No bank account needed to receive govt payouts

A new digital tool will allow Singaporeans who do not have bank accounts or smartphones to receive government payouts easily.

The tool, dubbed GovWallet, allows citizens to get the money in a few ways, including at selected ATMs by scanning their faces.

Another way involves GovWallet permitting the payouts to be received through mobile apps such as the Government Technology Agency's (GovTech) LifeSG app. LifeSG gives users access to government services, such as checking their Central Provident Fund (CPF) balances.

Citizens can then use PayNow to transfer the government payouts from the LifeSG app to their bank accounts.

GovWallet, which GovTech also developed, is expected to allow people to use the payouts to make Nets payments in stores soon.

The new tool was announced by Minister-in-Charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity Josephine Teo during the debate on the budget of the Prime Minister's Office yesterday.

GovTech developed GovWallet in part to help government agencies disburse payouts to people who do not have bank accounts.

An example is the GovCash service announced by the CPF Board on Feb 21. It was progressively rolled out from November last year.

The service is powered by the GovWallet technology and allows people to withdraw government payouts from 500 OCBC Bank ATMs, even if they do not have an account with any bank. The process has steps to verify people's identities, such as face scanning.

The payouts that can be withdrawn this way include the Workfare Income Supplement and the Training Commitment Award.

The ATM disbursement also means that people who are less tech-savvy and do not have smartphones can still get the payouts.

Another benefit of GovWallet is that by giving payouts through ATMs or apps, there is no more hassle of distributing and collecting physical vouchers.

The Smart Nation and Digital Government Group, which GovTech is a part of, said GovWallet was developed by bringing together various digital components such as identity management and payments, so that other agencies can incorporate GovWallet functions into new or existing applications without building their own. "This, in turn, reduces duplication of development efforts and cost across the Government," the group added.

Besides LifeSG, GovTech said GovWallet can be easily integrated with existing government mobile apps, such as Singpass, and the Health Promotion Board's Healthy 365 app, which encourages people to lead a healthy lifestyle, such as by rewarding them with electronic vouchers for exercising. No confirmation was given on when Healthy 365 might be using GovWallet.

As for other agencies using GovWallet, GovTech said the technology has "received interest from many organisations to be used in household and social assistance programmes, sector-specific relief programmes, and even staff recognition programmes".

Currently, GovWallet allows government payouts to be used to make payments at the 164,000 merchants that accept PayNow bank fund transfers through apps such as LifeSG. The merchants include e-commerce platforms Shopee and Lazada. Payments can be done by opening LifeSG and scanning an SGQR code.

With the extension of GovWallet to Nets, people will have more options in how they want to use the payouts, with 42,000 merchants now on the payment system. A list of participating merchants and when Nets will be included are not immediately known. But Nets card payments are now accepted at many retailers and dining outlets, among others.

Mrs Teo, who is also Minister for Communications and Information, highlighted yesterday how GovWallet is used to give payouts to national servicemen.

Since November last year, the Ministry of Defence has used GovWallet to disburse cash recognition benefits to 35,000 operationally ready national servicemen through the LifeSG app.

GovWallet is one of several examples Mrs Teo cited on Singapore's Smart Nation vision of going cashless. "Today, more than half of all hawkers have adopted e-payments. In fact, more than $200 million PayNow transactions were made every day last year," she said.