SINGAPORE: The Community Development Councils are getting ready to cope with another economic downturn if it hits Singapore's shores.
An impending economic storm may be heading to Singapore's shores, as a sovereign debt crisis is threatening the global economy.
But for now, several Members of Parliament Channel NewsAsia spoke to said cost of living rather than issue of jobs is the top agenda for their residents.
Ms Indranee Rajah, MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, said: "People don't think in terms of US and Europe. They think in terms of me, the here and now and my family needs. I think the one I have encountered the most often is the increase in the HDB rental rates for rental flats.
"These rates are pegged to the family income and in some cases, the rental was at a certain rate for many years but recently in the last few years, the family income may have increased and I am seeing the rental rates have jumped more than 100 or 200 per cent and this has caused a large impact on the family and there is a lot of concern on the ground on this.
Ms Tin Pei Ling, MP for Marine Parade GRC, said: "One of the key issues is actually healthcare, especially for the senior citizens. Affordability is probably the top concern that they have reflected to me even at MPS, especially for those with chronic illnesses. The cost involved in having to visit the doctors on a quarterly visit can be a bit hefty and difficult for them to bear."
Dr Chia Shi Lu, MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, said he has seen a fair number of welfare cases and the reason is due to rising cost of living.
For Mr Seah Kian Peng, MP for Marine Parade GRC, housing and medical issues are among the top concerns.
He said: "The greater concern was housing but as we know with all the recent changes and announcements, I can see the housing issue becoming a less pressing one. I think one of the key concerns now of late has been about medical costs. It continues to be an area the Ministry is looking at.
He added that rising costs of living is another issue shared by residents.
Dr Janil Puthucheary, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, said: "Job seeking is not a major factor in my area. It is a fairly new set of estates and the residents are mostly families with children and/or parents."
Learning from the experience of the last recession, the Community Development Councils will take a more pro-active stance to provide timely help to affected residents.
The Community Development Councils said the number of Singaporeans coming to their service centres to seek help for jobs currently is low. Even then, the CDCs are getting ready for another possible economic downturn and will be embarking on a coordinated approach to ensure information about jobs and referral services reach the targeted groups.
Dr Amy Khor, mayor of South West CDC, said: "We are closely monitoring the situation on the ground and tracking the number of job seekers and retrenched workers coming to our service centres as well as working closely with WDA and NTUC. From our previous experience, one of the lesson that we learnt is that communications is key so we are looking into ensuring that we assure residents and workers that help is at hand if they are affected by a downturn and are unable to cope.
Dr Khor said they will be sending out mailers to all households should there be an economic downturn to remind those who experience financial difficulties can can seek assistance from the CDCs.
The CDCs will also be planning to organise more job fairs if the need arises to enable those affected to get jobs, or to be placed in jobs.
Dr Khor said: "All this would complement any measures the government could roll out like something similar to the resilience package previously, if the recession does occur. In addition, we would also want to ensure we coordinate with the other agencies like HDB, Singapore Power and Town Councils to ensure that we provide holistic and coordinated help.
One group of workers who could be hit badly in another downturn could be the professionals, managers, executives and technicians or PMETS. And Dr Khor hopes they will make use of the CDC's services if they need help.
She explained, "Many of the PMETs might not have come to the CDC for assistance before and therefore they do not make the CDC the natural stop. Some may be too proud or embarrassed to come to the CDCs for help. We will need to proactively reach out and assure them that help is available if they need it and we would need to customise some of our help schemes of course.
"Some of the things we did in the previous economic downturn and which would still be applicable would be to customise job preparation workshops just for the PMETs because their needs and barriers to get a new job may be different."
The CDCs helped some 12,500 job-seekers find work last year, compared with 21,600 in 2009.
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