Good governance: People at the Jubilee Bridge at the Marina Bay waterfront in Singapore. The government constantly reviews its schemes to look at how it can better support all Singaporeans, including seniors. — AFP
SINGAPORE: The local qualifying salary (LQS) – the minimum monthly wage firms must pay Singaporean employees in order to hire foreign workers – will see refinements in the upcoming budget, says Manpower Minister Tan See Leng.
Tan said this in Parliament on Jan 13, while responding to Members of Parliament or MPs’ questions about the Silver Support Scheme, which provides quarterly cash supplements to seniors over 65 with low lifetime wages.
“There will be further refinements to the LQS in the upcoming budget...(but) I don’t think I want to go too much into the details,” said Tan.
The LQS was last raised in 2024 from S$1,400 to S$1,600, when Finance Minister Lawrence Wong – who was also Deputy Prime Minister then – announced the increase alongside larger Workfare payouts for lower-wage workers in that year’s budget.
Prime Minister Wong is scheduled to deliver this year’s budget speech on Feb 12.
In his parliamentary question on Jan 13, Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik (Sengkang group representation constituency or GRC) had asked what the government’s rationale was for maintaining the Silver Support Scheme’s S$1,500 monthly income threshold for the higher tier of benefits, given that the LQS has been set at S$1,600.
Tan replied that the Silver Support Scheme’s threshold refers to the monthly per capita household income (PCHI), not the individual’s monthly income.
The scheme’s payouts are also tiered by flat type and PCHI to ensure that help is targeted at seniors who have little or no family support and resources in their retirement, he added.
“The LQS serves a different purpose of ensuring that firms that wish to employ foreign workers pay their local workers meaningfully and not just token salaries.
“It is not intended as a measure of retirement adequacy or financial need, and is therefore not correlated with the Silver Support Scheme’s monthly PCHI criteria.”
To be eligible for Silver Support, a Singapore citizen over 65 years of age must have made Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions not exceeding S$140,000 by age 55.
Other criteria include housing type and level of household support.
Associate professor Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) asked if the Manpower Ministry had reviewed the S$140,000 lifetime CPF contribution threshold to be eligible for Silver Support, noting that the CPF Board had adjusted the full retirement sum 10 times since the Silver Support Scheme was implemented in 2016.
Tan replied that this was not a like-for-like comparison, as the Silver Support Scheme should be seen alongside other schemes to support the elderly, such as the cohort-based Majulah Package, and broader help including the Assurance Package, and GST and Community Development Council or CDC vouchers.
The government also periodically reviews the parameters of the Silver Support Scheme, he added, noting that the CPF contribution threshold was doubled from S$70,000 to S$140,000 in 2021, while in 2025 the qualifying monthly PCHI threshold was raised from S$1,800 to S$2,300 and payouts increased by 20%.
Shawn Loh (Jalan Besar GRC) asked whether the highest tier of Silver Support can be given to seniors above 80 years old living in smaller HDB flats, as such seniors would likely have depleted their CPF savings.
In a parliamentary reply on Jan 12, the Manpower Ministry said there were 11,300 appeals for Silver Support annually from 2023 to 2025, representing 4% of all recipients on average.
The scheme is automatic, but seniors who appeal based on changed circumstances will have their eligibility reassessed, said the ministry.
Tan said on Jan 13 that the government constantly reviews its schemes to look at how it can better support all Singaporeans, including seniors.
This includes going upstream to look at the lifespan of careers, and to see where support can be provided to citizens at different points in life. — The Straits Times/ANN
