More savings products, insurance for gig workers

Singapore

MORE attention has turned to the financial needs of hard-hit gig workers here, with DBS the latest to broaden its services to these customers to tide them over the pandemic.

Many self-employed, freelance and gig economy workers may find it challenging to regain their pre-crisis income levels, even as businesses gradually resume amid the grim operating environment.

To add, most gig workers do not have ample emergency funds and are underinsured. DBS found that only one third of its customers identified as gig workers have more than three months' worth of emergency savings. Only 10 per cent of this segment have purchased any form of insurance - whether via DBS or other financial institutions.

The bank on Tuesday rolled out more ways to earn higher interest on balances under its bank-and-earn programme, DBS Multiplier, and boosted healthcare insurance plans to help gig workers better manage their savings and healthcare costs.

DBS recently lowered the minimum transaction threshold and added DBS PayLah! to the list of transaction modes that can unlock a higher interest rate on Multiplier accounts, enabling customers, including gig workers, to shore up their savings.

This means that customers can earn 0.5 per cent interest on the first S$10,000 balance in their Multiplier account, as long as eligible transactions from their income or salary account and DBS PayLah! exceed S$500 per month.

The bank also widened the definition of income to include informal sources of income, easing the qualification requirements for the Multiplier accounts, especially for gig workers who have fluctuating income sources.

With the changes, customers get to upsize the interest earned while having the flexibility of paying their bills, ordering meals, taking transport rides, among other things, from over 80,000 merchants and service providers on the DBS PayLah! platform, said the lender.

Previously, customers needed at least S$2,000 per month in transactions and were limited to categories such as credit cards, insurance, investments and mortgage loans.

DBS has also ramped up its healthcare insurance plans, available on its new healthcare portal, to offer better coverage and benefits to gig economy workers and customers who do not have access to traditional employment benefits or corporate insurance coverage.

The bank said customers can get exclusive member consultation rates and other healthcare benefits via the healthcare portal. They are able to sign up for bundled deals that will give them and their family members instant coverage should they fall ill, get injured or undergo health screenings or vaccinations.

DBS and Parkway Shenton have jointly launched a membership programme with member rates for general practitioner consultations, health screenings and vaccinations across the medical provider's over 100 participating clinics or increasingly popular telemedicine services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This programme is available to every new sign-up of MultiGen Protect Personal Accident Plan, a product underwritten by Chubb Insurance Singapore.

From Sept 17, DBS will also partner Alliance Healthcare to offer more healthcare bundles, covering a suite of healthcare services across the medical provider's over 600 participating clinics.

Jeremy Soo, DBS head of consumer banking group, said: "Covid-19 has disrupted the livelihoods of many in the gig economy, and it is crucial that we at DBS provide accessible solutions to financially vulnerable customers that help safeguard their financial and healthcare interests during these challenging times."

In a newsletter last year, KPMG noted that gig workers are looking for very flexible, short-term coverage and may not be willing to pay annual insurance premiums for the time they are not working.

Great Eastern, the insurance arm of OCBC, in June rolled out an annual renewable insurance plan for gig workers that offers hospitalisation income, personal accident coverage, and outpatient care in a single policy.

There are two plans available, with premiums starting from 73 Singapore cents a day.

NTUC Income also in June launched micro-insurance policies with premiums as little as 30 cents.

Known as Snack, these policies allow the insured to gradually accumulate coverage with bite-sized premiums of S$0.30, S$0.50 or S$0.70 tagged to their daily activities, such as travelling via public transport, working out, or ordering a meal.

Snack was launched after a rollout of micro-insurance for Grab drivers, under a partnership between Grab and Income in August 2019.

The plan offers critical illness protection for Grab drivers, where drivers can accumulate up to S$200,000 in coverage over a 360-day period, by opting to pay between S$0.10 and S$0.50 in premium per trip.

In response to queries, a Grab spokesperson told The Business Times that the number of driver-partners who took up Grab's critical illness coverage plan has doubled from the start of the year.