Rely on professional elderly care services to support your loved ones from home
Filial piety is a term many of us have grown up with in Singapore, and one of its values is taking care of our parents as they age. While we care for our elderly loved ones at home, you may also find your hands full trying to balance work and caring for your kids at the same time.
To ensure our loved ones, especially those with stroke, Parkinson’s Disease and other high care needs, receive proper medical attention, we may need professional elderly care services such as nursing services, physiotherapy, or just some help to accompany your loved one for his/her medical appointments.
While part time caregivers or foreign domestic workers can help, the costs can be worrying. Fortunately, there are grants in Singapore that can help to defray the costs of caring for a loved one at home. In this article, we share how you can get help with NTUC Health’s Home Care services and how we can help you to apply for financial assistance with the Home Caregiving Grant (HCG).
Why you may need Home Care services
By 2030, about one in four Singaporeans will be 65 years old and above. Many of them prefer to age at home and to be in familiar surroundings where they are closer to loved ones for comfort and support.
While our loved ones choose to live and receive care at home, they may also require extra help, especially if they are diagnosed with conditions such as late-stage Parkinson’s Disease, stroke, advanced dementia or even cancer. When they are unable to perform independent tasks such as bathing, eating, dressing or moving about the house, a caregiver may be required to help them with their Activities of Daily Living (ADL).
Activities of daily living include eating, bathing, toileting and others that make up the ability to live independently.
What is the Home Caregiving Grant (HCG)
The Home Caregiving Grant is administered by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC). It was known as the Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) Grant before October 2019. From 1 March 2023, applicants who meet the eligibility criteria will get either a doubling of the grant from $200 to $400 or an increase of the grant to S$250. This helps to offset the costs of caring for a loved one with permanent moderate disability, i.e. requires some assistance to perform three or more activities of daily living (ADL), whether it is through engaging professional caregiver support services in the community, hiring a Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) or for you to attend caregiver training courses.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for the Home Caregiving Grant, the care recipient must be a citizen or Singapore permanent resident who is also living in the same household as the applicant and not in a residential long-term care institution such as a nursing home.
The applicant will also need to be Means-Tested by the Ministry of Health to show that their household monthly income is less than $2,800 per person, or that their annual value of the property¹ is $13,000 or less.
| Household Monthly Income per person | Previous HCG monthly payout | Enhanced HCG monthly payout (From 1 March 2023) |
| $0 - $1,200 (or Annual Value of Residence ≤ $13,000 for households without income) | $200 | $400 |
| $1,201 - $2,800 | $250 |
Finally, the care recipient will need to be assessed by a registered nurse, doctor or therapist to fill up a Functional Assessment Report (FAR) and certify that they are unable to perform at least three of the following Activities of Daily Living:
- feeding
- washing
- dressing
- transferring
- toileting
- mobility
How to obtain a Functional Assessment Report for applying to the Home Caregiving Grant
To apply for the Home Caregiving Grant, you will need to obtain a Functional Assessment Report (FAR) for the care recipient. You can make an appointment with a qualified assessor, such as a General Practitioner (GP), to conduct FAR.
Once the FAR is completed, login to AIC’s eService portal (eFASS) with your Singpass and follow this guide by AIC to apply for the Home Caregiving Grant online. Alternatively, you may email apply@aic.sg or walk into any AIC Link for a hardcopy application form.
It may take up to 1 month to process an online application, and AIC will inform you of the outcome in writing. If your application is successful, payouts will be made to your nominated bank account the following month.
Summary
A little bit of help can go a long way when caring for your loved one at home. The Home Caregiving Grant can be used to offset the costs of home care services, allowing you peace of mind and quality time with your loved one.
Engage NTUC Health’s Home Care Services to help with daily activities of living, medical escorting, home nursing procedures and even support for caregivers by calling us at 6715 6715, or visit our Home Care Services web page.
If you would like to obtain a Functional Assessment Report (FAR), make an appointment with our Family Medicine Clinic.
Footnotes:
¹Annual value is the estimated gross annual rent of the property if it were to be rented out, excluding furnishings and maintenance fees. It is determined by the Chief Valuer’s Office based on estimated market rentals of similar or comparable properties, and not on the actual rental income received. (Source)
The Annual Value of your Residence in 2022 will be used to determine your eligibility for the HCG.
Please refer to the press release by the Ministry of Finance for more information.
