Seniors Aged Above 65 with No Qualified Family Member to Sponsor Work Permit Application for Migrant Domestic Worker

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Manpower in each of the last five years for Work Permit applications under the Sponsorship Scheme for a migrant domestic worker (a) how many seniors aged above 65 have tried applying for a Work Permit but have no qualified family members to sponsor their application; (b) how many are rejected; and (c) how many have had to move to a nursing home due to the rejection.

For the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, less than 1% of the migrant domestic worker (MDW) applications under the Sponsorship Scheme, or fewer than 150 applications annually, were rejected due to a lack of eligible sponsors.

The Ministry of Manpower does not collect data on the number of seniors who move to nursing homes because they were unable to hire an MDW.