Help and Assistance

Work Support (WS) Scheme

If your household needs assistance to tide over a difficult period, and you and your household members are prepared to do your best to help yourselves, you may be eligible to participate in the Work Support scheme.

Benefits

Depending on your household's situation, one or more of the following types of assistance may be provided:

• Rental, utilities, and/or service and conservancy charges vouchers
• Monthly cash grant to meet basic needs
• Training grant for approved courses
• Educational assistance
• Medical assistance

(Note: the amount of assistance will be assessed by the Community Development Council (CDC) on a case-to-case basis)

Responsibilities

Your Work Support Consultant, a CDC officer, will work out an action plan for you and your household to follow in order to become self-reliant. This means that in time, you will no longer need Work Support assistance.

The plan may include the following activities:

• Finding and keeping a job
• Increasing work hours
• Upgrading your skills
• Reducing unnecessary expenses

You will need to sign a Letter of Undertaking to show that you are committed to co-operating with the Work Support Consultant and following the action plan. Your Work Support Consultant will keep in touch with you to help make sure that you are on track with the action plan. You must attend all the appointments that your Work Support Consultant makes with you.

Please note that your Work Support assistance may end if you and/or your household do not co-operate with your Work Support Consultant or follow the action plan.

Period of Assistance

The maximum period of assistance will be up to 24 monthss, depending on your household situation. You will be informed of your maximum assistance period when and if you are approved for Work Support.

Who can apply

The applicant must be a Singapore citizen or permanent resident (PR). In addition, if the applicant is a PR, then at least one of the immediate family members must be a Singapore citizen.

The applicant's household must:

• Have a household income which is below $1500 per month
• Satisfy a needs test
• Have little or no savings
• Have inadequate family and community support
• Demonstrate the willingness to take steps to become self-reliant

How to apply

Apply for Work Support at the Community Development Council (CDC) in your district. The CDC will assess if you qualify for the programme.

CDC Offices
Central Singapore CDC HDB Hub Bizthree, 490, Lorong 6 Toa Payoh, #04-10, Singapore 310490 Tel: 6370 9901 Fax: 63709928	North East CDC 3 Tampines Grande, #01-02, AIA Tampines, Singapore 528799 Tel: 6424 4000 Fax: 64244077
North West CDC 900 South Woodlands Drive, #01-04, Woodlands Civic Centre, Singapore 730900 Tel: 6767 2288 Fax: 62191176	South East CDC 10 Eunos Road 8, #02-01, Singapore Post Centre, Singapore 408600 Tel: 6243 8753 Fax: 62433130
South West CDC The JTC Summit, 8 Jurong Town Hall Road #03-11 Singapore 609434 Tel: 63161616 Fax: 6316 7251