More than $50 million to be paid out under Enhanced Work-Life Grant (COVID-19)
To help companies implement work-from-home and staggered hours arrangements during COVID-19, the Government rolled out the Enhanced Work-Life Grant (WLG) (COVID-19) on 20 April 2020. There was strong interest from companies with more than 2,700 applications in the last month, amounting to more than $50 million to be disbursed. This is twice the number of companies that have benefitted from the existing WLG since July 2018.
Last day of applications on 1 June 2020
2 The Enhanced WLG (COVID-19) supports companies to sustain implementation of work-from-home and staggered hours beyond mandatory social distancing regulations after the Circuit Breaker period ends on 1 Jun 2020. Companies can get $2,000 per worker on daily work-from-home arrangements for at least one month, up to $70,000. If work-from-home is not possible, companies are required to implement staggered hours at the work place.
3 Companies that have received support from the Enhanced WLG (COVID-19) will be in better stead with ready systems in place to sustain these arrangements throughout and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The Enhanced WLG (COVID-19) will remain open for applications until 1 June 2020, in line with the end of the circuit breaker period.
Further support available to companies
4 After 1 June 2020, companies that require further support to implement work-from-home arrangements are encouraged to apply for Enterprise Singapore’s Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG). As announced during the Resilience Budget 2020, PSG has been enhanced to encourage enterprises to continue with their digitalisation and productivity upgrading efforts. 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 and telephony 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% until the end of this year. More details can be found at IMDA’s webpage.
5 The existing Work-Life Grant remains open to support companies to better attract and retain talent by offering other forms of flexible work arrangements (e.g. part time, job sharing) to help employees achieve work-life harmony.