Almost 200,000 have Benefitted from SIRS; New COVID-19 Recovery Grant to be Launched in January

Close to 200,000 Self-Employed Persons (SEPs) have benefitted from the SEP Income Relief Scheme (SIRS), which has paid out some $1.8 billion to date.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) will launch the COVID-19 Recovery Grant (CRG) on 18 January 2021 to support lower- to middle-income employees and self-employed persons (SEPs) who are financially impacted by COVID-19.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and NTUC issued the update through a joint media release on 16 December 2020.

About SIRS

MOM and NTUC stated that the SIRS pay outs will cover affected SEPs till 31 December 2020, and that applications will also close on the same date.

Over half of the beneficiaries of SIRS were automatically eligible, while the rest had successfully applied for the scheme through NTUC.

The congress announced that about seven out of 10 of the applications that went through them were approved.

They said: “The applications which were not approved involved applicants earning much higher incomes, residing in high value properties or owning two or more properties with their spouses.

“Some could not provide evidence that they were self-employed.”

About CRG

The MSF issued a separate release, providing more details of the CRG on 16 December 2020.

The CRG will either pay up to $500 per month or $700 per month for three months to applicable individuals.

Up to $500 per month will be paid out to individuals who are:

• employees who are facing salary loss of at least 50 per cent on average for at least three consecutive months; or
• SEPs who are facing an average loss in net trade income (NTI) of at least 50 per cent over a period of at least three consecutive months, compared to their average monthly NTI in 2019 or 2020.

 Up to $700 per month will be paid out to individuals who are:

• unemployed due to retrenchment or involuntary contract termination; or
• placed on involuntary no-pay leave (NPL) for at least three consecutive months.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must have a gross monthly household income of ≤$7,800 or monthly per capita income of ≤$2,600 prior to being affected by COVID-19.

They must also have been actively working and earning an income prior to being affected financially by COVID-19.

Employees should have worked for at least six months cumulatively between January 2019 and December 2020. SEPs should have declared their NTI in either 2019 or 2020.

Applicants who draw both a salary as an employee and trade income as an SEP need to meet either criterion to be eligible.

This new criterion will help for those who have been actively engaged in employment/trade in the past two years.

Interested applicants must also have demonstrated efforts in job search or training by applying for jobs or skills opportunities through Government-linked touchpoints.

Applying for CRG

Individuals can apply for the CRG online via go.gov.sg/CRG from 9am to 10pm daily, from 18 January to 31 December 2021.

Applications can be made on weekends and public holidays as well.

For help on completing the online application form, applicants can call the ComCare Call hotline at 1800-222-0000 or email Ask_SSO@msf.gov.sg.

Those who are unable to apply online can visit their nearest Social Service Office for assistance.