Integrating Unemployed but Employable Persons with Disabilities into Singapore Core

16 Ms Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Manpower what steps is the Ministry taking to (i) leverage the investment and efforts by Workforce Singapore to include and integrate unemployed but employable persons with disabilities into the Singapore core and (ii) advise and collaborate with social sector agencies to ensure that persons with disabilities are prepared adequately for the future economy to prevent them from further marginalisation.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, under the Adapt and Grow (A&G) initiative, Workforce Singapore (WSG) and its partners provide job matching services and programmes to help jobseekers overcome mismatches in skills, wages or job expectations. Persons with special needs can tap on these services too, as well as the programmes to find suitable employment, particularly the Open Door Programme (ODP) and Career Trial. In the past three years, more than 1,600 persons with special needs have been placed, that is, found jobs, found placements, through these programmes.

The ODP, which is administered by SG Enable, provides dedicated support for employers to hire, train and include persons with special needs in the workplace. The programme provides employers with recruitment and job support services, as well as grants to redesign jobs for persons with special needs to upgrade their skills and even train co-workers to work better together with persons with special needs.

Some employers may be unsure whether a particular person with special needs would be suited for the job, while persons with special needs may also be unsure whether the job and work environment are suitable. Therefore, we have the Career Trial programme which offers an opportunity for jobseekers to train and work for employers for a short stint of three months, during which time the jobseeker receives a training allowance from Workforce Singapore (WSG). Since April 2018, all persons with special needs who are hired after the trial will receive retention incentives and their employers will also receive salary support.

Under the Third Enabling Masterplan, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has been actively engaging persons with special needs and their caregivers to better understand their aspirations, needs and challenges. The Government is also working closely with social service agencies and other partners in the private and people sectors to improve education, training and job placement for persons with special needs and identify suitable employment opportunities for them.

Ms Anthea Ong (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for the clarification. As to what concerns me, and I think I have got to share with Members of the House that last week, it was reported that in terms of the number of people with disabilities who are in employment which was given by MSF as 8,600 to a Parliamentary Question I filed; against the total number of people of disabilities, we are looking at a percentage of about 4.88%.

So, in itself, without even comparing to what or how the other countries are doing, I would like to ask the Ministry and maybe even MSF, is there something of a national target that we are internally working towards? At 5%, given the resources we have and how fast the nature of work is changing, I do fear that this group of people with disabilities would be further marginalised. It will not bring them into the workforce and, on top of that, also continue to upgrade and prepare them for the future of work. Could I please ask the Minister of State what sort of plans do we have in that regard?

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member for her supplementary question and, certainly, as an aspiration, we are both aligned. We want to see more inclusive workspaces here in Singapore. Specific to that article, I think much of the data was picked up from data available in the public space. However, in recent years, the Government has also started to collect more comprehensive data on persons with special needs. So, in the meantime, just bear with us because we will be releasing more accurate estimates of the employment and unemployment rates for persons with special needs later this year, once we have a better picture of the situation.

But overall, if you look at where we are today compared to, say, four or five years ago when we first set up SG Enable, then subsequently we developed WSG to come in to support, we have worked quite closely to look at how we can improve employability. I think the situation has improved, as I have mentioned. Today, we have got 1,600 being placed in the last three years. Certainly, we can do better. But if you look at the schemes out there, are there enough schemes? Perhaps, it can be improved. But what are the schemes like? If you look at the Open Door Programme, for example, we give training grants of up to 90% to employers to employ persons with special needs. And if you look at the Job Redesign Grant, for example, we also support up to 90%, capped at $20,000 per special needs worker for employers to redesign jobs to employ them, to modify their work environment and processes to be more inclusive for persons with special needs.

On top of that, if you look at the Special Employment Credit, the Government provides up to 16% wage subsidy to employers to employ persons with special needs regardless of age for those above 65. This goes up to 22% of wages for employing someone with special needs who are more senior.

So, to a certain extent, overall, there is support, but what I hope is that we can get more enlightened employers on board. We want employers to be enlightened. I think Members of this House have friends, neighbours, industry contacts, employers who can help and join this inclusive workplace initiative or aspiration for all of us. Certainly, we can all do more. But I hope that we can get more employers on board because the engines are there, the schemes are there. Certainly, we can all work together towards this aspiration.