Ethos Issue 3, Oct 2007

Aid for Work: The Singapore and US Models in Context
Theresa W. Devasahayam

The design of Workfare would have to take into account local requirements and constraints. Currently, Singapore’s Workfare model only admits individuals who work in the formal sector and, as a consequence, only those who contribute to the Central Provident Fund (CPF). As such, workers engaged in the informal sector may not be able to tap into the benefits of the Workfare programme. In this case, there may be a need to devise other methods of tracking an individual’s work history other than using the CPF system. That low-wage workers do not have to contribute to CPF also makes this an ineffective tracking method, although there are efforts to try to bring every low-wage worker under the CPF net.

Another area where Workfare policymakers in Singapore are likely to have to grapple with is whether women should be given more attention, since they are more likely than men to face difficulties in achieving financial self-sufficiency. The predicament in which they often find themselves is a consequence of structural, social and cultural factors. As in many parts of the world, Singaporean women generally earn less and, more often than men, find themselves in lower-paying jobs. Even if they have worked, many spend fewer years of their lives in paid employment compared with men, as they are obliged to enter and exit the labour force to provide care for their children and aged parents in keeping with social and cultural demands that posit that they are primary caretakers of their families.¹² These factors suggest that women end up with less savings than men to sustain themselves in old age. Furthermore, that married women outlive their husbands means that greater numbers would find themselves in dire straits especially if they were low-wage workers during their work life. Finally, the fact that women continue to undertake roles as primary caregivers in the family suggests that some of the assistance offered under Workfare should be extended to caregivers.¹³ Hence, the design of Workfare may also need to take into account the demographic particularities of Singapore rather than subsuming all low-wage workers in a single, undifferentiated category.

State governments across the US have been experimenting with welfare reform for years or even decades before the Welfare Reform Bill was announced. Invariably, Workfare in Singapore should take into account developments in the US in so far as it wants to discover what works and what does not when helping low-wage workers. More importantly, Workfare in Singapore should evolve and adapt to its own demographic and economic circumstances. Already, the Prime Minister has announced that WIS would be increased by up to two times for eligible older workers aged above 55. These adaptations will require a good measure of discernment on the part of Singapore’s Workfare policymakers. While it may be useful up to a point to import ideas from other countries, what is most critical in directing the future development of Workfare is to understand the profile and culture of Singaporean low-wage workers and how they respond to the current Workfare programme.

SINGAPORE’S WORKFARE
The permanent implementation of Workfare in Singapore came a year after the Workfare Bonus Scheme (WBS) was introduced in 2006 as a one-off measure to boost the incomes of low-wage workers.

The Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) announced in the 2007 Budget is a long-term programme targeted at older low-wage workers. Owing to the competition low-wage workers face from foreign workers who are willing to accept lower salaries, Singapore’s low-wage workers are encouraged not only to continue working under Workfare but also to seek relevant training to boost their prospects of securing better employment.

Theresa W. Devasahayam is an independent researcher whose research interests include globalisation and women, unskilled female labour migration in Southeast Asia, ageing and its implications for female working caregivers, and women’s fertility and reproductive health and rights. She was previously Associate Population Affairs Officer in the Emerging and Social Issues Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and acted as consultant to the Country Technical Services Teams (CST) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Bangkok, Thailand.

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