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Popular Rent A Car’s Guillemard Road office. It has expanded its fleet and raised its rates by 5 per cent. — ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN By Lin Wenjian

In the last three years, Mr Brian Cheong, 35, has been renting a car for his family of five during the Chinese New Year period, often booking it two to three weeks in advance.

Last week, he called his usual car rental company in Sin Ming Drive, only to be told that its entire fleet had been booked. The insurance specialist is now on the lookout for a company that still has cars, to avoid the hassle of taking cabs during the Chinese New Year.

Soaring certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums have delayed the purchase of a car for many, and the recent raising of cab fares has made it more expensive to visit relatives and friends during the New Year which starts on Jan 23.

Background story

MORE ECONOMICAL TO RENT ONE

‘They can now have the freedom and comfort of a car for the cost of about six taxi trips a day. Families easily make this many trips doing their visits in the ChineseNewYear.’

Ms Vanessa Ang, Hertz’s senior sales and marketing executive, on how the recent cab fare hike would make it more economical to rent a car for the festive season

But as people still need to get around, they have made a beeline for rental cars. Rental car companies such as Hertz Rent-A-Car Singapore say they started taking calls as early as two months ago; in previous years, bookings stepped up only two weeks to a month in advance.

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By 2020, Singapore will need almost four times the number of people to work in the elder care sector than it now has, revealed Dr Amy Khor, who has been tasked with getting those workers. — PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent

By 2020, Singapore will need almost four times the number of people to work in the elder care sector than it now has, revealed Dr Amy Khor, who has been tasked with getting those workers.

That means recruiting 11,000 more workers in all categories – from doctors and nurses to therapists and health-care attendants – over the next eight years, she said. The figure that has been made public for the first time underscores the unenviable task Dr Khor has ahead of her.

Today, this sector employs only about 4,000 people. With the rapidly ageing population, the need for many more caregivers will shoot up.

But the problem is attracting enough people to join the sector, which is seen as being of low status, with jobs that are not well-paid, said Dr Khor.

The view from the master bedroom of Ms Ethel Chong’s eighth-storey flat, which overlooks V Hotel’s pool. She said she has been woken up once or twice a week by noise from there. — ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG By Tay Suan Chiang

Ms Ethel Chong has an unobstructed view of a swimming pool from her master bedroom.

But it is not quite a sought-after ‘pool view’. It is not even her pool. It belongs to the recently opened V Hotel, which is less than 10m away from her HDB block at Jellicoe Road.

Ms Chong, a part-time tutor, wrote to The Straits Times Forum page last week to complain about rowdy guests at the pool area who kept her awake at night. Her five-room flat on the eighth storey overlooks the pool of the 15-storey hotel, which sits on top of Lavender MRT Station.

‘I have been woken up late once or twice a week for the past few months by the noise. It is difficult to get back to sleep once woken up,’ Ms Chong, 40, told The Straits Times.

More Singaporeans will need help this year with looming economic uncertainty and the income gap widening, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Swee Say said on Sunday, adding that there is a lot more that can be done for them. — ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE By Tham Yuen-C

More Singaporeans will need help this year with looming economic uncertainty and the income gap widening, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Swee Say said on Sunday, adding that there is a lot more that can be done for them.

The extra assistance can come from the community, by encouraging residents to play a bigger role in helping each other, he told reporters.

For instance, in his East Coast GRC, the focus is on involving the community, so neighbours can flag those among them who need help.

‘We can expect more will be done and at the same time, the way we do it will be more extensive (and) more inclusive, so that there’ll be a greater sense of ownership, greater sense of community cohesion,’ he said.

The 26km Rail Corridor is open to the public from Monday onwards, with the exception of four areas. — ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN By Grace Chua

The Rail Corridor – the snaking, 26km tract of former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway land – is open to the public from Monday, with the exception of four areas.

For the past half-year, the authorities had been removing old railway tracks and equipment as well as levelling and turfing over the land parcel, which runs from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands.

Now, it is open for public use, except for three sites earmarked for improvement works. These are at Jalan Hang Jebat, Ghim Moh Road and Kampong Bahru Flyover. Once works are done, they will be opened for interim community use from April. The historic Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, which has been designated a national monument, remains closed as well for maintenance works and structural inspection.

Background story Additional information:

For more information on the Rail Corridor, log onto http://www.ura.gov.sg/railcorridor.

KTM train services to Tanjong Pagar stopped last June. The KTM railway land was returned to Singapore in July as agreed with Malaysia, in exchange for land parcels in Marina South and Ophir-Rochor.

Mr Koh, on a motorcycle for the first time, riding pillion behind Mr Aris Hassan, one of the bikers in the Riders Aid event yesterday. — ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG By Amelia Tan

Retiree Koh Tian Seong, 78, had a memorable day on Sunday: It was the first time he rode pillion on a motorcycle.

The ride from the Public Utilities Board Recreation Club to Singapore Power (SP) Club, both in Woodleigh Park, lasted just minutes.

It was nonetheless exciting for the man, whose Sundays are usually spent in front of the television set in his one-room rental flat in Marsiling. He and two other beneficiaries of voluntary welfare organisation Swami Home Help Service had ridden on motorcycles that were in a fund-raising convoy of 1,000 bikers.

The event, organised by Riders Aid, took the riders from the heavy-vehicle carpark near Tampines Road to the SP Club in Woodleigh Park, where the money raised was handed over to the SP Heartware Fund, which supports programmes for the needy elderly.

Dr Khor said data gathered about seniors in pilot town Marine Parade will help identify the improvements needed. — ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO By Salma Khalik , HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

Three towns – Whampoa, Bedok and Taman Jurong – will join Marine Parade in being retrofitted to make them elderly-friendly, but for them, the process will be fast-tracked.

These four towns, among those with the oldest populations, will be in the vanguard of the move to transform Singapore into ‘A City For All Ages’.

When the works are completed, residents in these towns will have age-friendly features in their neighbourhoods as well as in their homes.

Background story

Looking into ageing

THE Ministerial Committee on Ageing was set up in 2007 to spearhead Singapore’s preparation to promote active ageing for its increasingly old population.

There are 12 political office-holders and five civil servants in the committee chaired by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong. Since taking on the chairmanship, Mr Gan has set up five subcommittees, each looking into an aspect of ageing.

Manpower development and City For All Ages: These two subcommittees are headed by Dr Amy Khor, the Minister of State for Health.

Home care and family support, under the charge of Madam Halimah Yacob, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

Active ageing and employability, chaired by Mr Heng Chee How, Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Development of health care and social care services, helmed by Mr Gan.

The Straits Times will be interviewing the chairmen of the subcommittees over the next few Mondays, starting with Dr Khor today.

This came out in a Straits Times interview with Minister of State for Health Amy Khor, who is on the Ministerial Committee on Ageing (MCA), set up in 2007 to promote active ageing among Singapore’s greying population.

This Sim Lim Square shop is among eight there selling a drive via post-purchase rebate. — ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG By Lim Yan Liang

Buy first, get a rebate later.

Shoppers for IT products here are biting at the ‘post-purchase rebate’, a deal under which they pay the full retail price for an item, but get a portion of the money back a month or two later.

The catch: They must mail the requested proof of purchase to the distributor, and even provide personal details – often by a certain date as well. The sales tactic, common in countries like the United States for more than a decade, is catching on here.

Among the reasons such promotions are offered is distributors and retailers are banking on some customers not bothering to do all it takes to get the rebate. At Sim Lim Square, eight shops are selling a Kingston solid-state drive – a hard disk – with a coupon. A buyer who mails the coupon to the distributor with his address by Saturday can get a cheque for $22 in the mail in a month.

By Elena Chong

A man who had sex with an underage Vietnamese girl in return for a $150 payment was jailed for four months on Monday.

Han Yam Meng, 35, had admitted having commercial sex with the 17-year-old girl at Min Wah Hotel in Geylang on June 15 last year.

A district court heard that the senior technical engineer met the victim at a pub in Geylang Road on June 14.

While chatting, she told him that she was 19.

Fresh polytechnic graduates continued to enjoy good employment prospects last year, with the average salary for those in full-time positions almost hitting the $2,000 mark for the first time. — ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA By Lin Zhaowei

Fresh polytechnic graduates continued to enjoy good employment prospects last year, with the average salary for those in full-time positions almost hitting the $2,000 mark for the first time.

The employment rate of these graduates climbed to 92.1 per cent, from 91.5 per cent in 2010, according to the newly released annual poly graduate employment survey.

On average, they earn a gross monthly salary of $1,930, compared with $1,871 in 2010. Some 67 per cent landed full-time jobs, compared with 68.5 per cent in 2010. Among this group, more than 80 per cent were in the private sector.

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Conducted between October and November last year, the survey drew responses from almost 14,000 graduates from the five polytechnics here. The respondents included both fresh graduates from last year who were not required to serve national service after graduation, and those who graduated in 2008 but entered the job market after completing national service.