Lower-Income Families Colabs

It’s easy to forget that poverty exists in Singapore. Income inequality in Singapore has narrowed over the years, but Lower-Income Families are still struggling to cope and rise above their financial situations. The economic uncertainty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has only made social mobility more difficult to attain, especially for Lower-Income Families.

Who are considered Lower-Income Families in Singapore?

We cannot neglect this part of our nation’s reality. We need to strive for a future without barriers to equitable access, opportunities and resources for all.

From November to January 2023, Colabs gathered 100+ stakeholders across different sectors throughout five sessions to unpack and analyse this aspiration statement:

“How might we collectively create an enabling ecosystem to empower Lower-Income Families to do well and progress?”

Lower-Income Families Colabs Executive Summary

The conversations in our Colabs sessions yielded insights and solution spaces, which we have synthesised in the Lower-Income Families Colabs Executive Summary. You can read about the key insights, resulting maps, and recommendations for the ecosystem on this site.

Why is this issue so complicated?

Lower-Income Families face a myriad of overlapping issues. Furthering the dilemma, resources for long-term planning (such as time, money or mental bandwidth) are already stretched thin for Lower-Income Families. Sometimes, immediate needs inevitably trump long-term plans.

If you’re worrying about how to keep the lights on, you’d choose to work more hours to earn more money now, rather than devoting resources to upskilling so you can earn more money in the future.

While existing schemes offer assistance, these families face multifaceted and intertwined challenges that can hinder them from reaping the benefits of available help.

Let’s take a close-up look at these challenges.

REAL TALK: The web of issues that Lower-Income Families face

“I know that upskilling would improve my job opportunities, but how can I take time off from work when I need to pay off my elderly parents’ monthly medical bills while providing for my family?”

— Mdm Tan*, a Lower-Income Single Mother

*names are changed to protect the privacy of the family featured

Mdm Tan is a single mother and the sole breadwinner of her family. She provides for her 5-year-old son and elderly parents. She works long hours to pay groceries, utility bills, and other household expenses.

Why doesn’t Mdm Tan find a higher-paying job?

It’s not that simple.

A web of factors

Upskilling would help open doors to better job prospects with higher salaries. But Mdm Tan struggles to find time and energy to take upskilling courses. She’s burnt out from working and caring for her family.

Place yourself in Mdm Tan’s shoes.

Your salary isn’t enough to pay the bills, send your kids to school, and buy medicine for your elderly parents. How do you increase your income?

A. Gig Work

Take up gig work in addition to your normal work schedule, like serving food at a cafe, watching a shop, or cleaning up at a mall or hawker centre.

You earn more money, but have no time to spend with your children during weekdays. You’re also unable to work on upskilling to get a promotion in the future, as you’re exhausted from holding two jobs while also being the household manager and caregiver.

B. Upskill

You enroll in upskilling programs to improve your chances of earning more in the long term.

Taking time on upskilling courses means you have no time to take on gig work to increase your income nor to pay for tuition and medicine.

C. New Job

You find a job with a higher salary.

Say you find a higher-paying job after months of applying. You earn more, which means you no longer qualify for the same amount of rental subsidy. Your additional income goes towards paying your rent and you’re left with the same budget constraints as before for tuition and medicine.

As you see, there’s no cookie-cutter formula for improving social mobility.

We hence aspire to build a whole-of-society approach that brings together various sectors to create a robust and sustainable support ecosystem for Lower-Income Families. By working together and tapping into the strengths of each sector, we can co-create a society where these families have access to a comprehensive network of support, empowering them and uplifting them to achieve upward social mobility.

Insights and Tools from Lower-Income Families Colabs

Colabs has developed tools you can use to help empower Lower-Income Families—from understanding their situations to choosing avenues for action:

Current Initiatives & Stakeholder Maps

Use this map to:

Understand the different actors and the space they occupy within the system
See key initiatives and identify potential opportunities for partnership and collaboration
Identify where the gaps are and steer resources to areas which could use more support

Family Experience Maps

Use this map to:

Understand the complexity and experiences faced by Lower-Income Families in Singapore across seven different life stages.
Get a comprehensive overview of significant events that families encounter during the stages and examine how past experiences shape their beliefs, values and decision-making processes during critical junctures.

Click each icon below to see a particular life stage’s experience map in the Family Experience Maps subpage.

Insights & Opportunities

Use this map to:

Learn about 7 key insights and opportunities for change identified in the Colabs series
Understand the nuances of Lower-Income Families day-to-day considerations
Identify opportunities you can pursue—either as an individual or as part of an organisation—to address Lower-Income Families’
unmet needs

Key Themes

Insight

Area of Opportunity

1. Fostering Trust and Collective Ownership

Lower-Income Families should be seen for their strengths and not as a “case number” or “issue” to be solved

Adopt a strengths-based approach to enable trust-building

Lower-Income Families’ needs should be addressed using a holistic approach

Build collective ownership to support Lower-Income Families

2. Prioritising Education

Lower-income parents may not have the resources to prioritise early childhood education

Encourage lower-income parents to value early childhood education for better upstream intervention success

3. Supporting Financial Stability

Lower-Income Families want flexibility, security, and stability in their employment

Explore alternative models of work that meet the needs of lower-income workers

Lower-income individuals need relevant upskilling and job-training opportunities that can lead them to higher wages

Transform the upskilling and job-training experience to increase social mobility

Lower-Income Families would like more guidance and support structures to meet their long-term financial goals

Build a financial support system that guides Lower-Income Families to achieve long-term goals

4. Building A Safe Home Environment

Lower-Income Families need alternative pathways to create a safe and stable home environment

Increase accessibility to home ownership or alternatives that meet their home needs

Key Themes

1. Fostering Trust and Collective Ownership

Insight

Area of Opportunity

Key Themes

2. Prioritising Education

Insight

Area of Opportunity

Key Themes

3. Supporting Financial Stability

Insight

Area of Opportunity

Key Themes

4. Building A Safe Home Environment

Insight

Area of Opportunity

Solution
Spaces

Case
Studies

Funding Non-Profits Call for Flexibility...

Funding Non-Profits Calls For Flexibility And Trust To Better Help Lower-Income Families

Non-profit organisations (NPOs) are doing valuable work to support the needs of Lower-Income Families in Singapore. Funders – whether they’re government funding boards, corporate donors or generous individuals – enable the work that NPOs do, and thus play a similarly important role...

Shifting The Narrative: How The Strengths Of Singapore’s Lower-Income Families Contribute To Society

The conventional narrative surrounding Lower-Income Families largely focuses on the resources they lack or the challenges they face. Even the “Lower-Income” term defines this demographic through...

From Paycheck To Purpose: How Corporates Can Support Lower-Income Families

A constant source of income provides a sense of security and helps an individual meet their basic needs. Yet for many Lower-Income Families, the struggle for consistent employment means security and stability can be elusive...

Join the Lower-Income Families Empowerment (LIFE) Network

The Lower-Income Families Empowerment (LIFE) Network brings together dedicated stakeholders committed to empowering these families towards greater social mobility. By leveraging on the insights gained through the Colabs series, the network identifies areas of opportunities and unment needs, laying the foundation for meaningful change. The LIFE Network offers its members a platform to explore emerging developments within the space, connect with a diverse range of people from the industry and opportunities to collaborate with one another.

Fill up the fields and we’ll drop you an email!