Provision of Subsidies to Families Using Household Services Scheme and Expanding It to Include Workers from More Countries

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry will consider (i) providing subsidies to families using the Household Services Scheme (HSS) similar to the levy concession when hiring a migrant domestic worker and (ii) expanding the HSS to include workers from more countries; and (b) if not, why not.

Dr Tan See Leng: The HSS allows eligible companies to hire more migrant workers to provide part-time home cleaning services to households. This scheme seeks to increase options for households to meet their needs for domestic services. HSS companies can hire female migrant workers from India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, in addition to the existing approved countries or regions for the Services sector. The scheme was recently expanded from September 2021 to include (i) other household-related tasks, such as grocery shopping, car-washing and pet-sitting; and (ii) an additional country, Cambodia, where HSS companies can hire female migrant workers from.

Since then, 27 more companies have joined the scheme, bringing the total number of HSS companies to 103. The HSS is estimated to have benefited 16,000 households. These households typically require domestic services for only a few hours a day or week.

The Ministry is looking to further expand the scope of services which HSS companies can offer, to better support households. We will share more information on this soon. It will take time for HSS companies to make adjustments to their services and prices as more companies come on board the scheme and more households tap on HSS companies to meet their needs for domestic services. We will monitor the market response and engage households and HSS companies to assess if further adjustments are needed to this commercial scheme.