Help for Less Digitally Savvy Singaporeans to Use Community Development Council E-vouchers

Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) how is help being given to Singaporeans who are less digitally savvy to utilise the $100 Community Development Council (CDC) e-vouchers; (b) what are the number and percentage of merchants who have participated in the previous round of accepting CDC paper vouchers; and (c) how is the Ministry helping to “onboard” more heartland merchants and coffee shop stallholders to take advantage of the CDC e-vouchers, especially when SG Digital Ambassadors usually pay less attention to assist merchants not operating in NEA wet markets and hawker centres.

The five Community Development Councils (CDCs) launched Tranche 1 of the CDC Vouchers Scheme in June 2020 to help defray the cost of living for lower-income families and at the same time, to support hawkers and heartland merchants who were affected by the pandemic.

Tranche 1 was well-received by residents and participating hawkers/heartland merchants. The five CDCs then rolled out a second tranche of CDC Vouchers Scheme in January 2021. About 8,000 heartland merchants and hawkers participated in the scheme which saw residents using the vouchers islandwide across the two tranches.

The new CDC Vouchers Scheme, which was announced at Budget 2021, provides for $130 million CDC vouchers to be distributed to all Singaporean households.

The new CDC Vouchers Scheme is designed to be as easy to use as possible. It will be provided via an end-to-end digital solution designed to provide users with a convenient and seamless way to receive, accept and redeem the CDC vouchers. The improved concept and system were developed in response to feedback and suggestions from users, as well as hawkers and merchants who had participated in the earlier tranches of the scheme. This included having faster pay-outs and to avoid having to collect, count and submit paper vouchers. In addition, this move towards e-vouchers is also aligned with the Government’s Smart Nation initiative and drive to reduce our carbon footprint, with less printing and use of paper materials.

The CDCs, together with the help of Govtech, have gone through several rounds of trials to test the system with different hawkers and merchants, as well as residents of all ages and walks of life, taking on board their views as appropriate.

Following this, in October 2021, the CDCs started the onboarding of hawkers and merchants on the new CDC Vouchers Scheme. In this effort, we are working closely with associations like Federation of Merchants’ Association, Singapore (FMAS), Heartland Enterprise Centre Singapore (HECS), as well as various merchant and hawker associations. We are also working with other key partners such as Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and the SME Centres, Infocomm Media Development Authority / SG Digital Office (IMDA/SDO), Government Technology Agency / Open Government Product (Govtech/OGP) and MOF, in order to reach out to a broad cross section of users and merchants alike. This approach will help the smooth implementation of the scheme.

To support hawkers and merchants to get onto this scheme, experienced ambassadors from the CDCs and SDO have been trained and are being deployed ahead of the launch to the HDB estates and heartlands to reach out to hawkers and merchants about the CDC e-vouchers and their participation. The ambassadors will visit hawkers and heartland merchants to introduce the CDC e-vouchers and guide the hawkers and merchants on how to download and use the RedeemSG Merchant app. Business Advisers from ESG and representatives from the merchant and hawker associations will also be assisting in this outreach to hawkers and heartland merchants.

To ensure that the needs of the less digitally-savvy are also met, resources and manpower have been prepared to assist special segments of the population like the seniors, the vulnerable and those without smart devices, in accessing and redeeming their e-vouchers.

Those who are less digitally-savvy may also approach the Community Club/Centre (CC) for guidance and assistance on the CDC e-vouchers. There will be staff and volunteers at hand to personally guide them on how to download and use their digital vouchers. They will also have the option of requesting for a printed voucher in appropriate cases. Dedicated mobile counters to assist seniors will be set up at selected Residents’ Committee (RC) / Residents’ Network (RN) centres located in areas with a higher concentration of elderly population. Furthermore, the SDO’s Digital Ambassadors in SG Digital Community hubs found in selected CCs and libraries islandwide will also provide such assistance. More help will also be available on the ground through Silver Generation Office Ambassadors who will assist with any queries or request for assistance during their house visits to seniors.

To help Singaporeans including seniors, familiarise themselves with the process and steps to receiving and redeeming the vouchers, a step-by-step video guide and infographics produced in English and the vernacular languages will be distributed widely and be available on the CDC website as well as social media channels. We will announce more details closer to the launch date in a few months’ time.