Labour Movement rounds off unprecedented U Care Efforts with $5.4 million Back to School Vouchers

Labour Movement rounds off unprecedented U Care Efforts with $5.4 million Back to School Vouchers

05 December 2009

Media Release

Fund-raising effort of $23 million for 2009 reaches out to over 170,000 union members and their families

1 As the year end approaches, the unprecedented fund-raising efforts of $23,037,877 in 2009 by the Labour Movement has been disbursed to 175,312 union members and their families. Due to the severity of the downturn in 2009, this is the largest number of handouts given out thus far, way exceeding a typical year of 60,000 to 80,000 handouts.

2 Apart from maintaining support to the elderly and children through donations to the NTUC Eldercare Trust and NTUC First Campus Bright Horizons Fund, this year’s programmes have been developed mainly to assist union members affected by the economic downturn. The Labour Movement continued to help members lighten their burden of living expenses by increasing the U Stretch vouchers from $50 to $80 this year, and also created targeted programmes such as the U Care Immediate Assistance (UCIA) for affected workers and the Bursary/Scholarship TOP-UP scheme, which empowered NTUC-affiliated unions and associations to reach out to more children of lower-income members despite a difficult year.

3 The most popular programme that received overwhelming applications was the UCIA, which provided timely financial assistance to 40,000 workers who were retrenched, on shorter work weeks or have suffered pay cuts. As such, $1.9 million from other programmes were transferred to meet the needs of these workers, resulting in an eventual $8.4 million distribution of UCIA . Please see Table A for a summary of U Care efforts by the Labour Movement for 2009.

4 In addition to the $23 million above, NTUC affiliated unions and associations also stepped up their efforts to support their members during the year. Apart from persevering with their fund-raising efforts despite the downturn and organising more activities such as union gatherings and family day outs to provide emotional support, they further distributed annual bursaries and scholarships worth over $1.2 million to the children of lower-income members. This is 20% more than their usual distribution of $1 million in an average year.

Labour Movement Back to School Programme - $5.4 million

5. To conclude the year’s efforts, the Labour Movement distributed $5.4 million worth of Back to School vouchers to help children of lower-income union members prepare for the new school term in 2010, especially when the average lower-income member might face a tighter budget for purchasing school-related items this year. The Back to School has been a staple programme of the Labour Movement since 2005, held in conjunction with the NTUC FairPrice Used Textbooks Project which provides free second-hand textbooks to the needy. This annual community project, which has been running for 27 years now, has helped over 120,000 needy students nationwide save more than S$8 million in textbook expenses, with over 1.6 million used textbooks collected since it was conceived.

6. Three Back to School fairs will also be organised on 5 and 6 December 2009 at Jurong East, Toa Payoh Central and Downtown East. To promote the importance of family support during tough times and for the convenience of union members, the fifth run of the Family Recreation & Fun Carnival 2009/2010 will be combined with the Back to School Fair at Downtown East this year. The carnival provides eligible members a fun-filled family-day package at NTUC Club’s recreational facilities, inclusive of food and transport.

7. NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say said, “2009 has been a challenging year for the Singapore economy. Many workers were affected and suffered a drop in income due to shorter work weeks and the loss of overtime. With the strong support from donors of the U Care fund and through our affiliated unions, we are able to assist 40,000 affected workers with immediate financial assistance, 67,500 lower wage workers with discount vouchers, and more than 50,000 children with scholarships, bursaries and Back-to-School vouchers. I am proud that as a caring labour movement, we have delivered our promise to do our best to help our workers save their jobs and help union members cushion the impact of the downturn on their families."

8. The U Care fund would not have been possible without the generous support of our NTUC-affiliated unions and associations, our NTUC social enterprises, the Singapore Labour Foundation, and corporate sponsors such as OCBC Bank and ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited. Please see Annex A for the total funds raised by the Labour Movement in 2009. The Labour Movement will have distributed the full sum of $23 million by the end of this year, and will continue to assess these on-going programmes to ensure that the Labour Movement remains relevant to our members’ needs for 2010.

Mr Zainudin Nordin
Director
Care and Share
National Trades Union Congress