A report published on Monday by the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation stated that “Singapore does not have an official poverty line... Most Singaporeans are unaware of the scale and depth of poverty in Singapore”. The report added that it was time for “Singapore to join comparably developed nations in officially defining and measuring poverty”. “The living conditions and incomes of the poorest amongst the Singapore resident population, while not reaching the level of destitution experienced in developing countries, nonetheless suggest that Singapore needs to reassess the way in which poverty is acknowledged, defined and addressed,” said the report, which summarizes key findings of a poverty study due to be published in January. The Lien Centre researchers said that despite their limitations, monetary measures of poverty “are still a simple and effective way to assess the depth of need in the population as a whole,” and identify vulnerable groups of people.