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).”