RIP

SINGAPORE - To encourage more Singaporeans to plan early for their future, including end-of-life scenarios, Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Form 1 applications will be made free of charge for all Singapore citizens from April 1. Minister of State for Social and Family Development Goh Pei Ming announced the permanent waiver on March 5 in Parliament, noting that about 404,000, or one in seven Singapore citizens, have made an LPA as at Feb 20. Among those aged above 65 years old, 197,000, or about one in four, have done so. Mr Goh was responding to a parliamentary question by Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) on whether the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) had completed its consideration to further extend the fee waiver for Singaporeans. The application fee for LPA Form 1, which is usually $70, had previously been waived for Singapore citizens by the ministry until March 31. For non-citizens, the application fee is $90 for permanent residents and $230 for foreigners. MSF had previously set a goal in 2023 to have more than 240,000 Singaporeans aged 50 and above make their LPAs by end-2025. “In the last few years, with the launch of the Office of the Public Guardian’s online portal and more visible legacy planning campaigns islandwide, we have seen a healthy uptake of LPA applications,” said Mr Goh. “But many still have not made an LPA.” An LPA allows people to appoint a trusted person, usually a family member, to take charge of matters such as personal welfare, property and finances if they lose their mental capacity. The LPA Form 1, which grants general powers to donees, is the most commonly used option to do so, accounting for about 98 per cent of LPAs created by Singapore citizens. For those who require customised powers beyond the standard provisions, an LPA Form 2 must be drafted by a qualified lawyer. Those who make LPAs are known as donors, while the people they appoint are called donees. Mr Goh said: “We want to continue to urge Singaporeans to make their LPA. It is best to do so while we are still fit and healthy, and even more so as we know our population is ageing.” “Having an LPA in place will allow Singaporeans and our loved ones to have peace of mind, knowing there is someone we trust who will have the legal authority to make decisions on our behalf when we no longer can.” Applicants of an LPA must also pay a separate certification fee to a Certificate Issuer. Accredited doctors, lawyers and registered psychiatrists can act as Certificate Issuers. MSF said that as at June 2025, the 10 most visited accredited doctors charged fees ranging from $24 to $60, lawyers from $50 to $300, and psychiatrists from $24 to $1,500.   Mr Yip said some seniors still find it difficult to understand what an LPA is, and asked whether the ministry is doing more to make the application process easier by making it available in other languages for seniors. Mr Goh said MSF is working on simplifying the messaging, such as legal and medical terms, involved in the process of making an LPA. It will also continue to engage all Singaporeans in different languages.

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Sea levels around the world have been underestimated due to inaccurate modelling, with research suggesting ocean levels are far higher than previously understood. The finding could significantly affect assessments of the future impacts of global heating and the effects on coastal settlements. Globally, the research found ocean levels are an average of 30cm higher than previously believed, but in some areas of the global south, including south-east Asia and the Indo-Pacific, they may be 100-150cm higher than previously thought. Rising sea levels are a major threat to coastal communities across the world, and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that by 2100 levels may rise by 28-100cm. The latest research, published in Nature, combined the analysis of 385 pieces of peer-reviewed scientific literature released between 2009 and 2025 with calculations of the difference between the commonly assumed and actual measured coastal sea levels. Authors Dr Philip Minderhoud of Wageningen University in the Netherlands and PhD researcher Katharina Seeger discovered that more than 90% of these studies did not use local, direct measurements of sea levels but instead used land elevation measurements referenced against global geoid models. Geoid models provide an estimate of global sea levels based on the Earth’s gravity and rotation. As a consequence, sea levels were undervalued by an average of 24-27cm, depending on the geoid model used, with some discrepancies as much as 550-760cm. Minderhoud said: “In reality, sea level is influenced by additional factors such as winds, ocean currents, seawater temperature and salinity.” The new calculations reveal that following a relative sea level rise of 1 metre, it is estimated that 37% more coastal areas will fall below sea level, affecting up to 132 million individuals. “If sea level is higher for your particular island or coastal city than was previously assumed, the impacts from sea level rise will happen sooner than projected before,” said Minderhoud. Describing the discrepancy as an “interdisciplinary blind spot”, the scientists are concerned that a large proportion of the studies analysed in their research, which they believe are inaccurate, are referenced in the most recent climate change reports published by the IPCC. The study contains ready-to-use coastal elevation data for across the world integrated with the latest sea level measurements and calls for the re-evaluation of existing coastal hazard studies methodology to ensure climate change policies are accurately informed.

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