4 in 10 polled can"t name specific benefits under Pioneer Generation Package

SINGAPORE: A recent survey among 1,500 respondents showed that seven in 10 Singaporeans were aware of the Pioneer Generation Package.

Among the pioneers, eight in 10 of them were aware of the package.

However, among those who knew about the package, some were still unsure of the benefits.

This was revealed on Monday at a media briefing chaired by the Pioneer Generation Taskforce.

The survey was done by the Communications and Information Ministry between March 17-26 and involved 1,511 people aged 15 and above.

Among 1,042 participants who were aware of the Pioneer Generation Package, only half knew about the eligibility criteria of the package.

Four in 10 didn’t know about the benefits of the package.

Half of those surveyed said they were assured the package will keep healthcare costs affordable,

Thirty per cent were unsure and the remaining 20 per cent were not assured.

The taskforce, co-led by Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport Mrs Josephine Teo and Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower Dr Amy Khor, said that while the general awareness is encouraging, this doesn’t translate to greater assurance of healthcare affordability.

One of the immediate priorities laid out by the taskforce is training frontline staff at various healthcare settings like hospitals and polyclinics.

Dr Khor said: “We started training already and we expect to train about 1,000 frontline staff over the next few months on the Pioneer Generation Package.

“We will also be running through with them the various questions and concerns that Singaporeans may have regarding healthcare subsidies and also to help them address some of these questions and concerns to provide reassurance to patients.”

Dr Khor added: “We will also get our frontline staff to proactively identify and affirm the PG status of these patients at the registration as well as billing so at both points, the bills will also reflect the PG subsidy so they would know that they are PG and they are benefitting from the PG subsidies”.

Dr Khor added that the taskforce is working to link up the public healthcare IT systems and the database for pioneers so that frontline staff can better identify them.

Another priority is to make the pioneer generation package more tangible.

Mrs Teo explained: “In the month of June, every single one of the pioneer generation member will receive their own personalised letter and also outlining for them the key benefits that each one of them will have.”

All pioneers will also receive their cards by September.

Special efforts will also be made to locate some 1,000 pioneers who don’t have CPF accounts.

In order to explain the Pioneer Generation Package more clearly to Singaporeans, the taskforce said effective communication is key and this means keeping information simple and in bite size.

The messaging also has to be customised to the needs of the pioneer generation and this means expanding the use of TV and radio platforms as well as developing non-English content.

4 in 10 polled can"t name specific benefits under Pioneer Generation Package