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SINGAPORE: Approximately 1,000 self-employed workers have had their Income Relief Plan for Self Employed (SIRS) reimbursed due to misstatements of income and property information.
These people represent 0.5 percent of all SIRS recipients, Human Resources Minister Josephine Teo said in Parliament on Tuesday (January 5).
SIRS is a financial assistance grant of up to S $ 9,000 to help self-employed workers overcome the pandemic, and is subject to an audit by the Ministry of Labor and an external auditor appointed by the National Congress of Trade Unions.
SIRS has been made available to freelancers who earn a net business income of up to S $ 100,000 per year and live in property with an annual value that does not exceed S $ 21,000. Nor should they own two or more properties.
READ: Approximately S $ 1.8 billion paid to 200,000 self-employed under the COVID-19 relief scheme
Member of Parliament Jamus Lim asked why these errors occurred if the criteria for SIRS were so “strict”.
Ms Teo said that the government had many grants to disburse within a limited time frame, so that on “many occasions” the authorities took statements from people “in good faith”.
“However, as administrators of public funds, we have a duty to audit,” he said. Most of the apps were legitimate and only a few were wrong.
“They may have been wrong in their own understanding of their circumstances. Sometimes that person may not have known what they were gaining.”
LEE: 4 arrested for alleged fraudulent applications for freelancers under the COVID-19 aid scheme
Ms Teo also said that the Government was aware of scams that invited people who were not eligible to apply for SIRS, and these cases have been referred to the police.
Opposition leader Pritam Singh asked how many such cases there were.
Ms. Teo said she did not have the figures at hand and added that Mr. Singh could pose a separate parliamentary question for the data, but cannot comment too much as these cases are under investigation.
