CPF Board recovered S$635m in CPF arrears from employers in 2016

THE Central Provident Fund Board (CPF Board) said on Monday it had recovered about S$635.1 million in CPF arrears from cases closed in 2016, which is expected to benefit more than 380,000 employees.

It said the CPF arrears recovered were from under-payment, non-payment and late payment of CPF contributions by employers.

In 2016, S$19.7 million were recovered from cases of under-payment or non-payment from 1,608 employers, benefiting 16,202 employees.

Of these, 32 employers voluntarily came forward to self-rectify after realising they were not compliant with the CPF Act.

The highest amount recovered through self-rectification in 2016 was from an employer in the financial sector which informed the CPF Board in March last year that it had wrongly classified its employees' incentive payments as Ordinary Wages (OW) instead of Additional Wages (AW). This resulted in underpayment of CPF contributions as the company had applied the monthly OW ceiling when computing CPF contributions for its employees instead of the annual AW ceiling.

The remaining S$615.4 million recovered were late CPF contributions from an average of about 5,440 employers each month in 2016.

Most of the late payments were recovered within a month, CPF Board said, adding that its timely detection and follow-up enforcement actions assisted more than 363,000 workers in receiving their due CPF contributions.

Said Belinda Teoh, CPF Board group director of employer collections and enforcement: "This year, we are particularly encouraged by the 32 employers who came forward to self-rectify in 2016 which resulted in the recovery of about S$1 million in arrears for about 800 employees. We will continue to increase awareness among employers of their duty and responsibility to meet their CPF obligations so as to help members meet their retirement, housing and healthcare needs."

Last year, there were 22 convictions for non-payment and under-payment of CPF and 350 convictions for late payment. All convicted employers were fined and ordered to pay the CPF arrears by the State Court.