Inclusion of Inflation-adjusted Metric to Payouts in Scheme to Retain Nurses

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health in relation to the new long-term retention scheme for nurses, whether the Ministry will consider an inflation-adjusted metric for the payouts over the course of their careers with the public healthcare service.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: My response will also cover the matters raised in the oral question by Mr Xie Yao Quan 1 for a subsequent sitting.

The ANGEL scheme will be funded through employer’s contributions for each year that a nurse remains in service. However, unlike that for uniformed SAF officers, ANGEL is not designed as a long-term savings scheme where payout is awarded only when the officer retires. Instead, it is a retention scheme, where typically $100,000 will be awarded to nurses over four regular payout milestones across a 20-year service period up to prevailing retirement age. Hence, while the funds are centrally managed through MOH, there is a limit to which the deposits can be deployed for investments for a long horizon.

MOH will continue to regularly monitor and review the competitiveness of nursing salaries in the public healthcare system, including the quantum of annual ANGEL deposits, to ensure that the package as a whole remains competitive.

Note(s) to Question No(s) 8:

1 To ask the Minister for Health regarding the long-term retention scheme for nurses in the public healthcare system as announced on 20 February 2024, whether the Ministry will consider creating a savings scheme to pool undisbursed payouts to protect the value of these future payouts against inflation.