Press Releases
Resilience Budget 2020 - Care and Support Package: 400,000 Lower-Income Singaporeans will receive $1.2 billion in Workfare Special Payment in July and October 2020
Topics
Budget
Covid-19 Measures
24 July 2020
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Enhanced payouts supplement the incomes of 400,000 lower-income Singaporean workers. 98% will receive $1,500 in July via direct bank crediting, and others will receive it via cheque.
400,000 lower-income Singaporeans will be receiving their first payout of the Workfare Special Payment from 28 July 2020. DPM and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat announced this under the Care and Support Package at the Resilience Budget on 26 March 2020 as a step to provide greater assurance and support to Singaporeans who need more help during this period of economic uncertainty.
2 Workfare was introduced in 2007 as a broad-based measure to top up the salaries of lower-income workers with less means, and to help them save for their retirement. Targeting the bottom 20% of the workforce, the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) is paid in the form of CPF top-ups for retirement, as well as cash to supplement earned income. WIS was enhanced from Work Year 2020. The qualifying income cap was raised to $2,300 per month, and the maximum annual WIS payout was increased to $4,000 per year.
3 The Workfare Special Payment will be given to workers who are eligible for WIS before 31 March 2021, for their work done in 2019. They will receive the Workfare Special Payment in the same way they receive their WIS payments, i.e. via direct crediting into their bank account, or through a cheque mailed to their residential address later. WIS recipients who have not provided their bank account details are encouraged to do so to receive their future payments sooner.
4 The following table summarises what eligible Singaporean workers can expect in the coming months.
Table caption
Date | For Eligible Singaporean Workers |
|---|---|
24 July 2020 | Notification of July’s Workfare Special Payment Those who have registered their mobile numbers with SingPass will receive SMS notifications on 24 July, informing them of their Workfare Special Payment details. Others will receive letters by the following week. Those who wish to verify the authenticity of the SMS received can check that the SMS was sent by “SG-Workfare”. Recipients will not be asked to respond, or provide any information to “SG-Workfare”. Those who wish to view the full details of their Workfare Special Payment can do so at www.workfare.gov.sg (using SingPass to log on). |
28 July 2020 | Receipt of July’s Workfare Special Payment Those with government-registered bank accounts will receive the July payout of $1,500 earlier, via direct bank crediting on 28 July 2020. The rest will receive the payout later by cheque, mailed to their NRIC-registered address, by 15 August 2020. |
26 October 2020 | Notification of October’s Workfare Special Payment Those who have registered their mobile numbers with SingPass will receive SMS notifications on 26 October, informing them of their Workfare Special Payment details. Others will receive letters by the same week. Receipt of October’s Workfare Special Payment Those with government-registered bank accounts will receive the October payout of $1,500 earlier, via direct bank crediting on 28 October. The rest will receive the payout by cheque, mailed to their NRIC address, by 15 November. Those who wish to receive payouts earlier via direct bank crediting can do so at www.workfare.gov.sg(using SingPass) by 14 October 2020 to receive October’s WSP. |
5 Citizens who qualify for Work Year (WY) 2019 WIS after July 2020 but before 31 March 2021 will receive the Workfare Special Payment in the month that they become eligible for WY2019 WIS. For example, a citizen who qualifies for and receives WY2019 WIS in December 2020, will also receive the full Workfare Special Payment of $3,000 in December 2020.
More Information
6 More information on the Workfare Special Payment is available at https://go.gov.sg/csp2020. For queries on the Workfare Special Payment, contact the Workfare Special Payment team at cpf.gov.sg/writetous or 1800-227-1188. To protect your privacy, we will not be able to respond to queries of an individual nature (e.g. queries on bank account details) received through other channels.
Issued by:
Ministry of Finance
Singapore
24 July 2020