports more expensive and food products from Britain, USA and China will definitely cost more.

So will stationery from China although our government has stopped the stationery sellers from increasing the prices of these items.

In short, the question to be asked is: Why is the Ringgit going down in value when the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) is robust? Which can be controlled and which is not under our control?

As usual someone in the government will come out to say that “our fundamentals are strong…blah, blah, blah” but to the average layman, this is all gobbledygook when the money in his pocket is disappearing fast.

This shows that it is not easy for the nation’s economists to gauge our country’s economic health. One group of economists will say that everything is fine while another group will say that all is doom and gloom although the latter group comes from the opposition side.

One thing for sure is that the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 will help to boost the nation’s economy which at this point in time cannot be said to be thriving due to the fall in the value of the Ringgit.

Certainly we should all do our bit to be friendly and helpful to tourists by assisting those who ask us for information especially the backpackers who come here without tour guides.

In addition to the above, the move to stop fast-food restaurants from hiring foreign workers is certainly a good and timely move but at the same time the government must also take steps to curb the intake of foreign workers. How are we not to give them jobs if there are too many of them?

Moreover, those who will be laid off by the fast-food restaurants will be jobless. What will happen to them? Will they pose a danger to our own citizens? The intake of foreign workers on a continuous basis is alarming if there are not enough jobs for them.

Clearly the BN government does things without proper planning and foresight. They use the fire-fighting method when there is difficulty instead of pre-empting the problem or the difficulty before it happens.

To put it bluntly: the government has failed and the people’s wellbeing is now in jeopardy.

The government has no more game-plan and is floundering in the deep blue sea.

Putting people first?

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is out of his depth. His management skills have sunk to the bottom of the ocean while the rakyat are battling to stay afloat amidst the rising cost of living.

Najib has to come up with a brilliant idea to save this nation. And he should use the annual Audit Report as a costsaver’s guide in order to stop wastages and leakages.

Never in all of Malaysian history since Independence has there been such an acute problem of price hikes.

It is time for the government to be aware that in this new century, voters are not that stupid. People who have voted for BN in GE13 have realised that the government’s promises prior to the hustings are just hot air. Now these voters have woken up albeit too late.

It will be difficult for the voters to be swayed by sensitive issues come the next general election. For when one’s pocket has less money, where is there the time to pay attention to sensitive issues?

Even now the hot topic on the streets is nothing but prices of this and that and how much such and such has gone up.

These days the average Joe is struggling to survive. People are already complaining that the government has hoodwinked them.

It is high time the government realised this and take steps to reduce the prices of goods and services. The GST (Goods & Services Tax) should start at 4% instead of 6% while the assessment rate percentage for KL folks should be 3% for residence and 8% for commercial property due to the massive hike in the valuation rate for the properties. (The current rates of 4% for residence and 10% for commercial property are still too high.)

Najib should prioritise the people’s interest first. Or has he forgotten his own slogan of ‘People First’?

It is now the right time for Najib and the government to wake up before the Year of the Horse comes galloping in on Jan 31 and the prices gallop away at top speed.

Hunger on the Risw

STRUGGLING homeowners and women fleeing violent relationships are among the rising numbers of Victorians unable to feed themselves and their families, charities say.

Cost of living pressures are hitting so hard that 60 per cent of people now accessing one Melbourne food relief service own their own home or rent.

The figure dispels conceptions that only the homeless are hungry as welfare agencies battle to meet demand across a broader cross-section of the community.

And they are expecting demand to increase following the Federal Budget.

FareShare, which provides meals from unwanted supermarket food, says despite doubling kitchen production last year, 70 per cent of agencies needed more meals.

CEO Marcus Godhino said some parents were skipping meals to ensure their children are fed.

“There’s a real anxiety among the charities we cook for especially after the Federal budget,’’ said FareShare CEO Marcus Godinho.

“They’ve already experienced a big increase in the number of people turning to them for help. “What many have seen is more of the working poor, families turning to charities who would not have in years gone by, trying to stretch their budgets to three meals a day.’’

Foodbank Victoria is also battling to provide enough supplies to families who need it.

Each month 125,000 Victorians depend on the service, including an increasing number of women victims of family violence.

The not-for-profit has launched an appeal to raise enough to feed 4000 families for a week this winter.

“Just $25 can feed a family of four for a week,” said chief executive David McNamara.

In 2012-13 Foodbank Victoria distributed 9.9 million meals, but that was still not enough to meet demand with an estimated 11,000 Victorians seeking food relief every month but not getting it.

Foodbank relied on public donations, Mr McNamara said.

“Every dollar that is donated allows Foodbank Victoria to distribute $7 worth of food to families in need.”

Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service chief executive Annette Gillespie said women in safe housing often depend on Foodbank to survive.

“Women leaving violent relationships often have to leave in a hurry without any clothing, food or essential items,” she said

FareShare is calling for donations of rice, fresh and frozen vegetables, pasta, canned and dried legumes, cream, coconut milk, dried herbs and spices.

Coping with rising cost of living

Some 66% of Malaysian households earn less than RM5,000 a month. How do these families cope? Four families earning between RM3,000 and RM5,000 share their smart spending tips.

SK Taman Megah clerk Roshanizar Ali, 41, and her Customs officer husband have five children aged between four and 12 years old and they take home a joint income of RM3,000.

They live in the Kelana Jaya Customs Department quarters and this has helped them save some money on housing rental. However, there is an allowance deduction on this, so it’s not free.

“My average household expenditure for groceries including non-perishables as well as fresh produce is about RM600.

“Out of this, I spend between RM300 and RM350 for dry goods and non-perishables such as sugar, flour, detergent and rice.

“As for fresh produce, my expenditure is RM150 for two weeks’ worth of food, bringing it to about RM300 per month,” said Roshanizar.

She said the first thing they do when they get their salaries is to keep aside between RM100 and RM300 per month for emergencies like illness in the family, or even tobalik kampung.

“Then I will pay off the car loan, any bank loans, the household utility bills, fuel, tuition fees for the children, babysitter fees and other bills like mobile phone bills.

“After doing the rounds at all the supermarkets and hypermarkets in the area, I have found that the cheapest place for me to buy dry goods and non-perishables is Speed Mart,” she said.

“At home, I prepare breakfast and lunch for my family in the mornings. I’m at work by 7.15am each morning and by the time I return home it’s about 6.15pm.

“My children also go to SK Taman Megah so they travel with me. My husband only returns about 8pm after his job as a customs officer in a factory.

“Before he returns I will cook dinner – I will usually cook rice in the mornings to save on time. For dinner, I will cook a vegetable dish and either a fish or chicken dish.

“I will never cook chicken and fish together. We only go out to eat about once a month, we can’t afford to do it more often than that.

“I do feel the pinch from the increase in the cost of fuel prices as I drive a car. But in order to save, my husband rides a motorcycle,” said Roshanizar.

Roshanizar’s budgeting tips are:

• Use your salary to pay for the necessities first such as loans and bills

• Share information of good buys with friends

• If you find things on offer, buy enough to last your family for the following month

• For Hari Raya clothes, don’t wait until it’s actually Raya time to buy. This way, you spread out your spending over the year.

Retiree SL Ho, 60, lives with his retired wife and are dependent on their 26-year-old daughter in Wangsa Maju with a household take home salary of RM3,000.

To save, he said they eat sandwiches every day and they have invested in a bread maker because they found that the prices of bread kept going up but the quality was not improving.

“So we decided to take matters into our own hands and make our own bread. The cost of baking the bread and the sandwich fillings come to less than RM10 each day for the four of us. When it comes to groceries, I buy it either from Tesco or Aeon Big. I tend to buy house brands or generic brands because they cost much less than recognised brand names, There’s quite a sizeable difference in price,” said Ho.

For example, he said this Chinese New Year, a piece of golden pomfret cost him half the price at Aeon Big compared to the wet market.

“I think the quality is up to par, given the big price difference.

“Another thing which I have found is the use of credit cards from banks which offer cash rebates.

“I have a credit card where the bank offers me a cash rebate for purchases I make on it. I also get cash vouchers from hypermarkets and this is also a form of savings for me,” he said.

“I go to the hypermarket about once a week and each time I spend between RM150 and RM200. On average, I spend about RM1,000 on food products and non-perishable household items for the month.

“We save money in other ways as well. I think very carefully about driving to other parts of KL, as petrol costs me RM0.25 per km in my car,” he said.