Microinsurance offering for low-wage foreign workers in Singapore
Overseas workers in Singapore can now receive free health insurance cover by opting in to Pay2Home’s services when they send money home
International money transfer service Pay2Home has partnered with Chubb Insurance Singapore, launching its Priority2Protect microinsurance product, which offers personal accident insurance of up to S$2,500 to low-wage overseas workers working in the island state.
Underwritten by Chubb, Priority2Protect provides 24-hour protection during and outside of work and complements the basic mandatory medical cover employers are required to purchase for these foreign workers. There are two types available:
- A free 30-day plan with coverage for accidental death and total permanent disability. The free plan is available to all Pay2Home users when they make a remittance of at least S$100.
- A paid monthly plan with higher sum assured for accidental death and total permanent disability, as well as additional benefits such as hospital income, medical leave allowance and ambulance and mobility aids. The paid plan is available from $2 per month and premium payment can be made through various payment channels such as: cash over the counter, NETSPAY, FAST bank transfer or Money Transfer Machine
Finally filling a market gap
For some time now, low-wage workers in Singapore, which make up a considerable portion of Singapore’s workforce, have not had access to the same level of healthcare that foreign executives working in the city state have. Indeed some organisations report that migrant workers frequently encounter barriers when trying to access their legal healthcare requirements.
“In order to address the foreign workers’ protection gaps, we needed to first reduce the barriers to entry,” said Scott Thompson, Country President of Chubb in Singapore. “Given the foreign workers’ familiarity and trust in Pay2Home, we hope that they are able to gain easy access to micro-insurance solutions that can support them through short periods of incapacity so they enjoy peace of mind before they return to work.”
More can still be done to assist low-wage foreign workers in Singapore
Chubb and Pay2Home’s new offering is a great start for the often-under-considered demographic of foreign low-wage workers in Singapore. And as a Pay2Home customer survey recently found, the top financial worry of foreign workers is that they should no longer be able to work due to illness or injury, so this will certainly go a long way towards effecting their peace of mind.
As Pay2Home co-founder David Hulme notes, financial security is a top priority for these workers because they are often the sole breadwinner of their families: “Especially at this time, when the impact of the pandemic on hundreds of thousands of our foreign workers has heightened their awareness of the fragility of life.”
But, for these individuals, who often only seek help for acute complaints (because these are perceived as a direct potential threat to their earning capacity), there is still a market gap for services that help deal with chronic disease management. And we know the long-term impacts that these can have.
We salute Chubb and Pay2Home for their forward-thinking creation, but the problem is not wholly solved yet, and there is always room for further innovation.