REACH: Singaporeans most concerned about planning ahead for future

Singaporeans are most concerned about the ways to plan ahead for the future, according to the results of a six-week pre-Budget feedback exercise published by REACH on Friday.

REACH is the feedback department under the Ministry of Communications and Information, aimed to connect and engage citizens with the government.

The exercise, which ran from Dec 4, 2017 to Jan 12, 2018, had participants share ways in which the government can support them.

Most of the participants expressed support for more to be done to help them

deepen and broaden their skills. This can be done through greater employer support for skill upgrading and to increase awareness that employers need to recognise the value of training their employees.

Many Singaporeans also called for career planning and financial literacy

programmes to be incorporated into the school curriculum. At the same time, they advocated more assistance for the elderly and more incentives to encourage family support, to cope with escalating healthcare costs.

A number of Singaporeans urged the government to consider other methods of generating revenue before considering a tax increase. If the tax increase is unavoidable, they would like to see more assistance to be given to low and middle income families.

REACH chairman Sam Tan, who is also Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Manpower and the Prime Minister's Office, said he was heartened to see a strong turn out and would share the feedback with his colleagues in the Ministry of Finance.

"This is a good sign as it shows that Singaporeans care for our country and want to play a part in shaping government policies," he added.