Tharman: No parental benefits for your bastards! Only for legit kids!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Use condoms or marry the woman!

Quote:
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that the government will not give single mothers parental benefits.

Mr Tharman said this in response to a question from Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng yesterday.

Mr Seah asked if the government will extend the Working Mother's Child Relief and Foreign Maid Levy Relief to taxpayers who are single mothers. He also asked what the estimated tax savings for them will be.

The Working Mother’s Child Relief allows a married working woman to receive a 15 percent tax rebate of their incomes for their first child, 20 percent for their second child and 25 percent for their subsequent children, up to a cap of 100 percent on their incomes.

The Foreign Maid Levy Relief allows a family to get $145 off the monthly foreign domestic worker levy if they hire a foreign domestic worker.

However, Mr Tharman said that the government does not want to extend the reliefs for single parents.

Mr Tharman said that these parental benefits will only be given to women who have to be married and working.

"They reflect the prevailing societal norm where marriage is the first step towards family formation," Mr Tharman said.

It is unclear if Singaporeans agree with this "prevailing societal norm" in Singapore.

Mr Tharman said that single mothers are only allowed to have a few benefits, such as centre-based infant and child care subsidies, Medisave grants for newborns and Medishield coverage for congenital and neonatal conditions.

But Mr Tharman also said, "As single parents currently do not claim for these tax reliefs, we do not have sufficient data such as on whether they have children who are studying full-time and their incomes if the children are working, to accurately estimate the tax savings arising from the reliefs."

In short, Mr Tharman is saying that the government is basically neglecting single mothers and that single mothers are unimportant in Singapore that their needs and their children's needs are not looked after in Singapore.

For the past 50 years, the PAP government has continued to discriminate against single mothers. This is even so that there is growing support for single mothers among Singaporeans.

Moreover, many Singaporeans have also said that as the Singapore society progresses and matures and more Singaporeans grow up in various family arrangements, the benefits provided for Singaporeans should be based on their individual needs rather than on a "prevailing societal norm" which is largely dictated by the government but not in line with Singaporeans' beliefs.

On top of that, single mothers also face societal discrimination, earn the lowest incomes and have to work the longest hours to support their children, as compared to other families. If anything, single mothers require the most support from the government.

However, the PAP government continues to discriminate against single mothers and singles in Singapore, and marginalise them, making it difficult for them to earn a proper livelihood in Singapore.

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...ental-benefits




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