What’s Success in Singapore: Balancing Ambition with Financial Realities Ahead of GE2025

As Singapore positions itself for the upcoming 2025 General Elections, a pivotal question is taking center stage: How can the nation define success to prioritise well-being, inclusivity, and work-life balance while ensuring financial stability for its people?

With voters increasingly focused on issues like cost of living, housing affordability, healthcare access, and job security, political parties are presenting bold proposals to address these concerns.

We'll explore the diverse strategies being proposed across the political spectrum, offering insights into how they might shape the future for residents, expatriates, and businesses alike.

Cultivating Broader Definitions of Success

The evolving definition of success is becoming a key election issue. Here’s how different parties are approaching it:

• PAP (People’s Action Party):
  • Replacing secondary school streaming with subject-based banding to reduce academic pressure.
  • Reforming PSLE scoring and revisiting the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) to emphasize holistic development.
  • Building four new SPED schools by 2030 and expanding early intervention programs for inclusivity.
  • Supporting PMETs and nurturing local corporate leaders to promote diverse career paths.
• RDU (Red Dot United):
  • Advocating for a shift from GDP-centric growth to a "Well-Being Economy," emphasising quality of life over purely economic metrics.
• WP (Workers’ Party):
  • Championing Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs), which led to the government mandating a formal process for FWA requests by December 2024—a move that aligns with modern work-life balance aspirations.

Keeping Financial Realities in Check: Cost of Living and Social Support

With rising living costs a top concern for voters, parties are proposing targeted solutions to ease the financial burden:

• PAP:
  • Expanding direct financial assistance through CDC vouchers, cash payouts, and utilities rebates.
  • Strengthening social safety nets like ComCare, Silver Support, and Workfare while implementing Progressive Wages in more sectors.
  • Launching ComLink+ to provide intensive support for low-income families.
• PSP (Progress Singapore Party):
  • Reducing GST to 7% and exempting basic essentials like rice, eggs, and cooking oil from GST below certain price points.
  • Proposing fixed or turnover-linked hawker stall rents, discounts for seniors and CHAS holders, and additional CDC vouchers for lower-income households.
• SDP (Singapore Democratic Party):
  • Restoring GST to 7% and zero-rating essentials.
  • Highlighting Singapore’s budget surplus as a reason to ease financial pressures on citizens.
• RDU:
  • Introducing a "Citizens' Dividend," an unconditional cash transfer to provide a reliable income floor and empower individuals to reskill or innovate without immediate financial stress.

Here’s a comparative look at some approaches to the cost of living and key social supports:

Anchoring Stability: Jobs, Housing, and Healthcare

As the backbone of financial stability, jobs, housing, and healthcare remain critical battlegrounds in the lead-up to GE2025:

• Job Security Measures:
  • PAP: Strengthening fair employment safeguards via the Workplace Fairness Act and supporting SMEs with tax rebates and productivity initiatives.
  • WP: Influencing anti-discrimination legislation and unemployment support schemes.
  • SDP: Proposing a national minimum wage, retrenchment insurance, and stricter verification for foreign work passes.
  • RDU: Advocating "Citizens First" hiring principles and fair wages.
• Housing Initiatives:
  • PAP: Launching 100,000 new BTO flats (2021-25) and planning 50,000 more, exploring new flat categories like VERS (Voluntary Early Redevelopment).
  • WP: Shortening BTO wait times and improving public rental options.
  • PSP: Suggesting deferred HDB land cost payments until resale.
  • SDP: Proposing Non-Open-Market (NOM) flats sold at fixed low prices to decouple from the open market.
  • RDU: Calling for a "Comprehensive Housing Reset," including SERS for all estates and ensuring flats retain value beyond 99 years.

Here’s a simplified comparison of housing ideas:

• Healthcare Security:
  • PAP: Investing heavily in healthcare infrastructure, launching preventative health initiatives like Healthier SG, and addressing mental health through a National Mental Health Office.
  • PSP: Proposing government-paid premiums for MediShield Life and CareShield Life and centralising drug procurement to lower costs.
  • SDP: Advocating for a single-payer universal health insurance system to eliminate medical bankruptcy.
  • RDU: Suggesting rebalancing the 3M framework to make Medifund the primary safety net and capping out-of-pocket expenses.

The Path Forward: Balancing Ambition and Reality

Promoting a "new success"— one that values well-being, diverse talents, and work-life balance is a vision many Singaporeans aspire to.

However, achieving this ambition hinges on addressing the pressing financial realities faced by individuals and families.

Secure jobs, fair wages, affordable housing, accessible healthcare, and manageable living costs are the foundation upon which broader definitions of success can be built.

As Singapore heads toward GE2025, the policy proposals from various parties offer distinct strategies to achieve this balance:

• PAP: Strengthening existing frameworks to ensure continuity and stability.
• PSP: Targeting cost-of-living pressures with specific interventions.
• SDP: Advocating fundamental system changes to create a more equitable society.
• RDU: Envisioning new social contracts and economic models centered on well-being.
• WP: Highlighting its role in shaping policies through parliamentary advocacy.

For everyone living and working in Singapore, understanding these diverse approaches is crucial.

They not only reflect the potential futures being considered but also highlight the levers that could reshape society and the economy.

Staying informed about this ongoing conversation will help you navigate your personal finances, career growth, business investments, and retirement planning in this ever-evolving city-state.