SINGAPORE – A few lecturers who used to work at the exact distinctive demands company found out a significant hole right after their college students graduated at age 18 – they had been no lengthier acquiring economic literacy education.
Due to the fact handling income is this sort of an vital element of life, they pulled alongside one another and came up with an concept to address the difficulties grownups with special wants experience in navigating a chaotic financial natural environment.
Their idea is a cashless smart wallet, tailor-made for people today in this community and equipped with protections to stay clear of pitfalls these kinds of as frauds.
The trio – Ms Zoe Poh Yu Yah, 29, Ms Tan Yan Ning, 30, and Ms Clarrissa Hon Sin Hui, 29 – competed in this year’s National Youth Council (NYC) Youth Motion Problem (YAC) Named following Team SpedGrow) will be held from Oct 2022 to January 2023.
All of them experienced labored in Metta College.
They formed one of 61 teams awarded funding to create challenge suggestions.
The group won S$50,000 in funding via YAC to comprehend their smart wallet idea.
“For an 18-12 months-aged, getting a neurotypical particular person usually means your lifestyle is just starting,” Ms Poh said.
“But as a neurodiverse (person), there is certainly a whole lot of dread due to the fact at the time you graduate from the process, there usually are not numerous areas you can go to proceed your training,” she included.
“Which is why we want to interact them in lifelong mastering, and we feel dollars management is in fact a critical barrier to independent dwelling.”
This sentiment was echoed by Mr Alvin Tan, Assistant Director of Unbiased Living and Caregiver Support at SG Permit, who pointed out that some individuals with mental disabilities or autism may well discover it hard to manage funds or experience nervous about procedures these kinds of as counting coin payments.
“As cashless payments grow to be far more widespread in the group, some of them might not entirely recognize how contactless payments get the job done – like the use of cellular payment applications,” he included.
The sensible wallet created by the trio aims to assistance susceptible grown ups conduct economical transactions independently in the local community – while also giving their caregivers a level of regulate by way of a smartphone app to secure them.
Good wallets perform like contactless cell payment systems, in which end users faucet their devices on payment terminals to make transactions.
The technique then procedures these transactions by debiting funds from a pre-stored volume that can be topped up from the caregiver’s cellular gadget.
Via a smartphone application, caregivers also have the alternative to approve or drop transactions remotely.
“Supplied the greater vulnerability of folks with disabilities, caregivers are worried about the escalating prevalence of on line scams and fraud, and how their care recipients might grow to be victims,” Mr Tan explained.