Lee Hsien Loong : Meet the people (2)

Lee Hsien Loong FB:

Did my MPS last night. We compiled a profile of all the MPS cases we handled in Teck Ghee over the last year, which I thought you might find interesting.

In 2012, we served nearly 2,800 residents (many of whom came more than once) and wrote over 5,500 letters of appeal, or more than 100 letters per week. Just under half the cases live in Teck Ghee itself, while the rest were from other parts of Ang Mo Kio GRC. More than half were older residents (aged 46 or older). Half live in 3-room flats, mirroring the housing profile of our estate. But I had a sprinkling (3%) from private estates too – these residents are generally able to handle problems themselves, though once in a while they too find they need their MP.

The most frequent appeals (more than a third) concerned housing, e.g. buying/selling flats or requests for rental flats. HDB has a tough job, but it is making progress building more BTO flats and shortening waiting times for rental flats.

Other common appeals were for financial assistance (14%, including social assistance, or help with paying bills), followed by immigration matters (12%, including citizenship & PR, employment or social visit passes), and traffic/parking issues (9% of letters, mostly appealing against summonses). Education appeals (4%) popped up seasonally, especially during school or university / poly / ITE admissions season.

Fortunately, we encountered not many requests for help to find jobs (3%) reflecting our low unemployment. Nor were there were many requests for help with medical bills (only 82 cases throughout the whole year, less than 2%), though I know that people worry a lot about healthcare costs and we will continue to monitor them closely.

We always seek to give residents a full and sympathetic hearing, and to help them as best as we can. Even if we can’t fully solve all their problems, we can often at least lessen them. I always feel encouraged when residents come to thank us, like this one who brought me a special thank you card. I had written for Mr Koh Chek Heng to NUH a few weeks ago, and obtained a medical report which he needed to show to several government agencies. – LHL