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SINGAPORE: More than 4,000 unemployed Singaporeans were placed on the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme in 2025, out of 10,000 applications received.<\/p>\n
Over 80 per cent of those on the scheme received at least one payout by the end of 2025, said Mr Nicholas Kong, acting director in Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) planning and design division.<\/p>\n
The agency was responding to CNA’s queries about the first-of-its-kind unemployment benefits scheme, which reached one year of implementation in April.<\/p>\n
The scheme started for Singaporeans in April 2025, and opened to permanent residents from the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n
Successful applicants said the payouts allowed them to focus on their job hunts and training for new industries, gave them the financial buffer to wait for more suitable offers, and helped them to persevere through silence from recruiters.<\/p>\n
Mr Rahmat Mohamad, 53, was laid off from his job in media production at the end of 2024. Before that, he had worked in the logistics industry for over 15 years.<\/p>\n
“The financial burden of not having a job is very hard for me,” said the father of three school-going children. One of his children has autism, and his wife, a kidney transplant patient, cannot work.<\/p>\n
After losing his job, he joined a SkillsFuture-sponsored desktop support engineering course. He was able to receive the jobseeker payouts and a monthly training allowance, as well as ComCare assistance.<\/p>\n
The financial assistance has helped to “eliminate the worry of financing out of the equation, so that I actually just concentrate on finding jobs”, he said.<\/p>\n
“It really pushed me. I have to persevere, even though a lot of the HR from the companies (were) ghosting, (staying) dead silent.”<\/p>\n
But contract workers and the long-term unemployed raised questions about support for these groups, given that they are not target recipients of the Jobseeker Support scheme.<\/p>\n
The Manpower Ministry (MOM) has said it expects around 60,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents to be eligible for the scheme every year, accounting for more than 60 per cent of those involuntarily unemployed.<\/p>\n
Involuntarily unemployed people who qualify for the scheme receive up to S$6,000 (US$4,600) over six months if they earn enough points by completing job search activities, such as attending a career fair and meeting a career coach.<\/p>\n
WSG’s Mr Kong said the most common reason for rejection was when applicants were assessed as not being involuntarily unemployed, such as those who resigned voluntarily.<\/p>\n
The other requirements are an average monthly income below S$5,000 when the applicant was employed, working for at least six months out of the past year, and living in a property with an annual value that does not exceed S$31,000.<\/p>\n
A jobseeker who receives payouts from the scheme can only apply again after three years.<\/p>\n
During recent Budget debates, the labour movement urged the government to raise the scheme’s salary cap to S$7,600, in line with the monthly median income of professionals, managers, executives and technicians.<\/p>\n
MOM said in response that it would conduct a review \u2013 including key parameters such as the qualifying income \u2013 when it has accrued more experience running the scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n