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Apply for levy waiver for a migrant domestic worker (MDW)

You can get a waiver for your MDW levy payments only under certain situations. These include overseas leave and hospitalisation leave.

When and what you need to get a levy waiver

If your helper You need
Went on overseas leave for at least 7 consecutive days. It is capped at 60 calendar days per calendar year.

No documents are needed unless we ask you for it. Apply for the waiver after the helper returns to Singapore.

If the helper chooses not to return from overseas leave, cancel the Work Permit before you apply for a waiver.

Was issued with hospitalisation leave by a Singapore-registered doctor from a local medical institution. It is capped at 60 calendar days per calendar year.

Any of the following:

  • Medical certificate showing the period of hospitalisation leave.
  • Hospital bills which reflect the admission and discharge dates.
Was in the custody of the police or embassy A letter from the relevant organisation stating the period of custody.
Has passed away A copy of her death certificate.

When to apply

You can apply for the levy waiver only after the levy has been charged and it must be within 1 year of the levy bill.

If the waiver period requested is from January 2022 (start month) to February 2022 (end month), you must submit the application by 31 January 2023.

How to apply

You can apply for levy waiver online. 

For faster processing, please ensure that the requested levy waiver end date for multiple helpers in the same application falls in the same month.

If the last day of the waiver period is in different months, we can only start to process your application from the 21st of next month following the latest requested levy waiver end date.

Example:

Helper details

Requested levy waiver period

Helper 1

1 January 2022 to 10 January 2022

Helper 2

25 March 2022 to 5 April 2022

If you submit a single application for the above 2 helpers, we can only start to process your request from 21st May 2022.

Receive the outcome

The processing time is 12 working days if you submit your application from the 21st of next month following the latest requested levy waiver end date. We will email you the outcome of the levy waiver application after we have processed all the helpers in the application.

The latest requested levy waiver period in the application is from 25 March 2022 (start date) to 5 April 2022 (end date).

Date of application

Receive outcome

10 May 2022

By 7 June 2022

(21 May 2022 + 12 working days)

21 May 2022

By 7 June 2022

(21 May 2022 + 12 working days)

28 May 2022

By 14 June 2022

(28 May 2022 + 12 working days)

How to calculate the waiver

Amount waived = Monthly levy rate - Levy payable

Scenario

  • Waiver period: 1 – 15 September
  • Helper’s levy rate: $300 monthly (or $9.87 daily)

How to calculate

  1. Count the number of days from 16 to 30 September where levy is payable, i.e. 15 days.
  2. Find out the amount of levy payable using daily rate, i.e. 15 days × $9.87 = $148.05
  3. Amount waived = Monthly levy rate - Levy payable
    $300 (monthly levy rate) - $148.05 (levy payable) = $151.95 (amount waived)

View the levy rates.

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