{"id":290,"date":"2020-05-18T06:55:20","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T06:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/?p=290"},"modified":"2020-05-18T06:56:51","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T06:56:51","slug":"290","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovely.sg\/290\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay United, Be Resilient and Stand in Solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat announced the Unity Budget on 18 February, with measures to cushion the impact of Covid-19. Subsequently, on 26 March, DPM Heng announced a supplementary Resilience Budget to further support families through the pandemic. An additional supplementary Solidarity Budget was announced on 6 April 2020, which will further help families tide through the economic hardships. The package took the country\u2019s total relief package to almost S$60 billion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The efforts to save jobs and protect livelihoods through wage subsidies and rebates on foreign worker levies, in addition to cash payouts for Singaporeans have been much appreciated. They demonstrate the Government\u2019s to our people to stand in solidarity to fight the pandemic and to save jobs, protect livelihoods and to keep businesses afloat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a bid to save as many jobs as possible, the Jobs Support Scheme<\/a> (JSS)<\/strong> pays 75% on the first S$4,600 of monthly salaries for each local employee for April and May 2020. The JSS payout was later extended to include shareholders and directors of companies.<\/p>\n There were also measures to help put cash into Singaporeans\u2019 hands<\/strong>. Singaporeans aged 21 and above in 2020 will get an additional cash payout of S$300. Singaporean parents with at least one Singaporean child aged 20 or below will also receive a cash payout of S$300. Further, Singaporeans aged 50 and above in 2020 will receive an additional S$100 in cash.<\/p>\n Support was also rendered to self-employed persons (SEPs) through the Self-employed persons income relief scheme (SIRS)<\/strong>. \u00a0Through this scheme, SEPs will receive three quarterly cash handouts worth S$3,000 each for the months of May, July, and October 2020.<\/p>\n The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has also stepped up to assist the Ministry of Manpower to manage applications and appeals of SEPs who will not automatically receive SIRS payouts, to push for more inclusions during this unprecedented crisis.<\/p>\n NTUC is also providing a one-off cash relief of up to $300 to eligible union members who are facing hardship due to the pandemic. The NTUC-U Care Fund<\/a> is to help low income members tide over daily necessities during this period of economic hardship. There are also other support programmes that union members could look into, be it in terms of financial assistance or training subsidies to upskill.<\/p>\nSaving Jobs, Protecting Livelihoods<\/h3>\n