FOR Alias Bin Ahmad’s 10-year-old daughter, putting her savings in her piggy bank before bedtime has become a routine.

Alias said she cultivated this habit last year after joining the financial literacy programme for children by DBS Foundation, organised in partnership with Community Link (ComLink) – an initiative by the Ministry of Social and Family Development, to support families living in rental flats. “After attending the programme, she has been more mindful of her spending, and she tries to save some of her pocket money whenever she can… She is happy to see that her savings have been growing in her piggy bank,” the 64-year-old added.

The family of five lives in a two-room flat, and is receiving ComCare financial assistance and ComLink befriending support. Alias is unemployed due to health reasons and his wife is a homemaker.

Struggling day to day 

In an increasingly affluent Singapore, there is growing concern over the cost of living and how issues such as inflation can push families to the brink of financial difficulties.

A study done by DBS in May revealed that the double whammy of high inflation and elevated interest rates have continued to drive up mortgage costs and diminish the purchasing power of Singaporeans – especially for those from lower-income families.

The report said that, for the bank’s customers at the median level of income, disposable income grew from a year earlier as their income growth outpaced the rise in expenses. 

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However, findings for the lower-income group and baby boomers – those aged 59 to 77 – tell a different story, as growth in expenses outpaced that of income. 

Low-income customers, or those earning less than S$2,500 per month, saw their expenses grow 1.2 times faster than their income, the report showed. It also revealed that their savings could only last them for 1.5 months. 

DBS has therefore ramped up efforts to help uplift this group of people. For one thing, it has committed S$40 million in 2023 to ease cost-of-living pressures on its customers.

With the amount, initiatives such as Five Million Hawker Meals – under which the bank is subsidising five million hawker meals from February 2023 to January 2024 – have been made possible.

This August, the bank further announced a commitment to contribute up to S$1 billion in funding and 1.5 million employee volunteer hours over the next 10 years, to support vulnerable segments, such as the low-income and underprivileged, in Singapore and other key markets. 

Han Kwee Juan, country head of DBS Singapore, said: “Amid these increasingly challenging times, as issues such as persistently high inflation and rising cost of living continue to fester, it is more important than ever that we help our customers to stretch their dollar and alleviate their financial pressures.”

He added: “As a purpose-driven bank, and with our roots as the Development Bank of Singapore, DBS has always been active in giving back to society – be it by leveraging our business and resources to support double or even triple bottom-line businesses, driving outreach efforts to uplift lives and livelihoods of vulnerable segments, or rolling out support measures to tide our customers through difficult times, among others.”

Since 2014, the DBS Foundation has been championing social enterprises in Asia. 

In 2022, it raised the bar with the formation of a new Community Impact Chapter, to equip the underserved with digital and financial literacy skills to face the future with confidence and enable communities to be more food secure and resilient.

The foundation collaborated with ComLink and has set up a financial literacy education programme for children from low-income families, designed to educate and enable children to put good financial habits into practice.

Piloted last year, the initiative involves DBS staff volunteers teaching children aged six to 12 about topics ranging from budgeting to cashless payments. The sessions developed by the bank incorporate games and activities designed to engage the children.

Han said: “Beyond contributing our time and resources through service-based volunteering, we also continue to dial up our focus on skills-based volunteering, which refers to leveraging our employees’ skills to contribute meaningfully to the community. These could take the form of having our employees drive financial/ digital literacy and mentorship programmes for the underserved, as well as career conversations, among others.”

DBS Foundation piloted three runs of the programme in Woodlands and Queenstown involving 36 children from ComLink families last year, and the initiative received positive feedback from the parties involved. It has since expanded this project to two more towns – Toa Payoh and Jalan Besar – with the eventual aim of reaching 14,000 families across 21 ComLink towns.

Alias, whose daughter attended the programme, said: “I hope that my children can continue to receive support for their educational needs, so that they are able to pursue higher education and achieve what they want in life.”

Fulfilling needs where they arise 

DBS’ Han said: “We are guided by the needs of our customers and wider society, and have continually evolved and stepped up our efforts over the years to best support and stand alongside them.

“For example, at the height of Covid-19 in 2021, we launched the DBS Adopt-A-Hawker Centre initiative to safeguard hawkers’ livelihoods and also provide support for frontliners and hard-hit segments such as low-income families and individuals. This initiative involved doing bulk buys from the hawkers, and donating these to the beneficiaries.”

To date, more than 1,000 employee volunteers have helped to deliver over 63,000 meals across 130 sessions.

In addition, amid reports of declining food donations for the underserved when pandemic hit, the bank then set up the #TeamDBSGives initiative, and sought to support communities in need by providing food and necessities.

The ongoing project rallies DBS employees to donate food bundles comprising items such as canned proteins and vegetables. It then matches these contributions with its own. In 2021, for instance, for every non-perishable food bundle donated by an employee, DBS provided a fresh food bundle containing fresh fruits, vegetables, and bread.

This year, instead of donating food bundles, the bank took a different approach, and set up pop-up markets in the community offering a wide range of food and household necessities, giving beneficiaries the freedom to choose what they want and need. 

In partnership with volunteer centres in Sengkang and Punggol – operated by social service agency Allkin Singapore – DBS piloted two such markets, benefiting close to 650 households and about 1,900 individuals.

The markets featured a line-up of household necessities that were curated based on insights and needs from low-income beneficiaries. In contrast with ration distributions or donation drives, the markets enabled beneficiaries to select groceries that their families would need.

Wee Wah Meng, head of the SG Cares Volunteer Centre @ Ang Mo Kio, Sengkang, and Punggol, said: “This marks a refreshing shift away from the usual dynamics of beneficiaries being purely recipients of help – in this case, they are able to take active steps towards being change agents of their own lives with the freedom to decide what would really benefit their families, and the opportunity to contribute their wisdom towards curating the selection of groceries.”

Wee added: “As a social service agency, we recognise that to be able to sustainably meet the ever-changing needs of our evolving social landscape, we cannot do it alone and will need to leverage the skills, resources, and talents of partners from other sectors. 

“At the same time, in working with corporate partners on facilitating donations in kind, or organising volunteering opportunities, there is no one-size-fits-all formula. A lot of co-creation needs to happen to ensure that the collaboration effectively harnesses the capabilities of all partners involved.”

Skin in the game

Benjamin Ow, vice-president at DBS Treasury and Markets, has been a staff volunteer for the past two years. “I always wondered what happens to the food bundles after we donate them and if these really impact the receiving families. It was this curiosity that sparked my volunteering journey,” he said, adding that it is heartwarming to witness the impact of donations.

“We often take things for granted, not knowing that what’s natural to us may be very important for others. Volunteering serves as a constant reminder for me to always be appreciative and content with what I have… I would say I’m proud to work in an organisation that is very active in giving back to society and advocates values that I believe in too.”

Being an active volunteer gave Ow the opportunity to meet colleagues whom he would not have otherwise, which “allows me to gain more insight into what other departments do”.

“Volunteering has a powerful effect of connecting people, since it brings like-minded people together to give back to society,” he added.

On the various initiatives that the bank has undertaken, DBS’ Han said: “We’re privileged to operate and serve the banking needs of Singaporeans, and so it is only right that we give back to the community.”