About 1 in 6 ComLink+ families has family violence woes: MSF report on lower-income families

They were assessed on whether they had achieved stability, self-reliance or social mobility – which are ascending categories to measure progress – in these domains through different indicators.

The data on family violence comes under the family functioning domain, and 1,657 families had members who were “not safe from harm” in 2024.

A new domain is health, where 90 per cent of families achieved stability in 2024.

This is defined as having no family member hospitalised in the past year, and all children completing all mandatory vaccinations by age three under the National Childhood Immunisation Schedule.

The greatest improvement was in children’s development and education, where the share of self-reliant families rose 8 percentage points, from 13 per cent in 2023 to 21 per cent in 2024.

Families are deemed self-reliant in this domain if their Singaporean pre-school age children are enrolled in pre-school and attend regularly, and have completed all mandatory vaccinations.

The report noted that the increase reflects the inclusion of attendance data from pre-schools not run by anchor operators, which was unavailable in December 2023. Anchor operators include PCF Sparkletots and My First Skool.

The report also looked at children’s readiness for primary school, and if they needed additional learning support programmes in Primary 1.

In 2024, 58 per cent of ComLink+ families with children in Primary 1 did not need additional learning support, up from 57 per cent in 2023.

For families with older school-going children, 69 per cent of them in 2024 were deemed self-reliant. This is when all their school-going children are enrolled in school, attend school regularly and have progressed to post-secondary institutions.

When it comes to housing, 4 per cent of families became home owners in 2024, having moved from highly subsidised HDB rental flats. This is up from 2 per cent in 2023.

In income security, 28 per cent of families achieved social mobility in 2024, up from 26 per cent in 2023.

Families are considered socially mobile if they have at least one member with a stable job, are not on any major financial assistance schemes, and saw their incomes increase over time after adjusting for inflation.

Dr Mathew Mathews, a principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, said that while a 2 percentage point increase in families who achieved home ownership or social mobility in the income security domain may sound small, it represents major milestones for these families.

He said these outcomes typically take years to achieve, especially for families facing multiple problems. If such gains are sustained, they can compound into meaningful long-term change.

But the report also noted that 39 per cent of ComLink+ families in both 2023 and 2024 did not have any family member who earned a regular income from “stable employment”.

Overall, in 2024, more families were considered unstable, across seven indicators to measure stability. The proportion of such families rose slightly to 56 per cent, up from 54 per cent in 2023.

A higher proportion of these families had at least one of three characteristics: at least one young child, a single-parent household, or a family member recently jailed.

A quarter of unstable families had more than one of these factors, compared with 12 per cent of stable families.

Asked about the reasons for the 5 percentage point increase in families with family violence concerns, an MSF spokeswoman noted that most of the families that accounted for the increase joined the ComLink+ scheme in 2024.

She added: “While we are unable to conclude the reasons for this increase definitively, this increase could be due to greater detection by family coaches or family service centre workers after engaging with families.”

Dr Mathews said the finding of about one in six families facing family violence would be worrying if it is among the general population. But ComLink+ families face multiple stressors, such as financial woes, health problems and caregiving burden, so higher rates of family stress are therefore expected.

Mr Fareez Fahmy, chief executive of social service agency Allkin Singapore, said the increase in family violence cases among ComLink+ families is due to greater awareness and earlier detection of abuse – and not necessarily the worsening of violent behaviours.

He added: “We have found that family conflicts can emerge or escalate due to financial strain and job instability. Ensuring timely support is key to mitigating these risks.”