Over $360 million paid out under first tranche of Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme payouts

Over 100,000 Self-Employed Persons (SEPs) who are automatically eligible for the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) received their first payout of $3,000 on 27 May from the Government. Another 17,000 successful applicants will be notified by NTUC from 27 May, and receive payment from 29 May. Notifications to subsequent batches of successful applicants will follow. Totalling over $360 million, this is the first of three quarterly cash payments disbursed to support SEPs affected by COVID-19.

  On top of a SMS notifying them of their eligibility on 22 May for those with a SingPass registered mobile number, automatically eligible SEPs will also receive a hard copy letter this week. Those with Government-registered bank accounts would have received the first payment by direct credit banking on 27 May. All other automatically eligible SEPs will receive the cheques by mail to their Government-registered residential addresses by 15 June. The next two payments will be made in July and October 2020.

SEPs who do not receive any notification by this week are not automatically eligible. We encourage them to submit their application to NTUC at www.ntuc.com.sg/SIRS. NTUC will assess each case carefully. Successful applicants will receive three payouts, regardless of when they submitted their application. Applicants can generally expect to hear from NTUC within a month of submitting their applications.

  SIRS is a brand new scheme. To help needy SEPs get help more quickly, the Government had to rely on readily available information to identify an initial group of recipients for auto-inclusion. For example, SEPs aged 37 and above would have been assessed for Workfare in the past; we thus have reliable information to consider them for auto-inclusion. This has enabled us to provide timely support to over 100,000 SEPs. In turn, such an approach has allowed our partner the NTUC to focus on helping other deserving SEPs. NTUC has made good progress and will continue to work with the Government to support SEPs. 

  For more information, SEPs may visit www.ntuc.com.sg/sirs/.