CPF - Children Provident Fund

ELDERLY impoverished parents who are financially abandoned by their children may soon get better legal protection.

MP Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC) yesterday accepted Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan's suggestion to table a Private Member's Bill to amend and give more teeth to the Maintenance of Parents Act.

The Act enables elderly parents to approach a legal tribunal for help if their children refuse to support them financially. The legislation was first tabled in 1994 as a Private Member's Bill by then Nominated MP Walter Woon, who is now the Attorney-General.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of parents filing applications with the tribunal in recent years. There were nearly 200 such cases last year, up from 109 in 2007.

This led Mr Seah and Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio GRC) to call for more measures. Mr Seah, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said like many MPs, he has come across cases of old folk abandoned by children and 'left largely to fend for themselves'.

As a principle, social assistance should be given only if the children do not have the financial ability to support their parents, and he suggested the Commissioner heading the tribunal be given more powers to obtain data on the whereabouts and financial status of the children, particularly since some of those parents who approached the tribunal said they had lost touch with their children. -Strait Times

Speaking with my friend from Australia who is a mother of 2, she is surprise to know that such a law exist in modern Singapore. It is a good culture we have in asia that the children should take care of their elderly parents and it is the social norm to do so. In Australia for example, everyone is expected to be financially independent at a certain stage in life, both parents and children. If that is not possible, the government will step in to assist. This is the social norm. Children are not legally bound to provide for their parents. They can of course if they want to but usually they do not have to because financial aids are given by the governemnt. Singapore government must be glad that such a law can be implemented - a reinforcement of traditional views, filial piety or using it as a hidden social security system? you decide.