The Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme is the government's way of paying lower-wage Singaporeans to keep working and to keep building CPF. If you are a citizen aged 30 or older earning between $500 and $3,000 a month, you can collect up to $4,900 a year, part in cash and part in your CPF. You do not apply for it. As long as CPF contributions are made on your work, the system assesses you and pays out automatically. The catch is in the details: an income ceiling that rose to $3,000 in 2025, a property value test, a spouse income test, and a payout split that sends most of the money into CPF rather than your bank account. This guide lays out every 2026 figure and shows exactly what lands in cash.
Workfare is built on a simple idea: instead of a minimum wage that forces employers to pay more, the state tops up the take-home of lower earners while still rewarding work. The payout rises with age, so an older worker on the same salary as a younger colleague collects more. It also splits the money so a chunk goes into CPF, nudging people who might otherwise save nothing toward a retirement nest egg.
Two streams sit inside Workfare. WIS is the income top-up covered here. The separate Workfare Skills Support scheme pays you to train and upskill. They are funded and assessed differently, so qualifying for one does not automatically qualify you for the other.
Because WIS routes part of every payout into your CPF accounts, it interacts with the rest of the CPF system you are already in. If you are unclear on how the accounts work, the CPF glossary entry is the fastest primer before reading the payout split below.
You have to clear every one of these, not just most of them. The numbers below reflect the rules in force for work done in 2025 and 2026 (as of June 2026).
The $500 floor exists so Workfare does not subsidise barely-there earnings. But it is waived for specific groups: persons with disabilities, recipients of ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance, and people caring for a young child or a family member with disabilities. If you fall into one of these and earn below $500, you can still be assessed.
Annual Value is IRAS's estimate of the yearly rent your home could fetch, not its market price. Most HDB flats sit well under the $21,000 ceiling, but private property owners often exceed it. If you are unsure where your home stands, see how the figure is set in the annual value explainer before assuming you fail this test.
The maximum annual payout climbs in four age bands. These are the ceilings for a full year of qualifying work; if you work fewer months or earn at the low end of the band, you get a proportion of the figure shown. Self-employed persons and platform workers receive two-thirds of the employee amount.
| Age (as at 31 Dec) | Employee max/year | Self-employed / platform max/year |
|---|---|---|
| 30 to 34 | $2,450 | $1,633 |
| 35 to 44 | $3,500 | $2,333 |
| 45 to 59 | $4,200 | $2,800 |
| 60 and above | $4,900 | $3,267 |
| Persons with disabilities (any age) | $4,900 | $3,267 |
Two things to read carefully. First, the table shows the maximum, not a flat grant: someone at the top of the income range or working part of the year lands below it. Second, the figure is the total package, not the cash you spend. The next section breaks that apart.
This is where the headline number and the take-home number part ways, and where most guides stop short. For employees, 40% of the payout comes as cash and 60% goes into your CPF accounts. So a 60-year-old at the full $4,900 receives about $1,960 in cash across the year, with roughly $2,940 credited to CPF.
For self-employed persons and platform workers the cash share is smaller: 10% cash and 90% into your MediSave account. A self-employed 45-year-old at the full $2,800 sees only around $280 in cash, with the rest shoring up MediSave to cover future medical bills and MediShield Life premiums.
The CPF portion is not lost money, it is forced retirement and healthcare saving. If you want to see what that compounding is worth over a working life, run the numbers in the CPF LIFE payout calculator, since WIS top-ups feed the same Retirement Account that eventually pays your monthly pension.
| Worker type | Cash share | CPF / MediSave share | Payout frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employee | 40% | 60% to CPF | Monthly |
| Platform worker | 10% | 90% to MediSave | Monthly (from Mar 2025) |
| Self-employed person | 10% | 90% to MediSave | Annually |
Employees are paid monthly, with a lag of about two months. Work done in January is assessed once your employer's CPF contribution for that month is in, and the WIS is usually paid by the end of March. There is nothing to claim; if your CPF record shows the contribution, the payout follows.
Platform workers (delivery riders, private-hire drivers and similar) moved onto monthly payouts from March 2025, in step with the rollout of CPF contributions on platform earnings. Self-employed persons outside platform work are paid once a year, after two conditions are met: you have declared your Net Trade Income to IRAS, and you have made the required MediSave contribution on that income.
Payout reaches you by PayNow linked to your NRIC, by direct credit to a bank account registered with CPF, or by GovCash if neither is set up. Linking PayNow-NRIC is the fastest route and avoids cheque delays.
If you are self-employed, no MediSave contribution means no WIS, full stop. The two are tied together by design. Declare your income through myTax Portal even if IRAS did not send you a filing notice, then top up MediSave for the year. Only after both are done does the annual assessment release your payout.
You do not need to apply, but you can check what you are due. Log in to the CPF website with Singpass and look up your WIS statement, or use the official WIS calculators, which now run a separate tool for employees and for self-employed persons for the relevant work year.
Workfare is one piece of a broader support net. Lower-income households often also draw GST Vouchers, service and conservancy rebates, and CPF top-up bonuses. If you are mapping out the CPF side of your finances more broadly, the CPF contribution rates guide shows how your monthly contributions, and the WIS top-up on them, build across your accounts.
No. Employees and platform workers are assessed automatically once CPF contributions on their work are submitted. Self-employed persons must declare their Net Trade Income to IRAS and make the required MediSave contribution, after which they are assessed for the annual payout without a formal application.
Gross monthly income from work must be between $500 and $3,000. The upper limit was raised from $2,500 to $3,000 for work done from 2025 onwards, so more workers now qualify than under the older threshold.
For employees, 40% is paid in cash and 60% goes into your CPF accounts. For self-employed persons and platform workers, only 10% is cash and 90% is credited to your MediSave account, so the spendable portion is much smaller than the headline figure.
No. The Workfare Income Supplement scheme is restricted to Singapore Citizens. Permanent residents and foreign workers are not eligible regardless of age, income, or property value, even if they meet every other criterion.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.