Fortitude Budget: Another S$800m set aside for those affected by Covid-19, S$100 utilities rebate for households
SINGAPORE — The Government will provide a one-off sum of S$100 to each household with at least one Singaporean citizen to help them to offset their utility bills.
SINGAPORE — The Government will provide a one-off sum of S$100 to each household with at least one Singaporean citizen to help them to offset their utility bills.
This credit will be given out to households living in all types of property and will be credited in either the July or August utilities bill.
The utility rebate is part of the support measures rolled out for households under the S$33 billion Fortitude Budget announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in Parliament on Tuesday (May 26).
It comes on top of measures announced in the national budget in February and two other supplementary budgets to help households. These had included the doubling of the U-Save rebates through a one time Goods and Services Tax (GST) voucher for all eligible households living in Housing and Devlopment Board (HDB) flats, to help them with their utilities bill. The U-Save scheme provides lower- and middle-income HDB households with quarterly rebates to offset their utilities bills and are paid in January, April, July and October each year.
Extra support will be given to help households as well as the social service sector tide through this period, Mr Heng added.
HELP FOR HOUSEHOLDS
The Government is setting aside another S$800 million in the Covid-19 Support Grant, which provides financial support to those who are unemployed due to retrenchment or contract termination, as well as those on involuntary no-pay leave for at least three consecutive months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, or had their salaries cut by at least 30 per cent for three consecutive months.
Under the scheme, those who have lost their jobs can receive up to S$800 for three months while those on no-pay leave can access courses subsidised by government agency SkillsFuture Singapore. Those whose salaries have been reduced can get monthly cash grants of up to S$500 for three months. The Government has received about 46,000 applications so far.
To strengthen the digital capabilities of students, the Ministry of Education will speed up the schedule for all secondary students to own a digital learning device. The ministry had announced in March that these students will own a personal learning device by 2028, and it can be paid for using their Edusave accounts administered by the ministry. More details will be made available at a later date.
As a way to help seniors stay in contact with their family and friends and also for volunteers to reach out to them more effectively, the Infocomm Media Development Authority is launching the Seniors Go Digital movement. This will help seniors acquire digital skills and those who are unable to afford devices will get financial support to do so.
HELP FOR SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR
With social service agencies reaching out to their clients through digital means during the stay-home curbs, the Government is mobilising corporate partners to lend their expertise to support this sector in building its digital capabilities.
To help charities and social services counter the impact of falling donations, the Government will partner the Tote Board to enhance the matching for donations through the board’s Enhanced Fund-Raising Programme. This will allow charities to receive dollar-for-dollar matching on eligible donations, which are raised from projects in this financial year, up to a cap of $250,000 for each charity. The existing S$70 million set aside for this programme will be raised by S$100 million more.
The Government will provide a top-up of S$18 million to the Invictus Fund, which was set up in April by the National Council of Social Services to give more support to social service agencies. As of last Friday, S$6.2 million had been raised for the fund.