CPFB | Workfare Income Supplement

Updates on 20 Apr 2021

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Overview
Employee
Self-employed
Employer
Resources

Overview

Helping you save for the future

CPF payments that grow your savings for retirement, housing and healthcare, plus cash payments to supplement your income, are some of the financial support that you can tap on.

About Workfare

Introduced in 2007, the Workfare Income Supplement is a broad-based measure that tops up the salaries of lower-income workers to help them save for retirement.

Workfare is targeted at Singaporean workers whose earnings are in the bottom 20%, with some support for those slightly above.

Over S$8.6 billion* of WIS has been disbursed to 964,000* lower-income workers.

* As at February 2022, up to Dec 2021 WIS

Workfare is paid in the form of CPF payments and cash to supplement their incomes.

Employee

WIS for employees

If you’re an eligible employee, you’ll receive CPF payments to help you save for retirement, plus cash payments to supplement your income.

Eligibility

You qualify for WIS if you’re:

a Singapore Citizen;
at least 30 years old (previously 35 years old) as of 31 December of the work year, or have a disability
earn a gross monthly income¹ of at least $500², but not more than $2,500 (previously $2,300) for the month worked³

¹Gross monthly income includes basic salary and extra wages such as overtime pay and bonuses.

²Persons with disabilities, workers who qualify for ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance and caregivers of care recipients (generally include caregivers residing with care recipients who are medically certified to have permanent moderate to severe disabilities) will qualify for concessionary WIS, even if they earn less than $500. More detail on the concessionary WIS for caregivers will be provided later.

³In addition, you must earn an average gross monthly income of not more than $2,500 (previously $2,300) in the past 12 months.

You’re not eligible for WIS if you:

live in a property with an annual value¹ of more than $13,000 (assessed as at 31 December of the preceding year)
own two or more properties
are married, and you and your spouse own two or more properties together, or your spouse’s income for the preceding year of assessment exceeds $70,000.

¹Annual value is the estimated gross annual rent on a property, excluding furniture, furnishings and maintenance fees. It is determined based on estimated market rentals of similar or comparable properties.

Check WIS eligibility

Receiving WIS payments

How WIS payments are allocated

You’ll receive 40% of your WIS in cash and 60% in CPF contributions. We’ll credit the cash portion to your PayNow NRIC-linked bank account if you have one. Otherwise, it will be credited to the bank account that you have registered to receive Government benefits, or via GovCash if you had not registered a bank account with us. If you need to update your local bank account details, you can do so after logging in to the e-Services.

Update bank details

Actions required

If you’re an employee, there’s no further action required

We’ll automatically assess your eligibility for WIS based on the CPF contributions made by your employer.

If your employer is not contributing CPF on your behalf, please approach your employer to clarify on the discrepancies. If your employer does not provide you with a satisfactory response, you can lodge a report with CPF Board.

If you worked as both an employee and a self-employed person,

you will first be assessed for your work done as an employee and you will receive monthly WIS if you meet the criteria.

After the work year, we will assess your eligibility for additional WIS, based on your total income for the year (both employee and self-employed income).

Your WIS payments

The table below shows the maximum WIS amount you can receive each year, based on your age group.

Age	Maximum Annual WIS
Age	2022	From 2023
30-34	Not applicable	$2,100
35-44	$1,700	$3,000
45-54	$2,500	$3,600
55-59	$3,300	$3,600
60 and above	$4,000	$4,200
Persons with disabilities will receive the same amount as those who are aged 60 and above.

You can also use the online WIS calculator to estimate how much you’ll receive.

Calculate your WIS

Payment schedule

As an employee, you’ll receive WIS every month. The table below shows when you’ll receive the payments.

If you worked in	You’ll receive WIS payment by*
January	End-March
February	End-April
March	End-May
April	End-June
Month x	End of month (x+2)
*Payment via PayNow NRIC-linked bank account or bank crediting will be by the end of the month while payment via GovCash will be on the 3rd of the following month.

Check WIS payments

Self-employed

WIS for self-employed persons

If you’re an eligible self-employed person (SEP), you can get MediSave payments to help you save for your healthcare needs, plus cash payments to supplement your income.

Eligibility

You qualify for WIS if you’re:

a Singapore Citizen
at least 30 years old as of 31 December of the work year, or have a disability
earn an average monthly income of at least $500¹, but not more than $2,500 (previously $2,300)
have declared your net trade income and made MediSave contributions.

¹ Persons with disabilities, workers who qualify for ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance and caregivers of care recipients (generally include caregivers residing with care recipients who are medically certified to have permanent moderate to severe disabilities) will qualify for concessionary WIS, even if they earn less than $500. More details on the concessionary WIS for caregivers will be provided later.

You’re not eligible for WIS if you:

live in a property with an annual value¹ of more than $13,000 (assessed as of 31 December of the preceding year)
own two or more properties
are married and you and your spouse own two or more properties together, or your spouse’s income for the preceding year of assessment exceeds $70,000.

Check WIS eligibility

Receiving WIS payments

How WIS payments are allocated

You’ll receive 10% of your WIS in cash and 90% in your MediSave account. We’ll credit the cash portion into PayNow NRIC-linked bank account if you have one. Otherwise, it will be credited to the bank account that you have registered to receive Government benefits, or via GovCash if you had not registered a bank account with us. If you need to update your bank account details, you can do so after logging into the e-Services.

Update bank details

Actions required

You’ll need to declare your income

To receive your payment, you’ll need to declare your income to:

the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) if you’ve been issued an income tax return package, or
the CPF Board online if you’ve not been issued an income tax return package, by logging in to the CPF website with your Singpass to complete and submit the Self-Employed Person Income Declaration Form by 18 April. After 18 April, please write to us for us to process your income declaration.

Make sure you’ve made the required contributions into your MediSave account.

Quick tip

The earlier you declare your income and make the required MediSave contributions, the sooner you’ll receive your WIS.

Your WIS payments

The table below shows the maximum amount of WIS you can receive each year, based on your age group.

Age	Maximum Annual WIS
Age	2022	From 2023
30-34	Not applicable	$1,400
35-44	$1,133	$2,000
45-54	$1,667	$2,400
55-59	$2,200	$2,400
60 and above	$2,667	$2,800
Persons with disabilities will receive the same amount as those who are aged 60 and above.

You can also use the online WIS calculator to estimate how much you’ll receive.

Calculate your WIS

When you’ll receive WIS payments

As an SEP, you’ll receive WIS payments once a year for work done in the preceding year.

If you declare your income and make the required MediSave contributions by the last Friday of March, you’ll receive your WIS payment at the end of April (via your PayNow NRIC-linked bank account or bank crediting). Payment by GovCash will be on the 3rd of the following month.

Check WIS payments

Employer

What you need to know as an employer

We’ll automatically assess your employees’ eligibility for WIS based on the CPF contributions you make. For more information such as Employer obligations and making CPF contributions, you may visit the Employer section.

Find out more about your CPF obligations at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website on the Workright initiative.

Visit MOM

How WIS helps employers

WIS encourages Singaporeans to work, making it easier for you to hire and retain local workers.

WIS is fully paid for by the Government and doesn’t increase business costs for local enterprises.