Target of 1000 visitors a day

Dear Mr Tan,

Why do you wish to have 1,000 visitors a day to your blog? Is it to boost your ego?

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REPLY:

Many visitors told me that they enjoy my honest advice on insurance and financial planning. They found my ideas to be helpful.

I like them to tell their friends. I hope that my advice can reach out to more people, and benefit them as well.

I also like to experiment with this new way of communication. I post many contributions from readers of my blog.

Maybe, this can be like a daily newspaper for some people.

Visit Ottawa, Canada

I am now staying with a friend in Ottawa, Canada. It is the capital city of Canada.

According to a recent survey, Ottawa is the best city to live in Canada. This is based on certain criteria, such as the economy, health, low level of crime, facilities and other factors. This survey covered 50 cities.

Ottawa has a population of 700,000. 40% work for the government and related agencies. 40% work in the information technology sector. The remaining 20% work for other sectors.

I have a good impression of Ottawa.

Transport using BMW

My friend told me that his son prefers to use BMW for his transport. It means: Bus, MRT, Walk.

I recommend BMW, instead of any ordinary car.

How to play Logic9 (Sudoku)

Hi Mr Tan

You mention about the three tips on how to play Logic9. Does it apply to Sudoku? Where can I find these three tips?

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REPLY:

Logic9 is the same as Sudoku. The three tips apply to Logic9 and Sudoku puzzles.

You can get the three tips from the Logic9 pocket book, which is sold in most bookstores at $5 only. You can ask the cashier to tell you where Logic9 pocketbooks are kept. They are small and may be difficult to find.

I am giving talks on these three tips at the following events:

* Ang Mo Kio Library, Sat 19 May, 3- 4 pm
* Prime of Life exhibition, Jul 17-19, 2 to 5 pm, Millenia Walk

The three tips are:

* find the missing number
* 3 box method
* eliminate the blanks

Attendance is free at these events. Mark your diary. You will enjoy my three tips. See you there!

Tell your friends about my blog

I now get about 500 visitors a day.

My target is to increase it to 1,000 visitors within one month. I need your help. Can you tell your friends to visit my blog?

Here is a message that you can broadcast to them. Thanks for your help:

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Dear Friend,

Mr Tan Kin Lian writes a blog. He updates it daily with tips on financial planning, insurance and other ways to enjoy a better lifestyle. I find his advice to be interesting and relevant. You can visit his blog at www.tankinlian.blogspot.com.

On some days, there are more than 10 postings. They are written in his simple, easy to read manner. Someone said that it is like reading a newspaper.

Invest a lump sum for 10 years or longer

If you have a lump sum to be invested for 10 years and longer, and you are looking for a low risk investment, you can consider the Growth plan from NTUC Income.

It gives you a guaranteed return of about 2% p.a. and a non-guaranteed bonus that will add another 2% p.a. The total return should be about 4% p.a.

There is now a promotion that give you Fairprice shopping vouchers worth about 1% of your investment.

You can read more about this offer in this blog.

Growth Policy

Hard sell products

If a marketing person works very hard to sell you an expensive product, you have to be careful. Usually, it comes with a unsubstantiated claim that it can do you a lot of good.

You should ask the following questions:

* is this a genuine, good value product?
* how much is being paid to the marketing person?

There are many "hyped up" products, that are being marketed in this manner. Some examples are:

* time share
* gym membership
* slimming packages
* health supplements
* financial or investment schemes

If you have to spend a lot of money on the product, make sure there is a "cooling off" period. This will allow you to change your mind with 14 days and get your money back.

Avoid structured products - another view

Hi, Mr Tan

I share your thoughts on the structured deposits where the bank promises 100% capital protection on an invested sum of money. Sadly, I believe they are a lot of old folks who have succumbed to the bank officers persistent pursue and ended up locking their retirement funds for at least 4 years or more with much returns.

I have enclosed a list of these deposit rates from a local bank and apparently with the lock-in period of 4 years, almost near to maturity rated at (99.42%), it barely makes any profit yet (99.42%), possibly there were initial payouts of say 2% for 2 years, the amount is just miserable.

Enrich Account (Tranche A)		6Jun03		11Jun08	SGD	100%	NA	97.19%	7May07
Enrich Account (Tranche A)		6Jun03		11Dec08	SGD	100%	NA	95.77%	7May07
Enrich Account (Tranche A)		6Jun03		11Jun07	USD	100%	NA	99.42%	7May07
Enrich Account (Tranche A)		6Jun03		11Jun08	USD	100%	NA	96.12%	7May07
Enrich Account (Tranche B)		20Jun03		25Jun09	SGD	100%	NA	94.31%	7May07

My very own past investment, on average on unit trusts for 5-6 years the profit is between 10-15%. I wonder how many of those structured deposits from banks are worthy to invest.

When the good times no longer roll

This is the title of one chapter of John Bogle's book.

Here is a brief summary:

* over the past century, the average return earned by stocks was 9.5% per annum
* during the most recent 25 years, the average return was 12.5%
* the speculative return of 3% is far above the business reality
* this has resulted in an increase in PE ratio from 9 to 18 times

John Bogles believes that the current PE ratio is too high and will have to correct in the future.

He ask us to expect a more modest rate of return in the future.

My reading is that it may have to be 3% below 9.5%, i.e. 6.5% for the next 25 years. I think that this is an acceptable rate of return.

Loan stocks (NCPS) issued by banks

Dear Mr Tan,

My friend says he gets good interest return on the following loan stocks. i.e. DBS BK NCPS 100, OCBC BK 4.2% NCPS and OCBC BK 4.5% NCPS 100. Interest payable are gross 6%, 5.25% and 5.625% respectively.

I plan to invest in these loan stock. Will this be a wise investment?

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REPLY:

The price for these loan stocks are now above par. If you invest in it, you will get a yield that is lower than the coupon rate. You can ask the broker for the current price and the yield. You can then decide, if the return is satisfactory.

Generally, the NCPS (non-convertable preference shares) issued by these banks are quite safe. I had invested in them as well. I bought them at par, so I was able to earn a good yield.

In my case, I decide to put my money now in the money market fund. You can read about it in my FAQ.

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Here are the current yield, based on the current price as quoted on the SGX as at 11 May:

DBS BK 6% NCPS 10 108.80/109.40 (yield -3.6%)
OCBC BK 4.2% NCPS 1.03/1.04 (yield - 3.9%)
OCBC BK 4.5% NCPS 100 104.00/104.20 (yield 3.29%)

The yield vary from 3.3% to 3.9% p.a. depending on the duration to the maturity date.

Relationship manager

My bank assigned a relationship manager to serve me. I did not use this service for the past 10 years. During this time, they change the relationship manager every 2 or 3 years, due to staff turnover.

In recent months, I used this contact person on many occasions. I ask her to find out the products that are available to me. I also ask for assistance on how to use the promotions and special services of the bank.

It has been very useful. It is better than relying on a secretary to handle this matter for me.

Lesson: know your relationship manager and ask them to sort out the paperwork for you. It is
their job.

Fill up a detailed form

The forms used by many organisations are too detailed and complicated.

I found a way to handle it. I ask the agent or employee of the organisation to fill the form for me. As they deal with the form daily, it is easy for them to complete it. They call me for the required information.

They fax the form to me. I sign it. And fax it back. I can also scan it and send by e-mail.

It works well.

Be an "informed" consumer

The internet provides an excellent opportunity for you to be an "informed" consumer. You can find simple, relevant information easily.

The excellent sources are:

* google
* wikipedia

For example, you can enter simple words such as:

* term insurance
* fixed deposit
* mutual funds

The search will bring you to several educational and commercial websites.

If you are an "informed" consumer, you can get better advice from the adviser, agent or broker. You can also shop directly.

I have posted some examples of educational information from the website. I hope that you find them to be useful.

You can also read my FAQs.

Health insurance

Source: Wikipedia

Under health insurance, the insurer pays the medical costs of the insured if the insured becomes sick due to covered causes, or due to accidents.

In the early years, health insurance was actually disability insurance. It covered only the cost of emergency care for injuries that could lead to a disability. Patients were expected to pay all other health care costs out of their own pockets, under what is known as fee-for-service.

Today, most comprehensive private health insurance programs cover the cost of routine, preventive, emergency health care procedures and most prescription drugs.

A health insurance policy is an annually renewable contract. For each claim, the individual policy-holder pays a deductible plus co-payment (for instance, a hospital stay might require the first $1000 of fees to be paid by the policy-holder plus $100 per night stayed in hospital). Usually there is a maximum out-of-pocket payment for any single year, and there can be a lifetime maximum.

Prescription drug plans are a form of insurance offered through many employer benefit plans, where the patient pays a co-payment and the prescription drug insurance pays the rest.

Some health care providers will agree to bill the insurance company if patients are willing to sign an agreement that they will be responsible for the amount that the insurance company doesn't pay, as the insurance company pays according to "reasonable" or "customary" charges, which may be less than the provider's usual fee.

Health insurance companies also often have a network of providers who agree to accept the reasonable and customary fee and waive the remainder. It will generally cost the patient less to use an in-network provider.

Any private insurance system will face two inherent challenges: adverse selection and ex-post moral hazard.

Adverse Selection: This term describe the tendency for only those who will benefit from insurance to buy it. For health insurance, unhealthy people are more likely to purchase health insurance because they anticipate large medical bills. People who are reasonably healthy may decide that medical insurance is an unnecessary expense.

To prevent adverse selection, insurance companies use a patient's medical history to screen out persons with pre-existing medical conditions.

Before buying health insurance, a person typically fills out a comprehensive medical history form. In general, those who look like they will be large financial burdens are denied coverage or charged high premiums to compensate. Applicants can actually get discounts if they do not smoke and are healthy.

Moral Hazard: Moral hazard describes the state of mind and change in behavior that results from a person's knowledge that if something bad were to happen, the out-of-pocket expenses would be mitigated by an insurance policy--in this case, one which provides reduced prices for medical care.

Calculate interest on 365 days

Should a bank calculate interest based on 360 days or 365 days?

A long time ago, I used the 360 day method. I take each month as 30 days. I ignore the 31st day of each month. But, I charge 30 days for February. This was done to make it easy to write the computer programme.

With advances in computer languages, it is now easy to compute each year as 365 days. It is better to use 365 days, so that each day is counted correctly. We still have to ignore 29 Febuary in each leap year (i.e. every 4 years). Nobody will bother about it.

Conclusion: better to use 365 days to calculate interest.

Work close to home

I hope that more people will work close to their home. This will help to reduce the traffic congestion.

Here are some tips:

* work for a company that has a business near your home
* ask to be transferred to a branch near your home
* work from your home, and receive payment based on the work done
* move to a new home to your workplace.

Be prepared to make this change. You will find new friends. You can still keep in touch with old friends and colleagues, by e-mail and the telephone. And through social activities.

You will find a better quality of life.

Lesson from promoting Sudoku

I introduced Sudoku (Logic9) to a few participants at conference in Quebec.

All of them enjoyed my three tips on how to solve the puzzle. They have seen the puzzle before, but they did not know how to approach it. After learning the tip, they look forward to working on the puzzles.

Marketing of insurance is similar.

When people knows the basic facts about insurance, they are keen to buy the right products. They know about the importance of insurance in protecting the welfare of their family. They were suspicious about the sales pitch of the agent.

I tell them that they can buy term or accident insurance, at a lost that is less than 10% of the premium for a whole life policy. They are excited about it. They like to buy insurance.

It is also easy to convince them to save for their future needs, especially if they are offered a fair and flexible product, with a decent rate of return.

Lesson: Educate the consumer. Offer fair terms to them. You can grow your business.

Motor insurance on new cars

When you buy a new car, the distributor usually adds the first year's insurance as part of the package.

They are able to squeeze the insurance company to provide low premium, high commission (to the distributor) and to repair the car (in the case of an accident) with the distributor's workshop at high charges.

Guess what? The insurance company makes a big loss during the first year. They hope to recover their loss by charging higher premium rates from the owners in subsequent years.

If you renew your insurance with the same insurer, you are likely to pay more than the competitive rates outside.

You can save a lot of money by shopping around. You can call NTUC Income at 98 462663 (ie 98 INCOME).

Insurance for people with medical condition

I heard an advertisement on television.

The insurance company advertised that they are willing to take people with a medical condition,
and offer up to USD 300,000 based on a few questions.

There seems to be a large market. Many people wish to have life insurance, especially if they have a medical condition. They do not like to go through a medical examination and be declined.

Mobilephone in America

Some time ago, I heard that America use a different mobilephone system from Singapore.

Before leaving Singapore, I called my Telco to ask if my 3G phone can work in America. I use a HP iPAQ. The answer was "yes".

When I arrived in America and Canada, I made a few calls. The calls went through easily. There was no problem.

The world is getting "flatter".

Add the old loan to your new car

Hi Mr Tan,

I would like to know what is meant by "overtrade" with regards to car purchases.

I currently drive a car which I bought about two years ago with zero downpayment. As such, if I sell the car now, I have to pay for the shortfall between the outstanding loan and the selling price of the car.

I have heard of "overtrade" arrangements which will allow people in my situation to purchase a new car, with zero downpayment, and with the shortfall on my existing car "added on" to my new car loan

What do you think of such overtrade arrangements? Is is nessarily a bad thing if I can reduce my monthly instalments (given that cars are cheaper now) and also extend my COE ?

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REPLY:

Generally, it is a good idea to reduce your total cost of ownership.

I hear that the new arrangement allows you to:

* benefit from the lower cost of buying a new car
* your repayment under the new loan (including the balance of the earlier loan) wil be lower
* you do not incur any excessive penalty on the old loan

This new arrangement appears to be all right for me. You probably have to consider
that your new car, which has a lower COE value, may be worth less than the old car,
if you have to give it up later.

If you intend to use your new car for its full life, then this point does not matter.

Do university students need life insurance?

I posted the view of an author of an insurance book. He said that insurance agents market the wrong products to university students, using high pressure tactics. This gave a bad impression to the graduates about the life insurance industry.

There is a debate in my blog whether university students need life insurance. Some argued that the students need life insurance to cover their study loans and the amount invested by their parents in their education.

I agree with this view. The correct product is a term insurance product.

There is no need for the student to take an expensive life insurance policy (ie whole life policy) when they are still studying. They can buy the plan later, when they start to earn a regular income.

Actually, a more appropriate policy is a flexible investment linked plan, combined with a decreasing term assurance.

Using Skype for computer-to-computer talk

I tried computer-to-computer talk using Skype today. It was quite easy.

I logged into Skype and I saw that a friend was "online". I sent a message to my friend. He replied.
I asked if he had his headphone and microphone ready. Yes. I telephoned him on Skype, and he replied through his computer.

This process was quite easy and convenient. This is the first type that I used Skype on a computer-to-computer conversation. (Previously, I used SkypeOut to call their mobilephone).

For those who have not tried, it is quite easy. Get a friend to try it with you in Singapore. You can use it later, when you are overseas.

Suitcase wheel lost

The wheel of my suitcase was lost (i.e. came off) due to poor handling by the airline. I reported to the airline. They replied that the airline does not cover this type of damage.

They asked if I had travel insurance. This is normally covered by a travel insurance policy.

Remember the people who contributed in the past

Dr Lee Kum Tatt told me that it is important to remember the people who have contributed in the past, to build up Singapore to what it is today.

I agree.

I want to remember the people who contributed to the intial years of NTUC Income. They are Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr C V Devan Nair.

I posted a tribute to them three months ago. I have re-posted these tributes today.


You can read about other people who contributed to the development of science and the science center in Dr Lee's blog.

Tribute to Mr C V Devan Nair

I wish to give tribute to the late Mr C V Devan Nair.

Mr Nair was the secretary general of the National Trades Union Congress in 1970, when NTUC Income was founded.

He provided great leadership to the trade union movement during its formative years. He was also a source of inspiration and a pillor of support to NTUC Income during our early years.

I met Mr Devan Nair when I joined NTUC Income in 1977.

Mr Devan Nair later served as President of the Republic of Singapore. After relinquishing this office, he left Singapore and resided in USA for many years. I last met Mr Nair in Boston in 1993.

Mr Nair passed away in USA a few years ago.

Coverage for personal accident insurance

Dear Kin Lian,

I agree with you on the concept of decreasing term insurance. It provides for a married youngster who has not yet acquire an estate sufficient enough for his dependants. Term premium is affordable compared to endowment or whole life policies.

However, what are your views concerning personal accident insurance? Do you think that a person should buy PA insurance at all ages of his life?

In your blog, I noted you mentioned that term life assurance may be stopped at age 60 or when the youngest child reaches 25 years. Why?

I suppose Travel insurance is a form of PA insurance.

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MY REPLY:

The need for insurance diminishes when one gets older and the children are grown up. It applies to life and personal accident insurance.

Apart from the financial need (to provide for the dependents), it is all right to have a modest amount of life or accident insurance (say 1 or 2 years of earnings) to leave some money behind for the family. But, this is optional.

Personal accident insurance covers permanent injury. You may need to a large insurance sum to take care of the loss of earnings and the medical bills. This is different from the financial needs of dependents.

Personal accident is affordable. You can insure for $300,000 (cover death and permanent disablement) at a premium of less than $300 a year.

Travel insurance covers death and personal accident that occurred during the period of overseas travel.

Use Skype to call a mobilephone

I am now in Canada. My hotel has free WiFi access.

I use Skype to call my friend and my daughter in Singapore. The international connection is through Skype and is free.

Skype charge me for the local connection in Singapore. I think that it is about 5 cents a minutes.

The voice quality is clear. The call is almost immediate. This service is called SkypeOut (ie to call to a mobilephobe or a fixed line phone).

Power of Emotion

Dr. Lee Kum Tatt believes that emotional needs are important needs which can help us do many marvelous things.

Strong emotions give us strength and power. Emotions can make us do wonderful things which we do not even expect can be done. We will be weak and vulnerable if we deny ourselves of our emotional needs.

Read his views in his blog.

40,000 visitors to my blog

My site meter showed 40,000 visitors to my blog, from 8 February 2007 (when the new meter was installed). The average is slightly less than 500 visitors a day.

My target is to achieve 1,000 visitors a day. I like to ask my regular visitors to encourage your friends to visit my blog as well.

Visit to Quebec, Canada

I arrived in Quebec, Canada after flying for 24 hours. I left Singapore on a 18 hour direct flight to New York. I waited 4 hours for a connecting flight. The last leg took another 2 hours.

I was surprised that the Immigration and Customs clearance in New York was quite smooth. This was contrary to the disturbing stories that I heard from friends earlier.

Visiting North America

I shall be visiting USA and Canada for 11 days from today.

I am giving a presentation at a conference in Canada. After that, I shall visit my friends in Canada and USA. It will include a visit to the office of Vanguard Group in Pennysylvania. I am meeting the legendary, John Bogle.

During my travel, I will update my blog less regularly.

Money market fund of NTUC Income

There were some questions about the charges under the Money Market fund offered by NTUC Income.

When I put in my money previously, I was able to enjoy the following:

* no upfront charge
* annual fee of 0.25%
* there may be an annual fee, but it is quite modest
* the expense ratio is extremely low, as the fund is not actively traded

I was able to earn more than 3% per annum, at very low risk. Although the interest in the money market dropped recently, the fund was able to keep an attractive return (above 3%), at least for the time being.

It is best for you to call the business center and ask them for the current terms.

Civil servants wanted to return to pension scheme

There was a news report that several civil servants failed in their legal action to return to the pension scheme. They had opted into the Central Provident Fund scheme some 30 years ago and wish to reverse their decision now.

Here are my views.

Generally, I am in favour of a provident fund scheme. It is transparent, fair and flexible. If the employee changes job, the accumulated savings in his account remains with him.

A pension scheme, especially with life long medical benefits, looks attractive to the employee who works an entire career with one employee. But it has several disadvantages:

* if the employee leaves the service, the "transfer value" is usually at a deep discount
* the cost to the employer is highly volatile and difficult to manage
* the cost of providing the life long medical benefits can be very high

In recent years, there were reports about how General Motors in the United States had been extremely uncompetitive in the global markets due to the high cost of providing pension and medical benefits to employees.

If we were to look at what is best for the economy, and not from the perspective of any specific party (ie the employee or employer), it is better to move to the provident fund system. Under this system, each employee keeps his savings in his own account and earns interest on the savings.

Your blog is one of its kind

Posting by a visitor

Your blog is definitely one of its kind, I have not come across another similar blog which is useful and dispense out professional advice for free. It is also simple and easy to read.

Monsoon

Vera's first media release

My grand daughter starts young. Only 6 months old, she has her first media release recently.

Earn 3% to 4% on your cash with no lock-in

Do you know how to earn 3 per cent interest on your idle cash? It’s easy.

All banks offer high rates for fixed deposits. UOB and OCBC also offer them for your CPF money. The drawback is that most require long lock-ins, like one year and high minimum balances, like $50,000.

Now for a more challenging question: How to earn even more, like 3 to 4 per cent with NO lock-in period and a NO minimum balance?

Find out in Larry Haverkamp's blog

DBS Enhanced Income Fund

Someone asked if this fund is the same as a Money Market fund? I asked an expert to analyse it. Here is the finding:

ANALYSIS:

Even though you buy it using Singapore dollars, half of its investments are outside of Singapore. This makes it partly a currency speculation fund -- and you are betting on a weakening Singapore dollar. This is much riskier than a straight money market fund (in SGD).

It is also actively managed -- which explains its rather high expense ratio for a money market fund (0.46 per cent). On top of that it charges an initial sales charge of 0.2 per cent.

Because of the foreign investments, you must also pay currency conversion costs -- (which are a hidden expense that is deducted directly from the fund's yield and not included in the expense ratio).

Working from home - other people's experience

EXPERIENCE 1:

Dear Mr Tan

I buy your idea. I started working from home about 5 months after working overseas from last 14 years. It give me a better quality of life and make more income, as compared to working overseas.

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EXPERIENCE 2:

My friend told me that he spent half of his time working from home, even though he has an office. His staff are able to work quite independently in the office, so he does not need to supervise them closely.

He is able to do more work from home, using the modern means of communication.

His work require him to spend a lot of time travelling overseas anyway. So, it is quite usual for his staff to communicate with him through e-mail or telephone.

He talks directly to his travel agent to book air tickets and hotels. He does not rely on his secretary.

Health insurance: Pre Existing Condition

There is usually a clause to exclude pre-existing condition in a health insurance policy.

Reason?

The policy cannot pay benefits for illnesses that the insured knew about before the policy was purchased. It excludes coverage for physical conditions that existed earlier, even those it was not discovered.

In better policies, the clause only exclude illness that were known to the insured before the commencement date. If an application had cancer, but was not discovered earlier, this policy will still cover this condition.

To reinforce the pre-existing condition, many policies also have a probationary clause. It states that the benefit will not be paid for illness that begins during a period (sometimes, 30 days) starting from the effective date.

Working from home

I have been working from home for the past two months. Here is my experience:

* I save on travelling time of 3 hours a day
* I can do more work
* I discuss business by e-mail and the telephone
* I take care of my own time schedule
* I work directly with the travel agent or the internet, for my overseas travel
* I spend less time on face to face meetings
* I use my mobilephone more actively
* I make more use of public transport (bus and train)

I believe that more people will work in this manner in the future. It is a better lifestyle. It is made possible today, with the advance of technology.

Insurance: coverage under many policies

Certain insurances work on the principle of indemnity. They include fire insurance and health insurance.

According to this principle, the policyholder can only be compensated up to the amount of the loss. The policyholder cannot claim for more than the actual loss, even if he or she had taken up insurance to cover a larger amount, in one or several insurance policies.

For example, if a person took up several health insurance policies that pays a total benefit that is higher than the loss of wages (during a period of disability), then there is the risk that the policyholder will delay returning to work, as he will get a higher benefit by staying at home.

To prevent this situation, the insurance company will ask the policyholder to state if he is insured under other policies. This is to prevent over-insurance for disability benefit.

In the payment of a claim, the insurance company will also ask if the policyholder is claiming under other policies.

This principle of indemnity does not apply to life insurance and personal accident insurance. A policy can insure for an unlimited amount for loss of life or for personal injury.

Disability income insurance

Most health insurance plans pay for expenses associated with illness or accidents.

Some plans pay for loss of earnings during a period of disability. The ability to work and earn an income is more important, especially to a person who is supporting a family.

Most disability income insurance covers a short period only.

A plan to cover long term disability can be costly. To hold down the cost, some plans have restrictive provisions:

* coverage for accident only, or include illness?
* the compensation is limited to, say, 60% of the current earnings
* the benefit period may be limited to a certain period
* there is no payment during the initial period of a claim, ie the waiting period

Definition of disability:

* hospital confinement (very restrictive)
* inability to perform one's regular occupation (very wide)
* inability to perform any occupation for which he or she is reasonably fitted by training and experience.

Maternity Benefits

Dear Mr Tan,

I read your blog. You said the "the cost of maternity benefits" should be borne by society. What do you mean?

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REPLY

Some employers are reluctant to employ pregnant mothers as they have to give two months of maternity leave, for the first two children. They find ways of avoiding this cost. They will avoid employing an expecting mother.

It is better for the society to bear the cost of providing the maternity benefit. The mother should be able to claim the lost wages from the government, either through a reduction of tax, or a specific allowance.

This can apply to the first three children for each female working person.