Update on Status of Efforts in Recovering Overpayments in Jobs Support Scheme and Plans to Address Non-recoverable Amounts

Parliamentary Question by Ms Cheryl Chan Wei Ling:

To ask the Minister for Finance (a) whether he can provide an update on the status of efforts in recovering the overpayments in the Jobs Support Scheme; and (b) what is the plan to address the amounts that are non-recoverable.

Parliamentary Reply by Minister for Finance, Mr Lawrence Wong:

As of end-September 2021, the Government has recovered $361 million (97.6%) from 4,862 firms. The monies were recovered mainly through offsets against firms’ subsequent JSS payouts (where applicable), as well as returns in cash by large enterprises.

The Government expects to recover an additional $6.8 million (1.8%) by March 2022 bringing the total expected recovery of JSS overpayment to $367.8m (99.4%). The recovery will be through offsets against future payouts of other enterprise support schemes, such as the Jobs Growth Incentive Scheme (JGI) and Wage Credit Scheme (WCS), as well as commitments by firms to repay the amounts.

For the remaining $2.2 million (0.6%) owed by 274 firms, the firms can either return these amounts in cash via lump-sum or instalment payments. As the firms’ circumstances vary, the Government will tailor our recovery approaches to the different types of circumstances, and seek to recover as much as possible of the overpaid amounts.