Statistics and Outcome of Applications for COVID-19 Support Grant

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) to date, what has been the total number of applications for the COVID-19 Support Grant; (b) what is the number of successful applications; (c) what is the breakdown of rejected applications based on eligibility criteria; and (d) of the rejected cases, what is the number of cases that are successful upon appeal or re-application.

The COVID-19 Support Grant (CSG) supports lower- to middle-income resident employees who, as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19, are presently i) Involuntarily unemployed due to retrenchment or contract termination; ii) Placed on involuntary no-pay leave for at least three consecutive months; or iii) Experiencing reduced monthly salary of at least 30% for at least three consecutive months.

As at 16 August 2020, around 115,000 individuals had applied for the CSG. Of these, MSF approved the CSG for around 65,000 recipients. About 41,000 applicants were unsuccessful, and around 9,000 applications were still being processed.

The unsuccessful CSG applications were mainly due to applicants not meeting the eligibility criteria for salary loss, job loss, or no-pay leave, or were not employees. This accounted for almost three quarters of unsuccessful applications. Other reasons included employment details not being verifiable, and the Annual Property Value and household income criteria not being met.

As at 16 August 2020, MSF had received around 8,000 appeals for the CSG. Around 7,500 of these appeals were approved. When considering these appeals, MSF would have taken into account any special circumstances that would warrant special consideration for individual cases.