Themes

After coding for the interviews, several themes emerged from the 5 interviewees’ stories. All the participants had multiple social problems and they faced sudden drastic changes in their lives that led to a plunge in poverty. Such changes include divorce (John, Ong and Laura), gambling (Ong and Tay) and medical expenses (Wong).

1. Financial Problems

As the participants are either unemployed due to medical condition or have low income jobs, other than the basic rental fees, participants also have to take into account miscellaneous expenses, such as electricity fees and daily expenses. Due to high cost of living with little or no income, the participants often faced difficulties settling their fees, which resulted in penalty charges, on top of their outstanding payments.

Some of the participants faced Central Provident Fund (CPF) woes due to the change of policy in 1987 where they were promised a full pay-out in their earlier days instead of receiving monthly payouts after they reached the age limit. As a result, participants affected have depleted their own savings as they were hopeful of receiving their CPF savings when they retire. Ong, revealed his concerns over the lack of cash in hand, which might comes in handy for urgent situations. John also further shared his frustrations over the imbalance distribution of the Workfare Income Supplement, where majority of it went into his CPF account. Financial problems are also often multi-faceted, where the lack of money affects individuals’ quality of life, such as in seeking healthcare.

2. Health Problems

As participants move towards their old age, health problems become common issues faced by the participants. Not only does it affect their day-to-day activities, it also become a challenge for them to find a permanent job that could secure them a stable income. Participants revealed having give up on job opportunities due to their health and they had a hard time searching for jobs that are suitable for them. However, despite their health conditions, many participants also revealed that they are reluctant to seek for treatments or check-ups due to the inefficiency of medical institutions. This can be seen from the experiences that Ong shared about his recent hospital visit where he waited for hours, while Tay explained how his eye condition did not seem to improve even after a visit to the hospital.

3. Family Problems

Participants also shared problems faced within their families. Such issues affect them emotionally in addition to the financial difficulties that they already face. Laura, Wong and Tay shared how they faced problems with their partner and children respectively.

4. Problems with regards to seeking for assistance

Another common problem that surfaced was the difficulties encountered when applying for financial aid, due to four main issues.

(a) Ineffective Aid

Ineffectiveness of aid seems to be a large concern whereby participants’ needs and concerns are often not appropriately addressed but brushed aside. John mentioned how the Social Service Office (SSO) officer gave him forms that were irrelevant to his situation to appease him but avoiding the provision of concrete help. Another applicant, Tay highlighted the difficulties he faced in coping with a meagre amount of aid, and how the aid wasn’t effective in alleviating his employment issues.

(b) Inefficiency

Financial aid application procedures are made tougher with the inefficiency in the processing of the applications. John and Ong expressed their frustrations in the slow process of their application status. Repeated trials that reaped no results left them feeling disheartened and demoralized, often giving up on the tedious application eventually. Such cases highlight the need for better communication between organizations offering financial aid and its applicants in order to facilitate a more efficient application process for both parties.

(c) Complicated Procedure

First-time applicants for financial aid might face difficulties applying due to the tedious procedures. Ong and Laura, who are unfamiliar with the process, found it too tedious to go through the many forms and strict administrative procedures for the application. John also expressed that he do not understand the reason behind unsuccessful applications, where he brought all the necessary documents but was still unable to qualify successfully. While successful applicants, like Tay mentioned that additional steps were required of him upon expiry for another round of approval. Even though it is important to ensure that financial aid resources are allocated appropriately to the people who should be entitled due to difficult conditions that they face, such tedious procedures might deter individuals who are unfamiliar with the administrative details from applying and receiving help that they need.

5. Personality

The in-depth interviews also revealed that personality may hinder participants from moving out of the situations they are trapped in, such as seeking for financial aid, and health concerns. Three factors were identified with regards to this theme.

(a) Pride

Participants expressed that they opted not to apply for financial aid due to concerns pertaining to dignity. Both John and Ong shared how they felt like they were “losing face” in doing so. Findings revealed that participants are reluctant to apply for financial aid as they consider it to be a form of pleading others for financial support. They also prefer to be self-reliant if given a choice and depend on their own means for survival, as shared by Wong.

(b) Technology Literacy

This is often regarded as a foreign subject among the older generation where many feel that their old age hinders their ability to pick up this new skill. Yet to adapt to the changing needs of the economy, such technological skills are often needed to remain employable. John, Tay and Laura mentioned how they are not keen to pick up technological skills to keep up with the times.

(c) Personal Habits

Various personal habits could have potentially led to the hindrance of participants from moving out of their current situations and in causing health concerns. Tay, Ong and John shared how they are addicted to habits such as drinking, smoking and gambling, however they were unable to quit drinking and smoking doing even though they knew it was bad for their health.

*name has been modified for anonymity purposes

#themes #coding #problems