A netizen suggested for the government to stop elderly poverty by raising our non-contributory pension and giving an average payout of $800. Why is it that elderly elsewhere with lower GDP per capita is receiving more than those in Singapore? Does it make sense?

A netizen saw this photograph of an elderly woman who was forced to squat down in an MRT cabin because she could not find any seats to rest her tired legs.

Residents at Block 621B Edgefield Walk in Punggol are furious that since last year, they have been facing lifts that does not work, and there seems no solution for this problem is forthcoming. The residents, especially the elderly at the block of flats, have been complaining about this to the Pasir Ris Punggol Town Council, but so far, the lifts still breaks down.

The block of flats, which mostly consists of rental two room flats and studio apartments, just had another lift breakdown on Saturday, where both lift were not functioning from afternoon all the way to midnight. In the response to the latest lift breakdown, MP Zainal Sapari said the lifts were part of the Sigma group of lifts, the company which had already been banned from tendering for any more lift projects since October 2015.

According to reports, the residents of the block, most of whom are the elderly, said that the lifts breakdowns are very frequent, even though technicians have been coming to fix the lift. Among the problems, the lift doors closed too fast before residents are fully inside the lift, and the lift will sometimes stop suddenly. The Town Council have stated that they ordered the lift operators to settle this issue soon, and action might be taken against them, including fines against the company.

Happy People Helping People Foundation is organizing a pay-it-forward meal donation for elderly cardboard collectors (not cardboard exercise) living in Toa Payoh, Cuff Road and Kreta Ayer. The elderly in these estates often spend long hours collecting cardboard only to earn $2-3 every day, which will typically buy them very little food.

Not one of us thinks the elderly aunties or uncles, who work selling tissues at hawker centers, or collecting cardboard and pushing their trolleys full of cardboard on the roads are actually working because they want to alleviate their boredom, or, in the words of a famous person here, for exercise. Only our Ministers think the elderly work and carried on working way past their retirement age, because they want to.

This is just their way of telling Singaporeans that the problems they all talked about, are actually not problems. We just make it an issue. Nonsense! Why would these elderly folks continue to work when they could not even walk that fast anymore? They would rather be somewhere relaxing, enjoying the fruits of their youthful labour, enjoying the retirement money they had worked so hard for all those years ago. Except, there are no retirement money, and there is no relaxing to be had. To be able to eke out a living in Singapore, one has to work until one cannot walk anymore.