Since January, 46,900 low-wage informal workers and self-employed people have registered with the CPF Board.

That is close to one in two of the 100,000 low- wage earners who, as of early this year, were in danger of missing out on the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) because they had no CPF accounts.

Next, these 46,900 workers have to contribute to their Medisave Accounts. Only then can they receive the WIS payouts.

But at least they are now within the CPF system, Minister of State for Manpower Gan Kim Yong said yesterday.

Efforts by the Government, unions and business groups to educate this vulnerable group of workers on their employment rights are also starting to show results.

So far, 10,000 of these informal workers - who neither contribute to CPF nor receive CPF payments from their employers - have joined the CPF system and received the WIS.

The CPF Board also continues its action against errant employers who fail to pay their workers' CPF.

Last year, it took 14,000 such cases to court.

One case involved a labour supplier which classified its workers as 'independent contractors' when they were in fact employees.

The board recovered $47,500 in CPF contributions for 51 employees, with 47 of them subsequently getting WIS payments as formal employees, he said.

Mr Gan, however, stood firm in the face of requests from MPs to be more flexible with the WIS income ceiling of $1,500 a month.

He said the CPF Board would recover January's advance WIS payouts to workers whose income last year exceeded the ceiling because of the bonuses they received.

'It is only fair that we should recover WIS paid,' he said.

But the Government will be flexible when recovering the money, he added.

The CPF portion of WIS will be withdrawn from these workers' CPF accounts, but the cash payouts will be offset against future WIS payments.

Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC), however, urged the Government to reconsider and to show 'goodwill' by not recovering the WIS payments, given that the scheme is still new and not well-understood.

Mr Gan also said that income from overtime work will continue to be included when deciding whether a worker qualifies for WIS.

'Whether a worker's income is in the form of basic salary or overtime pay, they are both income that will help support the worker and his family,' he said.

He also said no to Dr Ahmad Magad's (Pasir Ris- Punggol GRC) suggestion that part of the WIS payouts to informal workers be in the form of cash.

Explaining his stand, Mr Gan said: 'Given the increasing importance of the CPF system in providing for workers' medical and retirement needs, we should encourage self-employed and informal workers to put more into their CPF, not ask for their contributions to be reduced or waived.'

sueann@sph.com.sg