In a report released on Tuesday ( Nov 19 ), the Ministry of Social and Family Development ( MSF ) stated that less households in 2023 received government financial assistance than they did the previous year, continuing a downward trend.  ,
ComCare supports lower-income homes with basic living costs, to help stabilise their situation.
There are three main types of ComCare help:  ,
- Short-to-medium term assistance ( SMTA ): Supports households with temporary financial assistance to meet a family’s basic living expenses
- Long-term assistance ( LTA ): Provides support for those who have little or no family support and are permanently unable to work.
- Student care fee assistance (SCFA ): For , children from lower-income families
According to the MSF changes statement on supporting lower-income communities, the number of houses supported by SMTA decreased from 27, 392 in 2022 to 22, 960 in 2023. This was below pre-pandemic ranges of 27, 989 in 2019, and down from the COVID-19 top of 36, 853 in 2021.
The amount of money disbursed through SMTA also fell from a peak of US$ 169.7 million ( US$ 127 million ) in 2020 to S$ 112.5 million in 2022 and S$ 105.1 million in 2023.  ,
MSF attributes these declines to recent increases in the labor market, the healing following COVID-19, and government support from programs like the Workforce Income Supplement and Assurance Package.
For families supported by LTA, there was a residual cut from 3, 857 in 2022 to 3, 479 next year. Similar to the SMTA team, this was lower than the 4, 175 in 2019.
Last year, a total of S$ 23 million was disbursed, down from S$ 24.9 million in 2019 and a 2020 peak of S$ 28.5 million.
According to MSF, these may be a result of more people living long, younger groups of seniors having more savings, and increased state support for seniors through programs like the Magic Support scheme  and Pioneer and Merdeka technology packages.