Why widen Workfare to younger workers?

WHEN the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) was introduced in 2007, it was framed chiefly as a scheme to help older low-wage workers who might be left behind by restructuring.

Now, the eligibility age for the scheme is set to be lowered to 30, from the current 35, as announced in the National Day Rally on Sunday.

One might wonder if this extension to younger workers represents an acknowledgement of a broader need to boost incomes, quite apart from contingent concerns about restructuring - or if it merely reflects changing realities in the demographics of low-wage workers.