People Who Make Fraudulent COVID-19 Temporary Relief Fund Claims Might be Jailed

If you’ve lived in Singapore long enough, you’d know this:

Being forgetful is okay. Being lazy is okay. Being stupid isn’t that okay but still understandable.

Cheat and you’d face the music.

Case in point: failing your IPPT (lazy) would mean that you have to attend 20 sessions of RT the next year. Failure to go for your IPPT (forgetful) would mean you’d have to go for a visit to CMPB, stand behind a line with short hair, admit you’re wrong and get fined for the offence which you can even pay via NETS.

Reader Bao: How you know?

My friend told me.

But try to cheat by getting someone to take your IPPT for you and be prepared to go to court.

And this message is amplified with this latest incident:

People Who Make Fraudulent COVID-19 Temporary Relief Fund Claims Might be Jailed

Six days ago, a netizen created a hoo-ha when he posted online on how the COVID-19 Temporary Relief Fund was “simple to cheat”.

Lest you didn’t know, there’s a one-time $500 temporary relief scheme for Singaporeans who’ve been affected by COVID-19.

This is different from the $600 that you’d most likely be receiving from Ah Gong on tomorrow (14 April 2020).

Unlike the funds given to all businesses and individuals, this one-time payment is for Singaporeans whose income have been affected due to COVID-19.

To qualify, you must be a Singaporean above 16 and be able to prove that you’ve lost at least 30% of your income (i.e. pay cut or unpaid leave).

Given that many of us have a loss of income instead (e.g. almost all taxi or PHV drivers), queues to apply for the grant have been spotted in Social Service Offices and Community Centres since application began.

People can also apply online instead.

However, of course, people must be able to prove that their income has been impacted, if not there would definitely be people who abuse the system.

And here’s the thing: the authorities are trying to be flexible here because asking for 100 pages of documents to get a relief fund of $500 isn’t exactly helping.

So, the netizen’s post on Hardwarezone caught the attention of Mr Desmond Lee, the Minister for Social and Family Development and also the Second Minister in the Ministry of National Development.

And yesterday, it was reported that they’ve found the netizen: it is a 41-year-old Singaporean man.

Together with the police, they’re investigating the incident.

Today, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said that they would go hard on people who tried to abuse the system—and they’re not going to stay passive about it.

He said, “I’ve told the police: Investigate, and if this is cheating, it carries a heavy jail sentence. I think we have to send that message.”

Cheating, as you probably know now, is a serious offence in Singapore.

He mentioned that the application process “requires applicants to be honest because if we get people who are not honest, then the requirements for checking will go up and a lot of honest people who are applying who need immediate cash will then get affected.”

And unfortunately, there are Singaporeans who’re not honest.

He added, “So we are going after a small number who are taking advantage because if we don’t, it will encourage others to try.”

So, would the application process change now, since people are abusing the system? After all, the police are also aware of people trying to sell fake payslips to get the $500.

MSF said they do not intend to change the approach but there will be a “fair bit of checking”.

And Mr Shanmugam, the guy who does not mince his words, said, “If we find that there have been fraudulent applications, you can be sure actions will be brought.

“It won’t affect how quickly (MSF) hands out the cash but those who want to cheat the system will have to think twice.”

So let’s follow the usual advice that Ah Gong has been telling us: got money then take, no money then cry. Don’t test the system.