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Written Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on WIS employee-recipients by age group

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1202 OF 2018 FOR NEXT AVAILABLE SITTING

QUESTION NO. 872 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Mr Zainal Sapari

To ask the Minister for Manpower for each year from 2015 to 2017 (a) what is the number of Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) employee-recipients based on the four age groups under WIS; (b) what is the total corresponding expenditure incurred in each year to disburse WIS to the employee group; and (c) what are the considerations taken into account in determining the WIS payout.

Answer

  1. Table 1 shows the number of employees receiving Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) in each of the four WIS age groups, and the total amount of WIS allotted annually for work done in 2015 to 2017.

Table 1: Number of employees receiving WIS and total amount of WIS allotted for work done in 2015 to 20171

Work Year (WY) 2015 2016 2017
WIS Age Groups2  No. of employee recipients  Amount of WIS ($)  No. of employee recipients  Amount of WIS ($)  No. of employee recipients Amount of WIS ($) 
 60 and above  155K  342M  162K  359M  169K   367M
55 - 59 72K 114M 69K 109M 65K 101M
45 - 54 105K 122M 95K 110M 85K 95M
35 - 443 57K 40M 52K 36M 47K 30M
Total 389K 618M 377K 614M  366K  592M

1Data for WY 2015 as at Feb 2017; Data for WY 2016 and 2017 as at Feb 2018
2Age as at respective years
3Includes Persons with Disabilities (PWD) WIS recipients aged below 35

  1. WIS is targeted at workers in the bottom 20% by income percentile, with graduated support provided to those up to the 30th income percentile. The amount of WIS an employee receives depends on his age and income. In general, older employees receive higher payouts than younger employees.
  2. The WIS scheme was introduced in 2007 and has consistently benefitted more than 20% of Singaporean employee workforce. The number of WIS recipients fluctuates each year and tends to decline in periods of rising incomes. Between 2015 and 2017, nominal wage at the 20th percentile of full-time employed citizens has grown by an average of 4.7% p.a. This explains the smaller number of WIS recipients in 2017 compared to 2015. Such changes in incomes are taken into account at every three-yearly review of WIS to ensure that more than 20% of Singaporean employees remain eligible for WIS. The results of the next review will be announced next year, for implementation in 2020.