The Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) Scheme was announced during the 2007 Budget Speech as a permanent scheme following the one-off Workfare Bonus Scheme. The objectives of WIS are to supplement the wages and retirement savings of older low-wage workers as well as to encourage them to stay employed.
In 2010, the WIS Scheme was enhanced by increasing the maximum WIS payment from $2,400 to $2,800, and increasing the qualifying average monthly income ceiling from $1,500 to $1,700 to encourage older low-wage workers to seek and to remain in employment. The Workfare Training Support (WTS) Scheme was also introduced to encourage low-wage workers to upgrade their skills through training, so that they can improve their employability and earn more.
In 2012, the payment frequency of WIS was increased from twice a year to four times a year for employees to help them better meet their short-term needs. WIS was also extended to younger persons with disabilities (PWDs).
As announced recently at Budget 2013, there will be further enhancements to WIS. Some of the key revisions include the extension of the income cap to $1,900 to benefit more Singaporean workers, higher WIS payouts of up to $3,500, higher proportion of WIS to be paid out in cash and increase in WIS payments to the CPF Medisave and Special Accounts.
With more cash from the enhancements to WIS and other measures to improve employability (e.g. Workfare Training Support (WTS) scheme, Special Employment Credit (SEC)), the government will be boosting CPF contribution rates for low-wage workers to enhance their retirement adequacy. The combined changes to WIS and CPF contribution rates will help to boost the retirement adequacy of lower-income workers as well as raise the take-home pay for the vast majority of WIS recipients. Details of the changes to the WIS scheme and CPF contribution rates can be found in:
For more information on the WIS and WTS schemes, please call 1800-222-6622 (Mon-Fri: 8am-5.30pm) or visit www.workfare.sg.