SINGAPORE - NTUC Income's Income Family Micro-Insurance Scheme (IFMIS) provides families with a $5,000 payout when their main income earner dies or becomes totally and permanently disabled.
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Here is the press statement from NTUC Income:
NTUC Income announced that it is collaborating with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to extend its Income Family Micro-Insurance Scheme (IFMIS) to benefit more low-income families with young children in Government or Government-aided primary schools.
Under the new arrangement, all children in primary schools who are recipients of MOE's Financial Assistance Scheme will automatically be covered under IFMIS. The support from schools, which complements an existing arrangement with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), will broaden IFMIS's reach to more than 30,000 families.
IFMIS is a free insurance policy that pays out $5,000 in the event the main caregiver of low-income families with young children passes away or becomes totally and permanently disabled. It was launched in April 2010 to cover some 13,000 families already registered under the ComCare GROW schemes administered by the five Community Development Councils. These schemes later came under the purview of MSF.
The collaboration with MOE was cemented with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between NTUC Income and MOE.
"NTUC Income launched IFMIS to provide financial help to low-income families in times of crises. The payout, albeit modest, brings crucial relief to these families with young children," said Mr Theodore Teo, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, NTUC Income.
"Over the years, we have been working to create more awareness of this policy so that IFMIS is more accessible and can benefit more families. We believe that our collaboration with MOE is a significant step in our endeavour to reach the families who qualify for this aid."
Added Mr Wong Kang Jet, Director of Finance and Development, MOE, "We are pleased to support IFMIS as we believe that the scheme will assist students and families at a time when they need it the most."
Recipients of MOE's Financial Assistance Scheme (Primary level) or MSF's ComCare Kindergarten Subsidies scheme are automatically covered under IFMIS. They do not have to apply or pay any premiums. IFMIS is renewable every year with the application and approval of the Financial Assistance and does not involve underwriting, a waiting period, or exclusion of pre-existing illnesses.
Mdm G Vasugi, 46, whose husband was hit with total and permanent disability in 2011, was one of IFMIS' beneficiaries.
She said, "The $5,000 payout from IFMIS was unexpected. We did not know that there was such a scheme. It helped us to cover our basic expenses when my husband was unable to work because of his condition. We have four young children and we are grateful to NTUC Income for proactively extending the help we needed.
"I have since become the family's breadwinner and I am glad that with the expansion of IFMIS to those receiving financial assistance in MOE-registered primary schools, my family is protected if something were to happen to me."