74,000 households benefit from HDB’s elder-friendly home improvement programme

SINGAPORE — Close to 74,000 households have applied for the heavily subsidised Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) programme that helps enhance the safety and comfort of seniors living in Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats.

Introduced in July 2012, the Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) programme allows for fittings such as grab bars, ramps and slip-resistant treatment to floor tiles in bathrooms to be installed to help elderly members move around their flats.

Providing the update today (Dec 24), the HDB said that around 28,600 households applied for the scheme directly. Another 45,000 households opted for EASE together with the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) – a scheme that helps resolve common maintenance problems of residents in HDB flats built before 1986 and which have not undergone upgrading.

The age criterion for EASE was lowered in August 2014 from 70 to 65 years-old, which allowed an additional 5,300 direct applicants to become eligible, HDB figures show.

EASE was also enhanced last year, allowing grab bars and slip-resistant floor treatment to be installed in a second toilet.

Since then, the HDB said, 24,000 households have benefitted from the enhancement, with 73 per cent of them opting for it together with HIP.

Under EASE, the Government provides a subsidy of up to 95 per cent of the total cost of the improvement work to their flats. If residents opt for the full expanded scope of improvement, the total cost comes to S$2,500 for each flat.