Update: Added additional responses from SL below:

A reader response to Tharman's $1k-a-month-can-buy-flat speech. Here is an excerpt of the SL's email to me:

My father is 54 this year, and as a single parent, he is raising my older brother and I. He has no savings anymore. Our mother passed away some time ago. Both of us are in tertiary education, and we hope to graduate as soon as possible to alleviate the costs. He is earning approximately 800 per month, and works daily as a labourer. A large portion of his CPF savings have gone towards the cost of our very small flat (of which I am aware is not truly ours, much like those 99-year leases on condominiums). I'd like to describe our living conditions as such: We live on one meal per day, and often this meal comprises of Maggi, or any other cheap substitutes that make up our kitchen cabinet. We have perhaps a bottle of coffee, a few tins of Campbell's, but we don't have proper meals. We haven't repaired anything substantially because it costs too much. As undergraduates, we are trying our best to keep up. Even with a student concession, it is expensive to travel (consider the cost of student concession for two individuals, especially on an income of approximately 800).

At this point, the amount allocated for Education under my father's CPF account is left with absolutely nothing, and we have already received notices from our respective schools warning that we would not be able to register for the next semester because our fees have not been paid (and neither of us are enrolled in private education/external correspondence courses). On his pay, we have struggled to afford textbooks, and any materials that we might need for specific projects. Right now, we can't even seem to afford our education.

One might suggest that a scholarship might be an answer, but in this case, we have already declined to accept the ones that we have applied to because we both decided that we were not ready to commit to a career on the basis of our financial situation, as opposed to genuine interest. Even then, it is difficult to meet the conditions that require that your guarantors earn a specific amount in case you default on your agreement with the firm/ministry.

We're trying really hard to keep up with the times, but it is getting increasingly difficult to remain optimistic about our chances of surviving once we graduate…"