WIS to be paid out four times a year
Employees will now be paid Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) four times a year instead of twice a year currently.
File photo of an office worker at the financial district in Singapore.
SINGAPORE: Improvements have been made to the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS).
Employees will now be paid the amount four times a year instead of twice a year currently.
However self-employed persons will be paid WIS once a year, based on their declaration of their full-year income.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower, Hawazi Daipi, announced the improvements in Parliament on Monday.
He said the government will now pay WIS to an employee who works for at least two months in the quarter and who has an average income of not more than S$1,700 in the quarter.
The amount of WIS paid out each quarter will be adjusted proportionately.
The government will implement this change this year. It means that the first quarterly payment, which will be for work done in the first quarter of 2012, will be received by 1 June.
Mr Hawazi said that with the change, the Ministry of Manpower estimates that about 440,000 older low-wage Singaporeans will receive WIS, an increase of about 10% from today.
But he stressed that the government will not be raising the payment frequency any further, as the intent of WIS is to encourage regular and sustained work.
Mr Hawazi also said: "Our efforts to help low-wage workers have been focused on the bottom 20% of Singaporean workers.
"Based on income data in 2011, this group of workers earn a monthly income of
S$1,500 or less.
"Over the past few years, the number of workers in the bottom 20% has increased in tandem with the growth in the size of our overall workforce.
"Currently, 13% of Singapore employees in the bottom quintile are casual and short-term contract workers. They are those who work on an ad-hoc basic or on contracts of less than one year.
"This percentage has remained fairly constant over the past three years, although the incidence is slightly higher amongst the low-wage group, compared to about 12% for Singaporean employees in general.
"Our overall share of contract employment in Singapore is not unusual among developed countries. For example, it is 15% in Germany and France, and 13% in Canada."
Mr Hawazi also elaborated on an earlier announcement by Deputy Prime Minister and Manpower Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Mr Tharman had said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will step up its efforts to bring about compliance with the CPF Act as well as the Employment Act.
Mr Hawazi said that firstly, MOM will step up education of both employers and employees on their obligations and rights.
Next, MOM and the CPF Board will ramp up enforcement efforts.
Mr Hawazi said that the agencies have increased the number of inspections since the start of this year and will step this up sharply over the next five years.
The focus is on sectors where non-compliance is known to be higher, such F&B, retail, cleaning, security, as well as others.
Mr Hawazi cautioned that in some sectors, employers have attempted to reduce the CPF they pay by claiming that certain payments made to the workers are reimbursements.
