Amount Disbursed under Self-employed Relief Scheme and Further Measures to Help Self-employed

7 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Manpower whether there will be further assistance for the self-employed beyond the Self-employed Income Relief Scheme (SIRS).

8 Miss Cheng Li Hui asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the current amount disbursed under the Self-employed Relief Scheme as compared to its budgetary allocation; (b) whether there are plans for more allocations should the economic outlook remain bleak beyond the next one year; and (c) what are the various reasons for the rejection of appeals under this scheme.

The Minister for Manpower (Mrs Josephine Teo): Sir, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 7 and 8 together?

Mr Speaker: Please do.

Mrs Josephine Teo: The Self-employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) is a means-tested scheme to help Singaporean self-employed persons or SEPs with less means and family support to tide over this period of economic uncertainty. Eligible SEPs receive three tranches of $3,000 each in May, July and October 2020.

The income eligibility criteria for SIRS covered over 80% of Singaporeans with taxable income. The annual value (AV) of the housing criteria covered about nine in 10 owner-occupied residential public and private properties. As a proxy for family support, the spouse's income is also considered.

Over $1.1 billion has been disbursed in the first two tranches. With the third and final tranche, SIRS is expected to cost $2 billion in total, almost double the original $1.2 billion set aside. This is a significant expansion of an already sizeable programme. Altogether, about 190,000 individuals have received SIRS, with about 100,000 qualifying automatically, and 90,000 through application.

We have been exercising flexibility in the qualifying criteria to support more SEPs. About two in three applications have been approved. In the remaining one-third, applicants may have been earning much higher incomes, residing in high value properties or own two or more property with their spouses. As SIRS was intended to support SEPs, persons who were previously unemployed or had regular employment, were redirected to the COVID-19 Support Grant. Where there were other areas of need, we have referred unsuccessful applicants to the appropriate agencies for follow-up assistance.

As announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in his Ministerial Statement on 17 August 2020, the Government is studying appropriate ways to support employees and SEPs who are most vulnerable, beyond the existing schemes.

Mr Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan. Well, I would like to add, before Mr Dennis Tan begins, given the level of enthusiasm, I would like supplementary questions or SQs to just go direct to the questions and cut out the preamble. I would like to limit every speaker to just at most two clarifications. Do not load on your SQs with tonnes of clarifications, please, so that more Members can ask questions. Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I just have one supplementary question. With the expanded COVID-19 Support Grant, there are some feedback that SIRS could be extended, at least at a lower payout level. Many self-employed still have income issues in meeting their financial obligations. Will MOM study this possibility?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Sir, the short answer is yes, we will study this together with MOF.

Mr Speaker: Miss Cheng Li Hui.

Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to inquire if MOM tracks the sectors that self-employed persons are from and how are these sectors doing now and will fare going forward – so that we can see what help will be needed.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Sir, the profile of the SIRS recipients mirror the profile of our self-employed persons in Singapore. Large number of them were in the taxi driving profession, some in private hire car driving, a good number of them are hawkers – people whom we are very familiar with in our work as Members of Parliament. So, the performance of these sectors, of course, vary. We will have to take these factors into consideration when we look at what to do next.