Written Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo Minister for Manpower to PQ on statistics on adoption of absentee payroll under Workfare Training Support Scheme
NOTICE PAPER NO. 1935 OF 2019 FOR THE SITTING ON 6 JAN 2020
QUESTION NO. 1531 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
MP: Mr Zainal Sapari
To ask the Minister for Manpower since the absentee payroll under the Workfare Training Support (WTS) Scheme was first introduced (a) how many companies and workers have benefitted and what is the total amount disbursed on a yearly basis; and (b) what is the breakdown of the companies by industry sectors that have benefitted from WTS.
Answer
- Over the past 5 years, an average of around 3,000 companies and 31,000 workers have benefited from absentee payroll funding[1] each year under the Workfare Training Support (WTS) Scheme. The average amount disbursed yearly is about $6 million. See Table 1 for details.
Table 1
| Year |
Number of unique companies |
List of unique workers |
Total amount disbursed for absentee payroll |
| 2010 (July to December) |
900 |
6,800 |
$784,000 |
| 2011 |
1,300 |
18,300 |
$2,438,000 |
| 2012 |
1,300 |
18,800 |
$3,256,000 |
| 2013 |
1,600 |
20,000 |
$3,309,000 |
| 2014[2] |
2,900 |
31,000 |
$5,577,000 |
| 2015 |
2,900 |
32,500 |
$5,574,000 |
| 2016 |
2,900 |
35,100 |
$6,509,000 |
| 2017 |
3,200 |
30,100 |
$6,142,000 |
| 2018 |
2,900 |
28,200 |
$6,572,000 |
- The breakdown of the top industry sectors with the most number of companies benefiting from absentee payroll funding is in Table 2. These are broadly sectors with a higher proportion of low-wage workers.
Table 2
| Industry sectors |
Number of unique companies (2010 to 2018) |
| Administrative and Support Service Activities[3] |
1,228 |
| Manufacturing |
1,184 |
| Accommodation and Food Service Activities |
1,130 |
| Wholesale Trade |
874 |
| Other Service Activities[4] |
847 |