Transport subsidies for the disabled – passing the buck?
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Transport subsidies for the disabled – passing the buck?
Wednesday, 9 December 2009, 8:13 am | 280 views
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The art of evading responsibilityI refer to the report “Renewed calls for public transport subsidies for the disabled” (CNA, Dec 3). It states that
“The Public Transport Council (PTC) said there are agencies which provide transport help, specifically for the disabled to get around conveniently. The National Council of Social Service, for example, administers the Land Transport Authority’s Cares Fund, which provides reimbursements to disabled persons for journeys to-and-fro home for employment or schooling purposes”.
On reading the above report, I was under the impression that the LTA has a fund to reimburse transport costs for the disabled.
However, when I read the LTA’s press release for its ‘LTA Cares’ fund, I realized that it was actually the staff of LTA who were committed to raise $120,000 per year, for three years, from 2007 to 2009.
So, it is not money that is coming from LTA.
Organisations providing essential public services are responsible for helping those in need. The current trend of passing the buck onto their staff, to raise funds in their personal capacity, is not healthy.
If this is allowed to continue, there may come a day when our Members of Parliament have to raise funds to help the poor, in the absence of funding from the Government!
Incidentally, LTA is the only winner of the President Social Service Award, formal group in 2006.
Using the 4% disability rate provided by the Singapore Disability Sports Council, there are about 150,000 disabled persons in Singapore, if we estimate the current population to be roughly less than 4 million.
“In Singapore, the number of actual disabled individuals is four per cent of its population and that is by the traditional approach, many of whom fall squarely within the main categories of physical impairment, vision impairment, hearing impairment and intellectual impairment”.
Does the $120,000 LTA Cares fund mean that less than a dollar per year is available to help per disabled person?
Since the fund is only for employment and schooling, what about those who need to travel for other reasons? Visiting friends and family, for instance.
As to the PTC denying that it administers any form of subsidy, while indicating that SBS Transit and SMRT are ‘exploring the possibility of concessionary travel for the disabled’, are they not passing the buck to the transport operators as well?
With the responsibility of providing subsidies being passed on from one public organisation to another in a constant chain of ‘arrows’, it is the disabled that are at the losing end. Can any public operator provide any detailed study they have done, in considering the implications and viability of providing some level of subsides?
SMRT especially, has no excuse in stinging on concessions when they register record profits almost year after year! Just look at the excuse they have issued yet again:
“SMRT said that any concessionary travel is effectively cross-subsidised by full-fare paying commuters. Hence, there is a need to exercise prudence in granting travel concessions”
Since it was also mentioned in the same article that the public has been mostly receptive of the idea of subsidised fares for the disabled, ‘exercising prudence’ for fear of angering the public seems more of an excuse to scrimp on essential public goods. Is it not obvious that subsidies for the disabled will be cross-subsidised by full-fare consumers, as is the case all over the world?
Though SMRT takes pride in being a good socially responsible corporate citizen (Corporate Social Responsibility), and has done many charitable activities, their day-to-day policies show otherwise.
Whilst I would like to commend the LTA staff for their efforts in raising funds for the LTA Cares fund, they are contributing to a systemic problem by being at the receiving end of the ‘buck’. It should be the responsibility of public organisations to assist the disabled in society, not private persons working in public organisations.
How can the decision-makers at the PTC, LTA and SMRT look squarely into the eyes of disabled persons, while dishing out the same excuses, almost every other year?
When we as a society become overly focused on profitability at the expense our compassion, we may lose a bit of what makes us human, in the first place!
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Did u check on Back to school vouchers and Transport fares for the needed and poorer singaporeans??? 23 millions dollars given out ok.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
Did u check on Back to school vouchers and Transport fares for the needed and poorer singaporeans??? 23 millions dollars given out ok.
Where did the Taiwanese 'hum' get the value of S$23 Million being given out for the separate 'Back to School' and 'Transport' vouchers ?From some researches made, the following have been determined:-
The combined total is less then the S$25 million that the Taiwanese 'hum' had in its usual ways of spouting garbage from the petty gossips that it allowed its clitoris to wag with, as its brains buried in its Taiwanese 'hum' will attempt to aborb like a sanitary napkin acting as a filter to the petty issues gossiped.
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Check on upgrading and skill development, the govt also pour money in there to upgrade our Uncles and Aunties skill developments so that they are able to adapt to the changes and give good services.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
Check on upgrading and skill development, the govt also pour money in there to upgrade our Uncles and Aunties skill developments so that they are able to adapt to the changes and give good services.
The Taiwanese 'hum' perform best when it starts to talk 'cock' - a language that only a 'hum' knows best.Are there any vouchers left from the Taiwanese 'hum' to spread its ignorance around to draw attention to itself as an "Attention Seeking Whore" ?