Insurance for migrant workers to cover non-work-related situations

An insurance scheme will be introduced next January to cover migrant workers against non-work-related death, total and permanent disability, as well as critical illnesses.

The scheme, underwritten by Income - the NTUC insurance cooperative - will be available from Jan 1 next year, and the premium that employers need to pay is $9 a year for each worker.

Announced yesterday by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and philanthropic organisation Leap201, it is the first such insurance scheme for migrant workers in Singapore.

Only migrant workers with a valid work permit or S Pass, and who are 60 years or younger, are eligible for it.

Also, the first 50,000 workers who are signed up for the scheme will have their premiums subsidised for the first two years. Their employers will pay just $3 annually for each worker.

This has been made possible by the $600,000 raised so far by Leap201 and NTUC's Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC).

The payout from the insurer is $10,000 if a worker dies from a non-work-related accident or is totally and permanently disabled.

Workers stricken with critical illnesses will each receive up to $10,000. The 37 critical illnesses covered under the scheme include major cancers, stroke with permanent neurological deficit and heart attack of specified severity.

"From MWC's experience, unexpected heart attacks, cancer, stroke and diabetes are some of the leading causes of death among the migrant worker community in Singapore," said MWC chairman Yeo Guat Kwang.

Income's chief executive Andrew Yeo said: "When migrant workers are rendered unable to work due to serious injuries, illnesses or worse, death, their loved ones at home are also very much impacted, as many migrant workers here are breadwinners of their families."

Leap201 chairman Michael Lien urged employers and dormitory operators to buy the insurance. "It is up to us to care for the very people who help build our country in their time of need," he said.

Industry partners and employer groups who wish to be early adopters of the scheme can e-mail MWC at feedback@mwc.org.sg