Household services scheme pilot includes basic child, elderly care

Twenty-five companies can employ migrant workers to perform household services.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) launched the two-year pilot for the expanded Household Services Scheme (HSS) that includes basic child and elder-minding services.

MOM selected 25 companies to participate in the pilot, based on their track records and experience in home cleaning and care services. 

These companies can employ additional migrant workers to perform part-time household services, including assisting children above 18 months old or elderly family members with simple personal care tasks.

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MOM also said that the companies under the extended HSS must place safety measures before they can deploy workers and fully disclose their relevant experience and qualifications to households, as well as conduct an assessment of a household’s care needs.

HSS pilot companies that will provide elder-minding services must ensure that their workers have met the requirements set by the Ministry of Health by attending training courses or undergoing competency assessments. 

Households using the services can ask the companies for the experience, qualifications, and training of the worker deployed and assess their sustainability for the care needs.

“With the expanded scope, selected HSS companies will have additional manpower to offer part-time basic caregiving services, giving households more choices for respite care. We hope this will help Singaporeans better balance work and family commitments,” said Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Manpower.