What Is The Job Support Scheme In Singapore?
Before diving deep into the details, let’s first understand what exactly is job support scheme in Singapore. The structure of job support scheme was introduced in the annual budget of Singapore, in Feb 2020. As per the job support scheme, employers are supposed to get complete income support to keep their local and loyal employees in times of economic crisis. The local employees comprise the permanent residents and citizens of Singapore. All the operational employers can apply for the job support scheme. The employers that are exempted from this scheme are representative offices, and official government industries, both foreign and local.
As per the job support scheme, the Singaporean government needs to co-fund the month’s first gross wage, up to the amount, of $4,600. This amount is paid to every employee. In the budget for 2021, the JSS got extended to 6 months for companies falling in the 1st and the 2nd tier sectors. This extension covered the income paid between April – and September 2021. The duration and level of assistance an employer would get are based on the tier sector in which it is operating.
Even though the subsidies are dependent on the proportion of workers’ monthly income, employers get the ability to assign the subsidies for their work as per need to maintain the flow of the business and also to ensure that the employees keep working for them.
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Job Support Scheme Overview
After knowing the basics of the job support scheme, let’s get familiar with the different co-funding percentages for the various tier sectors:
1. 1st Tier
Co-funding percent: 75%
Applied to the following sectors:
- Built environment
- Aerospace and aviation
- Hospitality, tourism, exhibitions, and conventions
2. 2nd Tier
Co-funding percent: 50%
Applied to the following sectors:
- Marine and Offshore
- Retail
- Food Services
- Land Transport
- Arts and Entertainment
3. 3rd Tier
Co-funding percent: 25%
Applied to other kinds of sectors.
Additionally, as per the Fortitude Budget, it was stated that the business employers who were not able to re-start their business activities will keep getting the wage help of 75% till August 2020 or till their business re-opens. Business employers who can re-start their business activities will then start getting the support as per the base tier.
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Working Of Job Support Scheme
Let’s understand how does the JSS works. Employers decided to get 1 extra payout in 2020, May, and a total of 4 payouts in April, July, and October (2020). To help companies with quick cash-flow assistance in the Covid era, wage support, instead of being given out in April and May (2020), was given out in advance.
But the advances were first evaluated based on the wage in 2019, October, and November. Then, the payouts for 2020, July, and October, got adjusted to the account for the original salary gotten in 2020, April, and May (plus the advances).
Eligibility For Job Support Scheme
The job support scheme was created to help the Singaporean employers who have submitted their CPF contributions for workers who are either permanent residents or citizens of Singapore. Apart from that, the Job scheme support also tends to support the wages of workers who are directors and shareholders of a firm, given that:
- The firm is officially registered
- The firm’s annual assessable profit is $100,000 or lower
There are some employers from the below-mentioned business structures that are exempted from being eligible for the JSS. They are:
- Government-handled schools
- Local Government Organizations
- Embassies, High Commissions, Consulate, Trade Offices
- Grassroots Units and People’s Association Services
- Foreign Military Units
- Unregistered Local/Overseas Entities
- News Bureaus (which are representative offices) Insurance Representative Officers / Bank Representative Offices /Other Financial Representative Offices (listed with MAS)
- International Government Organizations, Representative departments of Foreign corporations, Foreign Trade Organizations/ International Chambers/ International Non-profit Associations/Foreign Law Systems
- Bodies that give CPF but aren’t officially a Singapore-registered firm
- Foreign Organizations.
Main Takeaways
- Singapore’s Job Support Scheme went through some modifications so that it could support wages for over 10 months given to local workers with a co-funding percentage:
       Sector 1st Tier: 75%
       Sector 2nd Tier: 50%
       Sector 3rd Tier: 25%
- Business employers who aren’t capable of resuming their business activities continued getting the wage support of 75% till Aug 2020, or till they renewed their work.
- The co-funding percentage for income submitted in May and April 2020 was 75%.
- The 3 major payouts were in July, April, and October 2020. The extra payout was in May 2020.
- There is no need for an application.
Current Update On Job Support Scheme
In the latest updates about the Job support scheme, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore has decided to lengthen the JSS till March 2022. Another scheme, the Jobs Growth Incentive was introduced, and it was formed to support the recruitment of new employees (up to 400,000 were hired by 50,000+ firms).
To be eligible for phase 3 of the JGI, individuals will have to pass the qualifying window. This qualifying window will get stretched till March 2022 to assist recovery in a changing labor market and help businesses in growing their local recruitment. But, the income support under the JGI scheme will be less. From October, the qualifying businesses will get 15% of their gross made each month by new workers under the age of 40 until 6 months.
For the workers who are more than the age of 40, ex-offenders, or individuals with a disability, their income support will be at the rate of 50% for 1 year, maximum. Earlier, the government of Singapore gave 25% to all the new and locally hired individuals under the age of 40, for 1 year. Businesses got 50% of the first amount paid to the new workers over 40, disabled individuals, or ex-offenders for 18 months.
As per the latest updates, the MOM (Ministry of manpower) of Singapore, has focused on these schemes being exceptional, but temporary. According to the MOM, it’s better than the employers with a development plan to fasten the process and keep rapidly recruiting the residents.
The new scheme of jobs growth incentives was made active in August 2020 to help businesses to promote local recruitment. For employers to apply for JGI, there should be a rise in the business’s entire size of the workforce and also a rise in the share of the business’s local workforce.
Process To Apply or Decline Job Support Scheme
It is to be noted that the employers don’t need to file for the JSS on their own. IRAS notifies the qualifying businesses by post of the JSS amount owed to them and the support tier.
The process to decline JSS:
If for some reason you do not wish to have the wage support and want to get exempted from all the JSS payouts in the future, you will have to sign up through the Decline JSS application.
Here are the following steps one will have to follow to return a JSS payout:
- First, enter the bank account information of IRAS as follows:
   Payee: XYZ
   Account Type: DBS Current AccountÂ
   Account No.: 0028391090
   DBS Swift Code: DBSSLPEG
- As the next step, find the option of Purpose of Payment/ Beneficiary Reference/ Payment Details/ Remittance Information. Under these sections, enter your corporation’s name and operation. This will help in fastening your return processing.
- Then give a screenshot of your transaction via the payout form or the Decline JSS form. The payout form is used when you wish to only decline the present payout, and the decline JSS form is used when you wish to decline the future payouts as well.
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Employers Engaging in Criminal Operations
The Government of Singapore has the authority to withdraw, delay, or reject any JSS payment to a company if the company is reasonably believed or proven to have:
- Be unqualified for a payment
- Committed or engaged in any illegal behavior while conducting out business or trade.
If the company is fairly presumed or discovered to have been unauthorized or suspected of a crime at the time any prior payouts were distributed, the government of Singapore has the authority to recoup an equal amount to any payout distributed from the moment the company:
- Was unauthorized to get a payout
- Or First managed to carry out or took part in criminal behavior.
A criminal behavior here is meant by any operation that, it takes place, is deemed to be a criminal felony, irrespective of the fact if it’s related to the Jon Support Scheme or not. This also includes money laundering and other related activities.
Conclusion
As we have reached the end of this article, we hope that by now you must have had a clear understanding of the JSS of Singapore, and all the topics revolving around it. Contact us at ODINT Consulting to get help with any and all kinds of financial services.
FAQ’s
There are 3 tier sectors, and each has a co-funding percentage of 75%, 50%, and 25% respectively.
The JSS is designed to assist firms in retaining local staff. As a result, JSS payments are made to eligible businesses.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of Singapore prolonged its local employment support scheme till the month of March 2022.
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