S$516mn recovered in CPF arrears to benefit 360,000 employees in Singapore

Singapore's CPF Board (CPFB) has recovered about S$516.0 million in CPF arrears in 2015 relating to underpayment, non-payment and late payment of contributions by employers, benefitting over 360,000 employees.

About $15.2 million of the recovered amount was from cases of underpayment or non-payment of CPF contributions, recovered from 1,840 employers, benefitting 14,708 employees.

The highest such amount recovered was discovered through a complaint on non-payment of CPF contributions lodged by a driver from a logistics company. This company had wrongly classified its drivers under a contract for service and hence, did not pay them CPF contributions.

Upon investigating, CPFB concluded the drivers were in fact employees of the company, as a result recovering about $2 million in CPF arrears over eight years for 70 drivers.

The remaining $500.8 million recovered amounted from late CPF contributions from an average of about 5,600 employers each month in 2015, benefitting more than 353,000 employees.

In 2015, there were 36 convictions for non-payment and underpayment of CPF, and 237 convictions for late payment under the CPF Act, amounting to fines and orders to pay the arrears.

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CPFB group director of employer collections and enforcement, Ng Hock Keong said: "To facilitate the timely payment of CPF contributions, we are constantly improving the payment process for employers.

"More than eight in ten employers are submitting their contributions to us electronically. Close to 90% of them use CPF e-Submit@web, which auto-computes the CPF contributions payable."

The Board has also recently introduced CPF e-Submit@mobile, piloted in the Google Play Store in end January 2016, which allows employers with ten or fewer employees to submit their CPF contributions on mobile devices.

To report non-payment or underpayment of CPF contributions, or non-compliance with the Employment Act, members of the public can call 1800-221-9922 or email workright@mom.gov.sg.

Image: 123RF