THE Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has withheld S$85 million in the March 2021 Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) and Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) payouts to investigate gaming and the authenticity of employers' claims.

These comprise of S$52 million from JSS claims and S$33 million in JGI claims from some 2,600 employers. According to a press statement on Monday, this makes up about 2 per cent of all qualifying employers for the payouts.

This is part of IRAS's efforts to ensure the payouts are fairly disbursed, and employers will receive the payouts once the accuracy of information provided is confirmed. Otherwise, payouts will be adjusted or denied accordingly.

So far, IRAS has concluded the review of over 800 JSS and nearly 1,100 JGI payouts from the March 2021 allotment. Having denied some 500 and 800 employers respectively under each scheme, S$16 million in payouts have been denied for each scheme.

Since its introduction in February 2020, roughly S$44 million in JSS payouts have been denied, and has raised suspicions of employers' abuse of the scheme by making false or inflated CPF contributions.

Whistleblower reports have been crucial in flagging possible abuses of the scheme, with some 500 tip-offs made to IRAS. IRAS warns that there are severe penalties for any attempt to abuse the schemes.

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Employers that had provided apparently fabricated documents to substantiate false claims have been referred to the police for further investigations, with 10 such cases for JSS claims so far. Under Section 420 of the Penal Code, offenders found cheating are liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine.

This comes days after Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Friday an S$800 million support package for affected firms and individuals in view of the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) measures.

With the new package, JSS support for businesses that had to suspend many if not all operations, such as gyms and those in F&B, will be raised to 50 per cent, up from 10 per cent earlier. JSS support for businesses that are "significantly affected" despite continuation of operations like museums and personal care services will be raised to 30 per cent during this time.