In the Resilience Budget, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a suite of assistance measures for self-employed persons (SEPs).
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to take at least a year to be resolved, and the economic repercussions would last even longer.
DPM Heng Swee Keat
One of the most relevant measures to assist SEPs is the Self-Employed Persons Training Support Scheme, which allows SEPs to make use of this downturn to train and upskill in preparation for the recovery. The scheme will give all freelancers a training allowance of $7.50 an hour to attend courses under the SkillsFuture Series until end-April 2020, and $10 an hour from 1 May 2020 onwards.
Manpower Minister Josephine Teo announced during the Committee of Supply that there is no cap to how much training that SEPs can sign up for, and that NTUC will administer this scheme.
How to Apply
Fill up the form by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) here.
Note that you must be an SEP at the point of application, with your main source of income being self-employment with positive Net Trade Income.
Please prepare the following documents:
- A copy of your NRIC (front and back). You must be a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident
- Consolidated statement of income for Year of Assessment 2020 (i.e. for income earned in calendar year 2019) submitted to IRAS in the capacity of a Self-Employed Person.
- Copy of the 1st page of your bank book or bank statement
You will also need to comply with the following additional terms and conditions, which include:
- Signing up for a course under the SkillsFuture Series
- Attending at least 75% of the course, as well as completing and passing all necessary assessments related to the course if relevant.
Once your application is approved, you will receive a copy of the Letter of Eligibility for Training Support from NTUC’s e2i.
Given that the tax filing deadline for Work Year 2019 has been extended to 31 May 2020, tutors may wish to take some time to:
- Register as an SEP with CPF (see how)
- Tidy up records and accounts, so that your income earned and business expenses claimed in 2019 can be readily determined. These include invoices, receipts and other supporting documents (link).
- Prepare a simple Statement of Accounts (template within)
- Prepare a 4-line (or 2-line if revenue for the year is <$100,000) statement to report your business income. More details here.
- e-file your income tax (see how). Remember: All self-employed persons must report the income earned from their business operations as business income, and not as salary.
What Courses Are Under the SkillsFuture Series?
In a time of depressed demand, it is important for us to each prepare ourselves for the recovery. For tutors and educators, this often means upgrading our knowledge, and upskilling ourselves to grow our businesses better. We’ve compiled a list of course under the SkillsFuture Series that we think will be useful, but there are many more within the SkillsFuture website for you to choose from!
Useful Courses
Digital Marketing
- Persuasive Copywriting in Your Digital Strategy
- Creating and Curating Display Content in Your Digital Strategy
- Creating and Curating Video Content in Your Digital Strategy
Entrepreneurship
- Personal Branding – Learning from the Best (Lessons from Global Luxury Brands)
- Blended Marketing Strategy in the Digital Age: How to have it All
Given that course fees are subsidised up to 90%, and coupled with your SkillsFuture Credit of up to $1,000, you may not even have out of pocket expenses for these courses!
Learnable is here for all our tutors. We are always but an email (help@learnable.asia) or a WhatsApp text (+65 6974 2819) away, and we will do our best to assist and support our tutors through this storm.
