Statistics on Employment of Persons with Disabilities

1 Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked the Minister for Manpower in the last five years, what are the statistics for persons with disabilities with regard to (i) their general employment rates, (ii) their employment rates by 10-year age groups and (iii) the main sectors employing them.

2 Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether he can provide an update on the progress of programmes to help companies employ and train persons with disabilities (PwDs), including the current number of companies and PwDs involved; and (b) whether there are long-term studies to monitor the effectiveness of these programmes in integrating PwDs.

Mr Speaker: Would you like to take the two questions together?

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for Manpower): Yes, Mr Speaker. I will take Question Nos 1 and 2 together.

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Mr Speaker, MOM recently started collecting data on the employment outcomes of persons with disabilities (PwDs) through our annual Comprehensive Labour Force Survey, with data available from 2018 onwards.

Among PwDs in the working ages of 15 to 64, the resident employment rate was 28.6%. Another 4.2% of PwDs in this age range were without a job and actively looking for one, translating to a resident unemployment rate of 12.9%. The remaining two-thirds of PwDs aged 15 to 64 were outside of the labour force, with most of them citing poor health or disability as the main reason.

The Member also asked for a breakdown of employment rates by age bands. The resident employment rates for PwDs were 27.6% for those aged 15 and 39; 37.8% for those aged between 40 and 49; 26.1% for those aged between 50 and 64; and 5.9% for those aged 65 and above.

The sectors employing the most resident PwDs are Community, Social and Personal Services, Food Services, Administrative and Support Services and Manufacturing, which together account for more than half of PwD employment.

Besides Mr Chong, Dr Intan had also filed a Parliamentary Question* for the next Sitting on the effectiveness of Government schemes in helping companies or employers to hire adults with disabilities. In particular, she cited the Special Employment Credit (SEC), Open Door Programme (ODP) and Workfare. I would like to take this opportunity to address Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar’s¹ question as well.

To enable more PwDs of working age to be active in the labour force, the Government provides support in several ways. In 2012, MOM extended SEC to employers that hire Singaporeans with disabilities of all ages earning up to $4,000 a month. SEC provides an automatic wage offset of up to 16% of the employee’s monthly income for PwDs aged below 67, and up to 22% for PwDs aged 67 and over. Last year, more than 5,700 employers hiring over 8,600 Singaporeans with disabilities benefited from SEC. This number has increased from 2012, when SEC was paid to around 3,200 employers hiring about 5,000 Singaporeans with disabilities.

Employers and PwDs can tap on the employment support services and programmes under the Adapt and Grow initiative. This includes the ODP and Career Trial. ODP, which is administered by SG Enable with funding support from Workforce Singapore (WSG), provides job placement and job support services for PwDs and their employers, and grants for training and job redesign. The ODP Training Grant provides a subsidy of up to 90% of course fees to support the training of PwDs and their co-workers. The ODP Job Redesign Grant provides employers with funding of up to 90% of the job redesign costs, capped at $20,000 per employee with disability, to help integrate PwDs at the workplace.

Some employers and PwDs may have reservations about job fit and the suitability of the work environment. To address these concerns, Career Trial provides an opportunity for jobseekers and employers to try out each other and assess job fit through a trial. During the trial – which can be up to three months – jobseekers receive a training allowance from the Government.

From January 2016 to June this year, close to 780 companies have hired more than 2,000 PwDs with support from the Adapt and Grow initiative. At least 60% of these PwDs remained employed for after six months.

Finally, the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) and Workfare Training Support (WTS) were extended to lower wage PwDs of all ages in 2012 and 2017 respectively. WIS tops up the salaries and CPF savings of lower-wage PwDs, with up to $3,600 in cash and CPF contributions annually. WTS provides support such as course fee subsidies, monetary awards and training allowances to encourage lower wage PwDs to upgrade their skills. Last year, more than 6,400 Singaporeans with disabilities benefited from WIS, up from more than 3,500 in 2012. The number of Singaporeans with disabilities who benefited from WTS training also increased last year to about 860, up from about 640 in 2017.

There are also on-going efforts to help PwDs integrate into the workforce. Earlier this year, MOM and SG Enable launched the Job Redesign Guide for Inclusive Employers. The Guide provides step-by-step information for companies on how they can redesign jobs to suit PwD workers – for instance, through changes to the workplace or working arrangements. SG Enable also runs disability management workshops and a biennial Inclusive Business Forum to equip employers with knowledge and skills on how to recruit PwDs and integrate them into the workforce.

Inclusive employment requires collaboration amongst the public, private and people sectors. In March this year, MSF announced the formation of a new workgroup under the Third Enabling Masterplan to look at preparing PwDs for the future economy by enhancing access to lifelong learning opportunities and employment pathways. The workgroup is co-chaired by Minister of State for Social and Family Development Mr Sam Tan and Mayor Denise Phua. The workgroup is engaging PwDs and their care-givers, social service agencies and other disability stakeholders to better understand the needs, challenges and aspirations of PwDs. The workgroup aims to release their recommendations early next year.

Mr Speaker: Dr Intan.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for sharing the data regarding employment of persons with disabilities. I just have two supplementary questions. First, would the Ministry consider extending even more incentives, such as enhanced corporate tax relief for employers, or even instituting some form of affirmative action to ensure that they employ persons with disabilities or those with special needs. Secondly, would the Ministry also consider setting up a one-stop portal to help persons with disabilities and special needs gain employment. That is, the Ministry consolidates all the job vacancies from different employers so that persons with disabilities know that there is a one-stop portal that they can go to, to look for employment or even training opportunities; likewise, for the employers to do so.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member for her questions. I would just like to clarify on the first supplementary question: is she asking for more schemes or just putting in place affirmative action?

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar: Both.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: As I had mentioned, today, we have the Special Employment Credit (SEC) which already subsidises the salaries of PwDs. Other schemes, such as the Open Door Programme, help with job redesign and so forth. From the perspective of implementing schemes, I think we are quite well resourced. More can still be done to encourage employers to think about having more PwDs and being more inclusive. That is an effort that we are working quite closely with MSF and even MOE for the SPED schools, to see how we can make pathways more available. That is an area that the new workgroup that I mentioned earlier would be looking into. It is a bit premature to be talking about what upcoming policies we would need to shape. But clearly, we can do better in terms of employment outcomes. It is one area we can look at.

On the second question with regards to a one-stop portal, that is something we can study. Today, we have something like a Jobs Bank that Workforce Singapore already has. SG Enable enables the employment of PwDs. That is one area we could potentially study. Let me speak to the workgroup to consider your suggestions.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong (Bishan-Toa Payoh): I thank Minister of State Mr Zaqy for that reply. It was reported that just five in 100 persons with disabilities here have jobs. Could the Minister of State please shed some light on the difference in the numbers that he has just cited, versus what was reported in the newspapers?

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member for his question. I had said that today's employment rate for those between the ages of 15 and 64 was 28.6% which is different from the 5% that was cited by The Straits Times in 2017. This was erroneous because the incorrect data was derived by The Straits Times using different sources of publicly available data. Back then, PwD data from our comprehensive labour force survey was not ready. Therefore, understandably, they had patched together from different sources. For example, for the number of employed PwDs, The Straits Times had used the number reported by MSF in a Parliamentary Question (PQ) reply which is a composite of PwDs in the private sector who are eligible for the SEC, as well as PwDs in the Public Service. So, they patched that together. This was an underestimate, as SEC does not cover PwDs earning $4,000 and above a month. At the same time, there were also others who were not registered with SG Enable. So, some numbers were missed out.

For the total number of PwDs in our population, The Straits Times applied the estimated prevalence rate from a NCSS survey of 2,000 persons. This is different from what we have for our comprehensive labour force survey which covers about 100,000-plus persons from 33,000 households. So, it is a lot more accurate view of what the population is.

And given the small sample survey, there is a higher margin of error in estimating the true prevalence rate. Some a small difference in the estimated and true prevalence rate would result in a significant numerical difference in the derived PwD population.

At the same time, The Straits Times used NCCS' estimated prevalence rate for PwDs aged 50 and over compute the population size for PwDs aged 50 to 64. This is inaccurate as the estimate is affected by PwDs aged above 64. For those above 64, you will find a higher prevalence of disability, not just because of conditions which you were born with, but also because of old age and so you have deterioration of health, stroke and other conditions that also add up to disability.

Therefore, if you look at some of these composites that were put together, there is a difference in the numbers that came out. So, we have now used the comprehensive labour force survey which is more comprehensive. Last year was the first year for which we have available data.

Mr Speaker: Ms Anthea Ong.

Ms Anthea Ong (Nominated Member): I thank the Minister of State. I have two questions. The first is, we have tracked the number of differently abled people who are employed. Do we know how long these employed people are in their employment? My personal experience is that I almost get a request for employment every other day at Hush TeaBar from the deaf community. I am wondering, as much as they are employed, how long do they actually stay in employment. The second question is, do we have any plans to commit to a national target? I want to qualify that I am not asking for an employment quota for employers, but I am asking if we as a country is committing to a national target in terms of inclusive employment, particularly for people with disabilities.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Earlier, I mentioned that for those PwDs who came through our Adapt and Grow initiatives, at least 60% remained employed after six months. Certainly, from a settling in perspective, we also provide support through the Job Redesign Grant. It is not just to support the placement but also to support the education and cultural awareness education of fellow employees as well, to help them settle in.

At the same time, it is a lot of work – having spoken to members and workers from SG Enable and other VWOs who are doing this, there is quite a lot of work to do as well, to help a PwD settle into some of the workplaces. They may not be easily settled in but I think we can do better.

Overall, in terms of a national target, it is something we have considered but I do not think we are prepared to do it at this point, given that we have just got some good visibility on how the situation is. I think our commitment for now is that our employment rates can be improved and this is something for which we need to get more employers onboard in order to improve employment rate and placements for our PwDs. I hope that through greater awareness, though Members like Ms Anthea Ong and other VWOs around, we can certainly do better to bring employers onboard, create awareness and help our PwDs to be more gainfully employed.