More than 99,000 employers to get S$840 million in Wage Credit Scheme payouts by end-March
Office workers are seen at Raffles Place in Singapore on Jan 4, 2022. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
SINGAPORE: By the end of March, S$840 million in payouts will be given to more than 99,000 employers in Singapore, as part of the final tranche of payouts under the Wage Credit Scheme (WCS), said the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) on Tuesday (Mar 22).
In a media release, MOF and IRAS said the upcoming payout will see the Government co-fund 15 per cent of qualifying wage increases given in 2021, 2020 and 2019 to more than 780,000 Singaporean employees earning a gross monthly wage of up to S$5,000.
This will benefit more than 99,000 employers, they said.
Introduced in 2013, the WCS was intially a three-year initiative to support businesses in their transformation and share productivity gains with workers.
It was later extended, most recently at Budget 2021, with the aim of supporting increments to "help companies build up their local workforce and emerge stronger from COVID-19".
To qualify for the upcoming tranche, employers must have given their workers a pay rise of at least S$50 or have sustained the salary increase of at least S$50 previously given to employees in 2019 and 2020.
More than S$2 billion in wage credits was disbursed in 2020 and 2021 to support employers during the pandemic, MOF and IRAS said.
"Employers do not need to apply to receive the payouts. Eligible employers will be notified by Mar 31, 2022 informing them of their payout amount," they said, noting payouts will be credited directly to employers’ registered bank accounts through PayNow Corporate or GIRO.
"Any appeals regarding WCS payouts must be submitted to IRAS by Jun 30, 2022, and will be considered on a case-by-case basis," they added.
Employers without GIRO or PayNow Corporate will have their payouts retained until they have successfully registered for either scheme.
Unclaimed payouts will be retained in the employers’ WCS account until Sep 30 this year, and employers will no longer be eligible to claim the payouts after that, said MOF and IRAS.
