Self-employed Persons Receiving WIS Payouts from 2014 to 2018

Assoc Prof Walter Theseira asked the Minister for Manpower for each year from 2014 to 2018 and by Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) eligibility age group (a) what is the number and percentage of self-employed persons who receive WIS payouts; and (b) what is the average WIS payout received among self-employed persons.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Table 1 shows the number and percentage of self-employed persons (SEPs) receiving Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) in each of the four WIS age bands, and Table 2 shows the average annual WIS payout received by SEPs for work done in 2014 to 2017.

Information on WIS-SEP recipients for 2018 is not available yet as the SEPs can only be assessed for WIS eligibility and receive annual WIS payment after they have declared their net trade income for 2018 and made the required MediSave contributions by 31 December 2020.

Note(s) to Question No(s) :

1 Data for WY 2014 as at Feb 2016; Data for WY 2015 as at Feb 2017; Data for WY 2016 as at Feb 2018; Data for WY 2017 as at Jan 2019. WY 2017 data is based on preliminary figures as not all eligible SEPs would have declared their income and made the necessary MediSave contribution to receive WIS.

2 Age as at respective years.

3 Includes Persons with Disabilities (PWD) WIS recipients aged below 35.

4 Percentage of SEPs of the given age band in the citizen labour force who received WIS.

5 The most recent round of WIS enhancements was implemented for work done from WY 2017.