Introduction: Caregiving is a continuous cycle
Mr. Speaker, most working families in Singapore today are doing two jobs. One that pays. And one that cares. And that is the hidden reality of modern Singapore. A young couple begins with infant care. Then childcare. Then a parent develops dementia. Then a spouse needs help after surgery. Then a child has special needs.
Caregiving is not a single chapter in life. It is a cycle. And holding that cycle together is more than 308,000 Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) in Singapore today — up from about 247,000 just five years ago. They are not an add-on to our economy. They are the invisible workforce behind our workforce. When they function well, families work. When they fail, families can fall. That is why MDWs are not just a labour issue. They are a critical backbone of Singapore’s care economy.
Importance of strong employer-MDW relationships
Mr. Speaker, Singapore’s care burden is growing — and it is growing fast. In 2024, Singapore had 1.46 million households, and 27% had at least one resident aged 65 or above. Behind these statistics are real people. In my Punggol constituency, I met a mother in her early forties. She had two young children, and she came to see me as there was an issue with processing her MDW’s entry into Singapore. She shared that her father had just been diagnosed with early dementia. Her husband worked shifts. And she told me quietly, “Without my helper, I will have to resign. There is no other way. Please help me.”
Expand training for MDWs
This is the reality for thousands of Singaporeans. If we want women to stay in the workforce, if we want families to remain financially stable, and if we want our seniors to age with dignity, then we must get home-based caregiving right.
Mr. Speaker, Care works only when relationships work. Care does not fail because families do not care. It fails because relationships break down. When employers and MDWs understand each other, seniors are safer, children are calmer, families are stable, and workers are treated with dignity. But when communication fails, when expectations are unclear, when skills are missing, that’s when things unravel, and plans fall apart.
Professionalise employment agencies
Indeed, I believe that our Singapore employers intrinsically care about their helpers, or aunties, as we affectionately call our MDWs. A few seasons ago, the NTUC started on a series of Meet-the-Members Sessions, our labour version of the regular Meet-the-People Sessions that MPs conduct. Members could speak with us about grievances in the workplace, unfairness, and harassment issues. I had prepared myself on fronting these thorny issues, but I was surprised, in the weeks that I was the attending LMP. The majority of our members who came to see me were MDW employers, sharing with me the issues they had with their helpers. Perhaps it was because I am the only female LMP, but the sharing was passionate, but the issues were common across all who came.
I was impressed and heart-warmed and indeed inspired, by how the sharing was not focused on complaints of MDW behaviours and strained relations, but on how, the Labour Movement, could give practical tips and know-how on managing, and improving MDW-Employer relations. It’s been a while, but I still recall how, Mdm E (not real names) a lady in her 50s, told me that after years of hiring helpers in their late 40s, married with children, she now was the employer of a helper in her early twenties, single and carefree. And she had cheerfully quipped that she realised in the same way that her children are called strawberries, there’s also now a generation of “strawberry helpers” and in her careful observations, there are many differences in working well with the different generations of helpers. And the differences showed in many everyday practices, for example the use of handphones, personal spaces, sleeping hours, and indeed, the use of social media. Mdm E wanted to hear from our session, best practices, tips and cultural norms, so that she can better navigate and manage her relations with her affectionately nicknamed strawberry helper. Mdm E was not the only member who approached the session with this intent, in fact, the majority of the members who came to see me were like Mdm E. And this inspired the NTUC Woman and Family Unit to evolve these clinics and sessions into a series of highly attended events – called POW-WOW: Power of Women WOW. These sessions brought employers together with their MDWs to better access resources and strengthen relations. Indeed, during these sessions, our partners also organised an Award Ceremony for exemplary Employer-MDW pairs, some working together for more than half their lives.
Improve healthcare coverage for MDWs
These events are very well attended, and our partnerships well-covered from NGOs like the Centre for Domestic Employees; Trade Associations like the Association for Employment Agencies Singapore; to Government Departments like the Ministry of Manpower to private firms like SingTel and DBS. These events demonstrate the openness and desire of Singapore families and their helpers to strengthen their relationships, and the many parties coming forward to offer resources to co-create possibilities, safe spaces and ecosystems for MDW-Employer relations to flourish.
Mr Speaker, what families really need is not just rules. They need certainty that care and trust will hold. The need for care is ever-growing, the will for better partnerships is strong, and vast resources are available. I believe we can organise better to strengthen support and dignity for Migrant Domestic Workers and our Singapore families. And that is what my proposals today are about.
Support MDW mental health and social integration
First — Train MDWs for real caregiving. Care today is not just about housekeeping. It is about:
a. dementia care
b. post-hospital recovery
c. disability support
d. child development
e. senior well-being
Yet many MDWs still arrive trained mainly for chores.
Training MDWs for real caregiving needs
And this is why my first ask is this: The Caregivers Training Grant has provided excellent support for families with eldercare needs, by affordably training helpers to take on caregiving duties. My ask is to expand the Caregivers Training Grant to include advanced home-based care as well as language training particularly in Mandarin, Malay Hokkien, Cantonese and other dialects which are useful for eldercare.
Currently the NTUC’s Centre for Domestic Employees has partnered with the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Cultural Academy and The Salvation Army to run conversational Hokkien & Cantonese language classes for our MDWs. This has been helpful in building strong bridges between our MDWs and their families. Because when an MDW cannot understand a senior, care becomes unsafe. Language is not just a “nice-to-have”. It is, actually, a safety issue. If a grandmother in her eighties cannot tell her caregiver she is in pain, we will have all failed her in her care needs.
Professionalising employment agencies
Second — Professionalise Employment Agencies. Mr. Speaker, I would argue that too many placements fail not because families are cruel, but because they were badly matched.
In my MPS sessions, I have met many first-time employers who did not even know where to seek help when their MDW plans fail. They relied completely on their Employment Agency — and many got it wrong.
Take Ms T (not her real name) for example. She came to see me as she was in a bind. She could not get along with her helper, and the language barrier caused deep rifts in everyday handling of chores. She had a young child and was worried about her child’s safety as her helper had different standards when it came to safety and care. She sought the help of her Employment Agent, but was told that there were no replacements available, and if she insisted on having the agent take back the helper, she would need to pay an extra fee. This was not in the contract she signed, and she was actually covered for one free replacement. Not wanting to pay the additional fee, she forced herself to continue with the helper. In the end, they both got into a physical fight, it ended up being a viral clip, traumatising both my resident and her family, and indeed the helper. This was not a good outcome for all involved, and I felt that the Employment Agency could have stepped in to play a larger role in mitigating. Luckily, with an appeal, our friends from the Association for Employment Agencies Singapore stepped in and helped both the helper and my resident out of this situation. A good, responsible Employment Agency makes all the difference.
So, my second ask is: Raise professional standards for Employment Agencies especially in handling complex care households. This is for families with: frail seniors, special-needs children or medical needs.
Matching can be done by trained care assessors, not sales staff. The wrong match does not just only cost money. It can break a family — and deeply hurt our workers. I propose enhanced training and accreditation pathways for EAs focused on caregiving assessment, counselling skills, and post-placement support. Let us incentivise agencies and individual agents and empower our Trade Associations to reward and recognise agencies that demonstrate lower transfer rates and better post-placement outcomes, and create a stronger feedback loop between families, MDWs, EAs as well as government agencies.
Healthcare protection for MDWs
Third — Give MDWs affordable primary healthcare. Mr Speaker, MDWs are frontline caregivers.
They lift our parents. They bathe our seniors. They manage medications.
And yet their own care can remain inadequately covered especially if their employers are less resourced.
So, my third ask is: To Extend a Primary Care Plan–type scheme to MDWs. Our Primary Care Plan (PCP) for migrant workers could be a model worth studying as they afford primary care for workers with low co-payments. MDWs today are not covered under PCP; and their mandatory insurance does not include outpatient care, which means employers and MDWs face high out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits. This discourages early care-seeking and can worsen health outcomes. Could the Government consider a similar outpatient primary care scheme for MDWs? Even a modest co-payment structure for routine outpatient visits could prevent small ailments from becoming serious, thereby protecting worker welfare, and reducing family anxieties.
Similarly, the current basic insurance of S$60,000 annual limit for hospitalisation of a MDW might not cover more severe cases, leaving our employers responsible for the excess and payment. Mr and Mrs T first came to see me at my MPS, looking both concerned and a little guilty. They share that they are thinking of sending back their helper who has been with them for over 20 years. She has become almost family, but as she was struck with cancer and required surgery and treatment, Mr and Mrs T, as retirees, were unable to afford the out-of-pocket expenses for this. With their appeals for subsidised medical fees rejected, the family had to send their helper home, feeling guilty that they could have made a difference since the cancer was caught early.
Ms W’s experience caused her to fall into some financial duress. Her helper was with her for only a year, when she suddenly developed a fever and body aches. Her oxygen levels were dangerously low, and Ms. W had to rush her to the hospital. After several rounds of checks, her helper’s condition remained undiagnosable, and finally, she was certified unfit to work, and Ms W had to send her back to her home country. This entire episode caused Ms W to go pass her insurance thresholds and with the 25% co-payment, and Ms W had to pay a high “5-digit sum” out of pocket.
As such, would the Manpower Ministry consider getting Employment Agencies to be clearer on their advisories to Employers on the medical and hospitalisation responsibilities for their helpers? And as healthcare costs increase in Singapore, to mandate timely reviews of insurance coverage and co-payment levels so that our Singapore families are adequately supported when their helpers need medical care.
Mental health and social support
Healthy caregivers mean stable families, and we need to refocus mental health into our system. Unlike regular employees, many MDWs live relatively isolated lives, have no colleagues in the workplace, and while living with their employers and their families, they are separated hundreds of miles from their own families. Some are caring for sick parents back home via proxies and monthly transfers home — while caring for ours here.
I welcome ground-up initiatives such as AEA(S) partnering with The RICE Company to provide recreational and social integration activities, and NTUC’s CDE interviewing first-time MDWs within their first six months. These programmes and safety nets — social clubs, craft workshops, excursions, counselling — help build community and resilience.
So, my fourth ask is to make mental-health screening and counselling part of a national MDW support framework, should the need arise, and to provide resources to scale up such social and recreational initiatives. To close the circle, our Singaporean families must also be encouraged to be stakeholders in this, as the care ecosystem can only be complete with our families as participants and beneficiaries alike.
Flexible and regulated part-time Care Models
Fifth — Create regulated part-time care pathways. Mr. Speaker, our households are diverse. Some families need part-time support. Others need specialised or backup assistance. Some need backup support beyond the traditional live-in arrangement, and yet others guard privacy above everything else, preferring a few hours of help for just a few days a week. The current ecosystem leans heavily on the live-in helper model, which works well for many but not for all.
So my fifth ask is to develop regulated, care-focused part-time MDW and home-care pathways. Flexibility must not mean exploitation. Protection must not mean rigidity. We need both. Building on schemes like the Household Services Scheme, could we pilot care-focused extensions — part-time carers who are properly trained and contracted, or pooling arrangements where several families share a trained worker on a regulated basis? Such models could better serve working parents, those with intermittent caregiving needs, and families who cannot yet afford or require full-time live-in help.
Fairer levy and subsidy frameworks
Sixth — Levies. Let’s fix our levy rules for real caregiving burdens. Today, levy concessions are largely based on age. But care is not just about that. Caregiver burden is heavier when family needs are complex. Residents have asked about levy concessions and targeted financial support related to hiring an MDW. Consider single mothers or fathers with special needs children who are also caring for their senior parents. Consider families where both parents work full-time to make ends meet. Currently, the $60 concessionary levy is available for households with a child below 16 years or an adult above 67 years old. There are gaps in the current levy framework.
So, my final ask is: Review levy and subsidy eligibility to reflect real dependency, not just age. This should include:
a) supervision-intensive but non-ADL cases such as early dementia as well as youths above 16
b) frail adults aged 60 to 66
c) moderate dependency cases
d) families with multiple dependents that require care support
Because a single mother caring for a disabled teen and an elderly parent must feel supported as she loves and cares for her family.
Building a resilient and compassionate care ecosystem
Mr Speaker, our MDWs are not a side story.
If we want Singapore to remain strong in an ageing world, we must invest in the people who keep our homes running. By strengthening training and communication, uplifting Employment Agencies, improving healthcare coverage, exploring flexible care models, and refining support families with heavier caregiving burdens, we can build a caregiving ecosystem that is fair, resilient, and sustainable for both Singaporean families and the MDWs who support them.
I thank the House and look forward to the Manpower Ministry’s reply. Thank you.
