More than a million meal subsidies redeemed on DBS PayLah! app in less than 3 months
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Of these redemptions, 12 per cent were made by seniors and 24 per cent by those earning less than $2,500 a month.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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SINGAPORE – More than a million meal subsidies have been redeemed by residents since DBS Bank launched its 5 Million Hawker Meals scheme on Feb 10, said the bank on Monday.
Of these redemptions, 12 per cent were made by seniors and 24 per cent by those earning less than $2,500 a month.
DBS added that the number of seniors above the age of 62 who used PayLah! at hawker stalls has quadrupled, and that community support of the scheme has been “overwhelming”.
The scheme is meant to offset the cost of meals for people facing persistent inflation.
The meal subsidies come in the form of cashback of up to $3 when a user pays using the DBS PayLah! app at more than 11,600 food stalls with SGQR codes islandwide.
They are made available to the first 100,000 diners every Friday. The initiative began on Feb 10, 2023, and will be in place until Jan 19, 2024. Users are informed on the PayLah! app when all meal cashback rewards have been redeemed for the week.
DBS said it aims to subsidise five million meals through this scheme.
Hawker stallholders have observed a boost in their business, with some reporting an increase of between 15 per cent and 25 per cent in their weekly earnings, said the bank.
The three most popular hawker centres where people redeemed cashback for their meals were Amoy Street Food Centre, Ghim Moh Food Centre and Kampung Admiralty Hawker Centre.
The top three hawker stalls were Yam Mee Teochew Fishball Noodles (Kovan Food Centre), Ding Yee Super Soup (Yi Jia Food Centre) and Coffee Break at Amoy Street (Amoy Street Food Centre).
On March 24, The Straits Times reported that a high volume of DBS PayLah! log-ins had led to hours of delay in redeeming the meal cashback.
DBS head of consumer banking group Jeremy Soo said: “Besides diners, hawkers have also been great advocates, spreading the word and encouraging their customers to pay digitally to enjoy the cashback. Amid the ongoing economic uncertainty, we will look at what more we can do to support our customers.”
