Aligning Silver Support Scheme's Monthly Income Threshold with Local Qualifying Salary Quantum

6 Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the rationale for maintaining the Silver Support (SS) Scheme's monthly income per person threshold at $1,500 for the higher tier benefit given that the Local Qualifying Salary has been set at $1,600; and (b) whether the Ministry will review the threshold for SS Scheme to ensure consistency and adequacy of support for lower-income seniors.

Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik (Sengkang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have two supplementary questions for the Minister. Given that Local Qualifying Salary (LQS), full-time equivalent as —

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng): I have not answered the Parliamentary Question yet.

Mr Speaker: Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik.

Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik: Yes?

Mr Speaker: I actually wanted to go on to the next question.

Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik: Okay. Thank you.

Mr Speaker: Which is your question.

Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik: Question No 6, sorry.

Mr Speaker: I am doing this because we have a lot of questions. So, I want to confine and give priority to those who have filed questions, for the benefit of our Members.

Dr Tan See Leng: Mr Speaker, the $1,500 threshold for the higher tier of payouts in the Silver Support Scheme refers to the monthly per capita household income (PCHI). This is not the individual's monthly income. I hope that this can be a point of clarification for the Member.

This monthly PCHI is computed as the total gross household monthly income, divided by the total number of family members living together in the same household.

Our Silver Support Scheme payouts are tiered by flat types – so, a 5-room flat, 4-room flat, 3-room flat, 2-room flat – they are tiered by the different flat types and of course, the monthly PCHI. This is to ensure that the support is targeted most at seniors who now have little or no family support and resources in their retirement.

The LQS serves a different purpose. It is to ensure that firms who wish to employ foreign workers also pay their local workers meaningfully, rather than on token salaries. It is not intended as a measure of retirement adequacy or financial need and is therefore not correlated with the Silver Support Scheme's monthly PCHI criteria.

As I have earlier on answered Assoc Prof Jamus Lim's Parliamentary Question (PQ) and also responded to the supplementary question by Mr Shawn Loh, we recently enhanced the Silver Support Scheme, just last year, in 2025, and we raised the qualifying monthly PCHI threshold from $1,800 to $2,300. This is approximately a 28% increase. This has enabled more seniors, including those with lower incomes, to qualify for Silver Support payouts.

Let me reassure everyone in this House – we will continue to review the Silver Support Scheme periodically.

Mr Speaker: Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik.

Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I understand that the LQS and the Silver Support Scheme are two different schemes. But given that there is a progressive increase from $1,400 to $1,600 since July 2024 for LQS, whether the Ministry has assessed how seniors whose wages were adjusted by employers to meet the LQS, have consequently been pushed into the lower Silver Support tier. This is mostly for those elderly who are staying alone in their own household.

My second question is: how many Silver Support recipients have moved from the higher tier to a lower tier, since the LQS increase to $1,600?

Dr Tan See Leng: I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. But I think that perhaps he did not understand the construct of the LQS and the fact that it is not related to the Silver Support Scheme payout. There will be further refinements to the LQS in the upcoming Budget, the Committee of Supply. I do not think I want to go too much into the details.

Suffice to say, let me reiterate that they are not in any way interlinked. I mean, that is not how we constructed the LQS to be. Because the LQS, as I have shared earlier on, is aimed at working and solving our companies' needs for foreign workers. We do not want the companies to hire our locals on a token salary, so that they can get the foreign worker quota. So, please remember that they are not related.

To his point about how much of the LQS has pushed the elderly seniors living alone down to below or set at that monthly PCHI threshold of $1,500, I do not have those statistics because it is not how we work that scheme out to be. I hope that addresses his point.