The Singapore Government announced a $48.4 billion Supplementary Budget 2020 – or COVID-19 Resilience Budget – to support businesses, workers and families, as the country faces an “unprecedented crisis of a highly complex nature”.
Hence, via this Resilience Budget 2020, the Government has put additional measures to:
- 1. mitigate the extent of the impact, and alleviate how it affects workers and livelihoods.
- 2. help families cope during this uncertain period.
- 3. ensure Singapore companies stay afloat during the crisis, in six ways – capacity building; cash flow, reduced cost, and access to credit, for every company; resilience building; as well as some additional help for specific sectors affected by COVID-19.
Below is the exhaustive summary of the major announcements.
COVID-19 Support Grant
Those who have already lost their jobs due to the outbreak, the Government has announced a $145 million package, to provide lower and middle-income workers who lost their jobs with $800 every month for 3 months. Additional measures include:
- 1. A Temporary Relief Fund will be set up in April for needy families who need help urgently – this will be available at Social Service Offices and Community Centres.
- 2. More flexibility will also be given at this time when considering applications for ComCare, which provides assistance to those in financial hardship.
Workfare Income Supplement Scheme
For low-income workers, their incomes will be supplemented through the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme.
Workfare recipients will receive an enhanced Workfare Special Payment, a one-off cash payment of $3,000.
NTUC Care Fund (COVID-19)
For union members, NTUC will provide a one-off relief of up to $300 per union member.
For Self-Employed Individuals
For such workers, the Government has announced the following:
- 1. A new Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) will help provide direct cash assistance to the self-employed. Under this, eligible self-employed persons will receive $1,000 cash every month for 9 months.
- 2. The Self-Employed Persons Training Support scheme will provide sustained support for them to make use of this period to train and upskill. Up to 90% of course fees will be subsidised, and from 1 May 2020, the training allowance will be $10 per hour. Union members to get an additional training allowance of up to $10 per hour. The scheme has been extended till end-2020. In total, this is a top-up of $4 million.
- 3. There will be an automatic deferment of income tax payment for 3 months.
- 4. The Point-to-Point Support Package to help taxi and private hire car drivers will be extended and enhanced. Eligible taxi hirers and PHC drivers will continue to receive the Special Relief Fund payments of $300 per vehicle per month until end-Sep 2020.
- 5. The Workfare Special Supplement Payment ( one-off cash payment of $3,000) will be enhanced benefiting about 50,000 low-income self-employed persons.
SGUnited Jobs
Those who are seeking new jobs, the Government will launch an SGUnited Jobs virtual career fair on MyCareersFuture.sg, with more than 2,200 job vacancies. Overall, authorities hope to create over 10,000 jobs via the initiative in one year, with the public sector taking the lead and working with various trade associations and chambers to identify career opportunities.
SGUnited Traineeships
For first-time jobseekers, the SGUnited Traineeships programme will give young Singaporeans more opportunities. Workforce Singapore will support a total of 8,000 traineeships this year, across both large and small enterprises.
Read more about Singapore Resilience Budget at InCorp Global.
