Income Insurance, NCSS launch S$10 million grant to support caregivers
It is part of Income Insurance’s commitment to invest S$100 million in Singapore communities by 2030 via Income OrangeAid
[SINGAPORE] Janet Yeo was a caregiver to her mum, who had dementia, and faced a double whammy when her husband was diagnosed with cancer.
That was the breaking point, as she had to care for both of them, said the partner at an interior architectural firm. “Caregiving is tiring and difficult, as there is the emotional attachment as well to the patients.”
To give caregivers more support, Income Insurance and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Friday (Jul 25) to launch the Income OrangeAid Caregiver Support Accelerator Grant.
The grant is worth S$10 million and is part of Income Insurance’s commitment to invest S$100 million in Singapore communities by 2030 via Income OrangeAid.
The initiative will comprise two grant calls over five years from 2025, and will support up to 20 caregiver programmes run by SSAs. Each grant call will fund up to 10 programmes, with up to S$200,000 per programme in the first two years and S$100,000 in the third year.
Giving a boost
The move is to uplift the capabilities of the social service agencies (SSAs) ecosystem, said Tan Li San, CEO of NCSS.
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“Firstly, it will foster innovation by guiding SSAs to employ design-thinking methodologies, enabling SSAs to develop creative and impactful solutions for caregivers. This approach will help SSAs enhance their existing services with targeted support in crucial areas such as psychological well-being and financial adequacy.
“Secondly, it will build a sustainable ecosystem by providing SSAs with multi-year support to develop and implement holistic caregiver support programmes, while requiring SSAs to demonstrate how their initiatives will continue beyond the funding period. This emphasis on sustainability ensures that the support systems we build today will continue to benefit caregivers in the long term.”
NCSS’ 2024 Quality of Life Study revealed that caregivers in Singapore report a lower quality of life compared with non-caregivers across the physical, social relationships and environment domains.
Andrew Yeo, CEO of Income Insurance, said: “We recognise that the SSAs are the primary touchpoints for caregivers in Singapore. By partnering NCSS, which channels resources to SSAs in Singapore, we are coupling deep sector expertise with strong financial support to uplift the SSA ecosystem to develop targeted support for caregivers to improve their quality of life, especially in the areas of physical, mental and financial well-being.”
Shannen Fong, vice-president and head of strategic communications and sustainability at Income Insurance, concurred, adding: “Caregiving in Asia is linked to filial piety, and some may not even know they are caregivers.”
Singapore society is projected to become super-aged by 2026, and by 2030, one in four people in Singapore will be aged 65 and above.
Yeo of Income Insurance said: “This means that caregivers, who are often the spouses and close relatives of an aged person, are likely seniors themselves, and may also be facing health or other related challenges that are compounding this urgency for support.”
The initiative, which he described as “groundbreaking”, is built on a more sustainable public-private partnership model.
“Our support can go a longer way in bringing about a multiplier effect as more SSAs can stand to benefit and be empowered to support more caregivers over the long term,” he added. “To unlock the annual seed funding, grantees must demonstrate tangible outcomes, programme scalability and impact, as well as financial sustainability of the programme.”
The CEO of Income Insurance added that the last point is critical given that funding in the third year will be stepped down to ensure that grantee programmes are in a good place to thrive beyond the grant period.
Janet Yeo agreed that such initiatives are helpful as they fill a gap. She herself benefited from caregiver education by the Mindfull Community – formerly known as Caregivers Alliance Limited – which “equipped me with knowledge, coping skills, self-care strategies”.
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