Senior Employment Credit (SEC), CPF Transition Offset (CTO) and Enabling Employment Credit (EEC)

Senior Employment Credit (SEC)

Under the SEC, the Government provides wage offsets to help employers that employ Singapore workers aged 55 and above adjust to the higher Retirement Age and Re-employment Age.

The wage offset applies to Singaporean workers aged 55 and above and earning up to $4,000 per month. More support will be given for the higher age bands. 

The SEC will take effect from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022. For wages paid during this period, employers will receive up to 8% of the wages paid to Singaporean workers aged 55 and above, depending on the workers’ age and wage.

CPF Transition Offset (CTO)

To alleviate the rise in business costs due to the increase in CPF contribution rates for senior workers, the Government will provide employers with a transitionary wage offset equivalent to 50% of the increase in employer CPF contribution rates in the year of the increase, for every Singaporean and Permanent Resident worker they employ aged above 55 to 70.

The offset to employers will be based on employees’ monthly incomes¹ paid up to the CPF salary ceiling of $6,000 per month.

¹Gross monthly wages include employee CPF contributions, but exclude employer CPF contributions.

Enabling Employment Credit (EEC)

To support the employment of persons with disabilities, the EEC will be given to employers that hire Singaporean employees with disabilities aged 13 and above and earning below $4,000 per month.

The EEC provides a wage offset of up to 20% of the employees’ monthly income, capped at a maximum of $400 per month for each employee.

In addition, employers hiring Singaporean employees with disabilities who have not been working for at least six months will receive an additional 10% wage offset, capped at $200 per month for each employee, for the first 6 months of employment.

The EEC will be available for five years from 2021 to 2025. To ensure that the EEC remains helpful for PwDs to find and remain in employment, the Ministry of Manpower will review the EEC after two years and make adjustments if necessary.

 ²Business owners are defined as follows:

a. Sole proprietor of a sole proprietorship
b. Partners of a partnership (including general partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and limited partnerships); and
c. Both a shareholder and director of a company. the definition of director is as set out in the Section 4(1) of the Companies Act. For companies limited by guarantee, this applies to employees who are both members and directors of the company.

³Employers trading in their own personal capacity include, but are not limited to, hawkers who do not have UEN, and employers hiring local personal drivers or local domestic helpers.

Local government agencies, International Organisations and businesses not registered in Singapore do not qualify for the schemes.

Employers do not need to apply for the payouts. IRAS will notify eligible employers regarding the amount payable to them electronically based on their notification preferences for Income Tax/GST, as updated with IRAS. To receive timely notifications when your notices are ready for viewing, please update your notification preferences in myTax Portal at IRAS website.

For wages paid from January to June, employers will receive the payout in September the same year. For wages paid from July to December, employers will receive the payout in March the following year.

In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts, all payouts will be disbursed through GIRO or PayNow Corporate. No cheques will be issued for the payouts.

Payouts will automatically be credited to employers' GIRO bank account for Income Tax/GST. For those without GIRO accounts, the payout will be credited to their bank account that is registered with PayNow Corporate. Employers who are not already on these direct crediting modes have to sign up for these modes – GIRO or PayNow Corporate⁴ to receive their payouts.

⁴Organisations can sign up for PayNow Corporate by linking their organisation’s UEN (without suffix) [e.g. ROC (2019XXXXXA), ROB (531XXXXXA), UEN (T19LLXXXXA)] to their bank account via internet banking. The nine banks participating in PayNow Corporate are United Overseas Bank, DBS Bank/POSB, OCBC Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Maybank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited. For assistance, please approach these banks.

Senior Employment Credit (SEC)

For wages paid from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, employers will get up to 8% of the wages paid to senior Singaporean workers aged 55 and above, and earning up to $4,000 per month. The wage offset is dependent on the workers’ age and wage. More support will be given for the higher age bands and for those earning below $3,000 per month.

Monthly SEC payouts per employee for 2021:

Monthly SEC payouts per employee for 2022:

CPF Transition Credit (CTO)

The Government will provide employers with a transitory wage offset equivalent to half of the increase in employer CPF contribution rates for senior workers in the year of increase. More details on CTO computation will be made available later.

Enabling Employment Credit (EEC)

The EEC will be paid to employers of Singaporean persons with disabilities (PwDs) aged 13 and above, and earning below $4,000 per month. In addition, employers who hire persons with disabilities who have not been in employment for the past six months will receive an additional wage offset for the first six months of employment.

 Note: Employees eligible for EEC will not be eligible for the SEC (i.e. not stackable).

Employers can use the following calculators to calculate their respective payout amount(s) and check their eligibility.

SEC Calculator (XLSX, 110KB)

EEC Calculator (XLSX, 73KB)

Employers may log in to myTaxPortal using CorpPass (for a non-individual employer) or SingPass (as an individual employer) to view the breakdown of the total payout by employee. More details will be provided nearer the payout date in August 2021.

You may appeal using the appeal form (available from September 2021). Appeals will only be accepted if we receive your applications within three months of your payouts (i.e. for the payouts in March, by 30 June, and for the payouts in September, by 31 December.)

The Government takes a serious view on any attempt to abuse the scheme. Offenders may have their payouts denied and can be charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code, where they may face up to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine.

Businesses or individuals who wish to report to IRAS any malpractices or potential abuses of the schemes may do so via email to askpayout@iras.gov.sg. IRAS will ensure that the identities of informants are kept strictly confidential.