Singapore of Ageing, Disability & Home Care Department

In the atmosphere of after the 1965 separation from Malaysia, the government in 1966 established the Family Planning and Population Board, which was responsible for providing clinical services and public education on family planning.

Birth rates fell from 1957 to 1970, but then began to rise as women of the postwar baby boom reached child-bearing years. The government responded with policies intended to further reduce the birth rate. Abortion and voluntary sterilization were legalized in 1970. Between 1969 and 1972, a set of policies known as "population disincentives" were instituted to raise the costs of bearing third, fourth, and subsequent children. Civil servants received no paid maternity leave for third and subsequent children; maternity hospitals charged progressively higher fees for each additional birth; and income tax deductions for all but the first two children were eliminated.

Large families received no extra consideration in public housing assignments, and top priority in the competition for enrollment in the most desirable primary schools was given to only children and to children whose parents had been sterilized before the age of forty. Voluntary sterilization was rewarded by seven days of paid sick leave and by priority in the allocation of such public goods as housing and education.

The policies were accompanied by publicity campaigns urging parents to "Stop at Two" and arguing that large families threatened parents' present livelihood and future security. The penalties weighed more heavily on the poor, and were justified by the authorities as a means of encouraging the poor to concentrate their limited resources on adequately nurturing a few children who would be equipped to rise from poverty and become productive citizens.

After forty years of “Stop at Two Policy”, we are facing ageing population and also disability population problem. As a Singaporean, we shall have responsibilities to form a Singapore of Ageing, Disability & Home Care Department. The department of the Ageing, Disability & Home Care is responsibility for provision of government services to the elderly and the disabled.

The Department has five divisions:

Accommodation and Respite - responsible for running the Government's respite centres and group homes;

Community Access - responsible for day programs to assist the disabled, including social and work education, assistance with independent living and behavioural management;

Home Care - responsible for programs to help the aged and the disabled to continue to live independently in their own homes, and an Attendant Care Program to provide basic in-home support;

Office of Ageing - responsible for policy advice on service delivery needs as a result of an ageing population; and

Service Development and Planning - responsible for liaison with stakeholder groups and the administration of the Department itself.