Subsidies - Means-tested
This is a common term that caregivers and persons with disabilities will come across when applying for social
supports, be they assistance schemes, subsidies, care services, etc.
A means-test is a way to determine the amount of subsidy a person will receive. Please be aware that:
- Different means-tests are used in different schemes and services
- Even if the same means-test is used, depending on the scheme or service, you could end up with different subsidy
levels – or no subsidy, if your means-tested income exceeds the stated income ceiling
Household Income (HHI) is one form of means-test. Per Capita Income (PCI) is another. PCI is computed by dividing the
gross household income by the number of members in the household.
Useful information:
Early childhood
Actions To take
- Check your eligibility for subsidies when enrolling your child in an ECDA-licensed child care centre.
Subsidies for infant and child care
All parents with Singapore Citizen children enrolled in child care
centres licensed by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) are eligible for
subsidies.
The Basic Subsidy, which is not means-tested, is for everyone. There is also the Additional Subsidy, which is
means-tested and for mothers or single fathers working 56 hours or more per month. The subsidy calculator helps you to compute your subsidy eligibility. More
information can be found in ECDA's
website.
Low-income families can apply for ComCare Child Care Subsidies for further assistance.
- The child needs to be a Singapore Citizen and placed in “affordable” child care centres
- Both parents should be working at least 56 hours per month, or have valid reasons for not working. These
include: being certified as a full-time caregiver for a dependent, being on medical leave, looking for work, or
incarcerated
Eligible families can approach their respective child care centre for information and application.
All government-funded centres that offer the Early Intervention Programme for Infants & Children (EIPIC) have subsidies in to help
families defray EIPIC fees. There is also another subsidy scheme, Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children – P (EIPIC-P),
for parents with children enrolled in selected private intervention centres (PICs). Both EIPIC and EIPIC-P subsidies are
means-tested.
Information on EIPIC fees payable after means-testing can be found below:
Singapore Citizens may also tap the government's Baby
Bonus scheme, to offset EIPIC and EIPIC-P fees.
Subsidies for kindergarten fees
ComCare Kindergarten Subsidies – also known as the Kindergarten Financial Assistance Scheme (KiFAS) – provide means-tested fee assistance to families with Singapore Citizen children attending kindergarten, nursery or pre-nursery (K2, K1, N or pre-N) programmes run by Anchor Operators or the Ministry of Education.
Care
Actions to take
A person with disabilities employing a migrant domestic worker (MDW), or a person employing an MDW to look after a
young child or elderly person, may be eligible to pay a concessionary rate of $60 a month for the FDW Levy, instead
of $300. MDWLC is not
means-tested.
There are three schemes:
- Young child or grandchild scheme (aged below 16 years old)
- Aged person scheme (at least 67 years old)
- Persons with disabilities scheme (must be certified by Singapore-registered doctor to require help with at least 1 activity of daily living (ADL), such as showering, feeding, dressing or toileting).
General criteria:
- The care recipient must be a Singapore Citizen (with exceptions under the Aged Person Scheme), or a Singapore Permanent Resident with a Singaporean immediate family member (i.e. parent, spouse or child).
- The care recipient must be the employer of the MDW OR a relative of the employer
- Where the care recipient is the employer’s relative, he must live at the same address as the employer
A “relative” refers to a spouse, child/ child-in-law, grandchild/ grandchild-in-law, sibling/
sibling-in-law, parent/ parent-in-law, grandparent/ grandparent-in-law.
The Young Child Or Grandchild Scheme and the Aged Person Scheme support care
recipients regardless of whether they have a disability.
For the Young Child Or Grandchild Scheme, the Ministry of Manpower will grant the concession automatically if the eligibility criteria are met.
For the Aged Person Scheme, the concession is granted automatically if the employer has submitted all the relevant information
in the MDW employment
application.
The Persons with Disabilities Scheme, as its name suggests, is dedicated to persons with
disabilities. Subject to the general criteria, a person with disabilities can apply for this scheme if he employs an MDW. A person can also apply
if he is employing an MDW to look after a relative with disabilities.
There is no age criterion. But the
care recipient has to be assessed for functional needs, so the Young Child or Grandchild and Aged Person Schemes may
be more relevant
options if the care recipient meets the respective age criteria.
For this scheme, the care recipient needs to be certified by a qualified assessor as being permanently unable to
perform at least one activity of daily living (ADL) i.e. eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, and
walking or moving around.
Persons with ASD or ID can also choose to be assessed using the Client Assessment Form
(CAF).
This scheme is administered by Agency for Integrated Care (AIC). More information on eligibility and application are
found below:
(The Home Caregiving Grant replaces the Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) Grant from October 2019)
The Home Caregiving Grant (HCG) is a $250 or $400 monthly cash payout to help families support their loved ones with
permanent moderate to severe disabilities.
This grant can be used to defray expenses relating to caregiving, such as the costs of eldercare and caregiver
support services in the community, or hiring of a Migrant Domestic Worker (MDW).
To be eligible for HCG, the care recipient must:
- Be a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident (with a parent, child or spouse who is a Singapore Citizen) living
in Singapore
- Have a household monthly income of $2,800 or less per person, or an annual value of property less than $21,000 or less for households without income
- Those with multiple properties will receive the lower HCG payout of $250 per month
- Not residing in a residential long-term care institution (e.g. nursing home)
- Be assessed to require support with at least 3 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) via the Functional Assessment
Report (FAR) or Client Assessment Form (CAF)
- Care recipients with intellectual disabilities or autism can choose to be assessed for their level of
needs support for ADL via CAF.
HCG is administered by Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) – Find out more about HCG and its application process.
Use this employment agencies and personnel search service from MOM to find employment agencies
for foreign workers, foreign domestic
workers or confinement nannies that match your needs.
The grant is a $200 annual subsidy for approved courses that caregivers wish to attend
to
better care for their loved ones.
However, the subsidy is tied to the care recipient, i.e. if multiple caregivers of the same care recipient wish to
attend the training, the subsidy will need to be shared among the caregivers.