More than S$50m to be paid out under enhanced Work-Life Grant (Covid-19)

MORE than S$50 million will be disbursed to help companies implement flexible work arrangements amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a press statement on Thursday. 

Rolled out on April 20 this year, the enhanced Work-Life Grant (Covid-19) garnered strong interest from companies with more than 2,700 applications received in the last month. This is twice the number of companies that have benefited from the existing Work-Life Grant since July 2018, MOM said. 

The enhanced Work-Life Grant (Covid-19) will remain open for applications until June 1, in line with the end of the "circuit-breaker" period.

"Since May 2020, the overall Work-Life Grant budget has been raised to S$150 million, up from S$100 million. The scheme provides financial assistance to help companies implement and sustain work-from-home arrangements or staggered hours to keep workers safe," said Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Manpower Low Yen Ling, in a Facebook post on Thursday. 

Companies can get S$2,000 per worker on daily work-from-home arrangements for at least one month, up to S$70,000. If work-from-home is not possible, companies are required to implement staggered hours at the workplace, MOM said. 

Beyond June 1, companies that require further support may apply for Enterprise Singapore's Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG). 

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As announced during the Resilience Budget 2020, PSG has been enhanced to encourage enterprises to continue with their digitalisation and productivity upgrading efforts, MOM said. 

The scope of solutions that the PSG would support has been expanded to help enterprises implement Covid-19 business continuity measures, such as online collaboration tools and virtual meeting tools.

This includes pre-approved remote working solutions that come bundled with laptops. Companies can also enjoy the higher maximum funding support level of 80 per cent until the end of this year, MOM said.