Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) Applications Now Available

On 6 April 2020, our Finance Minister, Mr Heng Swee Kiat announced the Solidarity Budget to parliament, three days after PM Lee first introduced the Circuit Breaker measures. It’s almost a month, we’ve been home for about four weeks now, PM Lee’s initial announcement feels like a lifetime ago.

In the Solidarity Budget, Minister Heng provided additional support to self-employed persons, and now automatically included people who also earn some income from employment work. The Self-Employed Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) objective is to help Singaporean self-employed persons (SEPs) tide over these uncertain economic times. SEPs eligible for SIRS will receiver three quarterly cash payouts of $3,000 each in May, July and October 2020.

SEPs who are aged 37 (as at 31 December 2020) and above will automatically be qualified for SERs if they have declared positive Net Trade Income to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRA) / CPF Board for Work Year 2018. If you are unsure if you qualify for SIRS, you can check your eligibility with NTUC’s reliability checker here.

Ensure that you have filed your tax return for income earned from 1 January to 31 December 2019 here, have a valid SingPass login, and have authorised MyInfo to display your income and CPF information.

If you are eligible for SIRS, you will be notified via letter and SMS and receive your first payout in May. This application process are for those who are aged between 21 and 36 years old or have missed the eligibility requirements by a hair and are in dire need of additional financial assistance.