U Care Fund gave out less money
According to the Sunday Times news report “NTUC aid falls slightly as wages rise” (Dec 14) – “Last year, these vouchers were given out to some 29,880 families and 29,380 children, as part of the $8.99 million disbursement from the U Care Fund. This year, 24,420 families and 26,600 children benefited. NTUC has over 830,000 members.
Of the $8.89 million given out this round, $3.08 million has been used to help low-income families and $4.76 million went to assist needy children, Mr Zainal said. Over $1 million has also been devoted to initiatives for the elderly and underprivileged.
Besides its voucher schemes, the U Care Fund also helps to support family carnivals, co-fund bursaries, and support literacy programmes for children, among other initiatives.” – This means that the amount of direct financial assistance to needy families was only $126 ($3.08 million / 24,420 families) per year per family.
Similarly, the assistance to needy children was only $179 ($4.76 million / 26,600 children) per year per child.
U Care Fund is from donations raised?
Moreover, much of the funding did not come from NTUC’s coffers, but were donations raised from its U Care Fund raising drives.
This is competing with other Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) for charity dollars.
Since NTUC is so “generous”, I wanted to find out how much profits it makes in a year.
NTUC has 12 social enterprises
According to NTUC’s web site – you can find the links to its 12 social enterprises.
NTUC FairPrice’s profit before contributions to the Central Co-operative Fund (CCF) and the Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF) for the year ended 31 March 2013 was $139.1 million.
Its retained earnings and other reserves was $1.4 billion.
NTUC Unity Healthcare’s profit before contributions to the Central Co-operative Fund (CCF) and the Singapore labour Foundation (SLF) for the year ended 31 March 2013 was $707,000.
Its retained earnings and other reserves was $20 million.
9 of 12 social enterprises have no financial statements?
I could not find the financial statements in the annual reports of NTUC FirstCampus and NTUC Eldercare or the annual reports of NTUC Choice Homes,NTUC Club, NTUC Enterprise, NTUC Foodfare (web site – “annual report coming soon”), NTUC Learning Hub, NTUC Link and NTUC Thrift & Loan,
I did not analyse NTUC Income‘s financial statements in its annual report as it is an insurance co-operative.
Why is it that nine of the 12 NTUC social enterprises do not have financial statements in their annual reports or have no annual reports?
How much profits?
So, just the above 2 social enterprises' annual profits before contributions was already about $140 million.
So, how much are the total profits in a year and retained earnings of all the NTUC social enterprises, or for that matter the NTUC as a whole?
By the way, why is it that the Labour Movement Annual 2013 (report) (of the NTUC) has no financial statements?
$97m membership fees in a year
As the NTUC member’s fee is $117 per annum – the total alone in a year is already $97 million (830,000 members x $117).
SLF annual report also no financial statements?
In this connection, why is it that the Singapore Labour Foundation’s annual report 2013 also does not have financial statements? In the report, it says in the narrative that “Since its inception (July 2004), the SLF General Fund has returned an annualised 6.19%1 (in nominal terms, before inflation), which translates to an annualised 3.32%1 (in real terms, after inflation). These numbers are in SGD terms.
Since the inception of the SLF General Fund in 2004,
its total value has grown from SGD 530.301 million to
SGD 1,258.571 million. This has been due to investment
gains, as well as savings set aside prudently by SLF to grow
the fund. This enables sufficient investment income over the
long-term to support the Labour Movement.”
According to the Annual Report on Co-operative Societies in Singapore For the financial year ended 31 March 2013 – “The contributions to the CCF (Central Co-operative Fund) and SLF (Singapore Labour Foundation) received in the financial year ended 31 March 2013 are $3.1 million and $57.3 million respectively.”
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TRS Contributor