Got Astro? No welfare aid for you - NST

Got Astro or TV? Sorry, no welfare aid for you

By : Suganthi Suparmaniam

KUALA LUMPUR: The words "disabled, Astro" and "aid" cannot occur in the same sentence, as far as the Welfare Department is concerned.

The department bars the disabled from getting welfare aid if they have Astro or a television set at home.

The rule applies even if one lives in someone else's house, temporarily or otherwise.

S. Karupanan, 73, found this out the hard way three months ago when the department cut the RM200 aid to him as he was temporarily staying in a house which "had Astro service".

The department had paid for surgery on one knee and promised to underwrite the cost of the operation on the other knee.
But while awaiting the second surgery, he moved into his daughter's house and his troubles began.

Welfare officers who came to visit him saw red when they chanced upon the Astro connection and immediately withdrew the aid.

For K. Shanmugam, 51, who applied for welfare assistance in 2005 on becoming paralysed, it has been a string of "no's" from the department for aid.

His mistake, he believes, was his honest reply when asked if he had a television set and Astro at home.

"That's the first question they asked. When I said I had both, they immediately said that I was not eligible for assistance as there were others poorer than me."

The former crane driver, who was earning RM2,000 in Singapore when a motorcycle accident four years ago left him paralysed, was baffled by the department's decision.

He said that the bills of the family of six were paid by relatives who realised that he only had Astro to keep him company when the children were out of the house.

"I cannot work. The only pleasure in my life now is the Astro service," he said.

Another extreme case is that of a a disabled 40-year-old, paralysed from the neck downwards, who lives with her partly-paralysed mother.

The disabled woman, who declined to be identified, decided against applying for an Astro connection after being warned by a welfare officer that they would cut aid to them if she did so.

What she cannot understand is why they would do so as Astro was the "only" company she and her mother could have at home.

"We cannot leave our house and we live on donations and welfare aid. What's wrong if some people who sympathise want to get us an Astro connection?"

Welfare director-general Datuk Meme Zainal Rashid could not be reached for comment.