Around 400,000 lower-wage Singaporeans will be receiving $1,500 from Tuesday, their first payout of the Workfare Special Payment.
Announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in his Budget speech in March, the scheme provides eligible lower-income workers with a $3,000 cash payout that will be given in two equal parts this month and in October.
The payout will be given to workers who were eligible for the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme before March 31, for their work done last year.
WIS targets the bottom 20 per cent of the workforce, and is paid in the form of cash and Central Provident Fund top-ups. Those eligible will receive the payout the same way they receive their WIS payments, via direct crediting into their bank account or through a cheque sent to their residential address.
Recipients will be notified via SMS of payment details if they have registered their mobile numbers with SingPass, while others will receive letters by the following week, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday.
To verify the authenticity of the SMS, recipients should check that the SMS is sent by SG-Workfare. They will not be asked to respond or provide any information to the sender.
Those with government-registered bank accounts will receive the July payout earlier via direct bank crediting on Tuesday. The rest will receive the payout later by cheque by Aug 15, said MOF. The second payment will be issued via direct bank crediting on Oct 28, or via cheque by Nov 15, the ministry added.
Those who wish to receive the second payout via direct bank crediting can go to the Workfare website by Oct 14.
Singaporeans who qualify for WIS for the 2019 work year after this month and before March 31 next year will receive the full Workfare Special Payment in the month that they become eligible for the WIS.
In a Facebook post yesterday, DPM Heng said that an integral part of Workfare is the additional support for training. Workfare was introduced in 2007 as a permanent scheme to address wage inequalities.
"Taken together with SkillsFuture SG and the Progressive Wage Model, we have a strong ecosystem of support to uplift our lower-wage workers in a sustainable way," he wrote.
While many workers around the world are experiencing wage stagnation, lower-wage workers in Singapore have experienced "strong" real wage growth averaging more than 4 per cent a year in the past five years - faster than the growth in median wages, said Mr Heng.
"We can and we will continue to invest in and support our lower-wage workers so that they can continue to learn and grow," he added.
Around 29,000 lower-income Singaporeans who are union members of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) will also be able to receive up to $100 in assistance for daily essentials and school supplies at participating merchants, with an additional $100 for each eligible schoolgoing child.
The NTUC Care Fund (e-Vouchers) programme, which will cost $6 million this year, will run yearly. More details are available here.
