According to a survey conducted by local volunteer group SW101, social workers are complaining that the Singapore dictatorship is covering up poverty figures and about 40% of the 242 social workers surveyed said they do not know how much money does the government actually put in to help the poor.
About 50% of the surveyed social workers, researchers and academics said they do not believe the government is helping the poor. 43% said they are not willing to pay more taxes to help the poor because they believe the rich dictatorship is not making poverty a priority over other spendings.
In an interview with state media Straits Times, social worker Tan Kwan Boon, 25, said that the authorities do not publish enough figures on social spending.
Based on standards by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations, Singapore has the 2nd worst income inequality at 0.458 in 2016. This “achievement” is just right below Chile’s 0.465, but worse than United States – a country deeply divided by income inequality.
Former Minister of Social and Family Development Tan Chuan Jin said in July this year that poor people played up their sob stories to get sympathy. There is no official poverty line and no Minimum Wage, as the Singapore government is worried that poverty may smear it’s “first world rich nation” image.