Raffles Consulting Services
Build a WDG(JR+) eligibility file for three local employees using current employment, payroll, CPF and operating evidence.
The Workforce Development Grant for Job Redesign Plus requires an applicant to be registered or incorporated and operating in Singapore with at least three local employees. A payroll headcount alone may not explain whether the condition is met on the relevant date. The company should build a concise evidence file that connects the legal employer, genuine employment, CPF records and current operations.
Identify the applicant and three local employees
Record the applicant’s legal name, UEN, Singapore operating address and business activity. For each proposed local employee, record citizenship or permanent-resident status, job title, start date, employment status and employing entity. The SBF Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package page and the current factsheet set out the package and applicant threshold.
Do not combine staff from related companies merely because they work in one office or report to the same group manager. If an employee moved between entities, preserve the effective transfer date and contracts. Use only the applicant’s own qualifying employment record.
Reconcile employment to payroll and CPF
For at least the relevant recent period, trace the employment contract to payroll register, bank payment and CPF contribution record. Explain unpaid leave, new joiners, late contributions, corrections and departures. Restrict personal records to authorised reviewers and retain only what is necessary for the decision.
Create a dated headcount schedule with one line per person and a reviewer sign-off. Do not backdate a contract or accelerate a payroll record to meet the threshold. If the company is close to three employees, confirm the current scheme interpretation before committing to project costs.
Keep the threshold separate from project quality
Meeting the employee count does not show that a job-redesign project is suitable. Define the business challenge, affected roles, current work, technology or process changes, worker consultation, outcomes and implementation capacity. Select the appropriate support component on its own requirements.
Model support as conditional. Record the full project cost and the company’s capacity to fund it. A supplier proposal, consultant view or portal acknowledgement does not prove approval. Preserve the application facts and compare them with the eventual award before proceeding.
Monitor changes through the project
Assign an owner to report resignations, entity transfers or operational changes that affect the eligibility record. Refresh the schedule before any material submission or claim. If the threshold position changes, obtain current guidance and record the impact rather than silently substituting another group employee.
Turn the decision into a controlled file
Use a dated decision record that identifies the applicant, business need, current official source, chosen route, responsible owner, costs, milestones and evidence. Separate facts already verified from forecasts and assumptions. A catalogue listing, supplier statement, consultant recommendation or portal acknowledgement does not establish approval. The company remains responsible for its declarations and commercial decision.
Give each quotation, contract, invoice, payment and deliverable a stable reference. Preserve earlier versions and explain material changes instead of silently replacing them. Where the authority, tax adviser, auditor or another professional must decide a point, record the open question and obtain the required view. Do not convert uncertainty into a confident eligibility statement.
Review before commitment and again before closeout
Run four reviews: suitability, authority, implementation and closeout. At suitability, test the entity, activity and business outcome. Before commitment, freeze the proposed scope, vendor and financial assumptions. During implementation, compare actual work with approved terms. At closeout, reconcile deliverables, accepted results, invoices, full payment, operating evidence and obligations that continue.
Name the person who may approve each stage and the records that person must see. Procurement should not treat a draft application as permission to contract. A project team should not treat supplier completion as company acceptance. Finance should not treat a submitted claim as cash received. Clear status words prevent accidental commitments and weak reporting.
Handle exceptions without rewriting history
Maintain an exception log for changed facts, delayed milestones, supplier variations, cost movements, missing records and failed tests. State the effect on scope, eligibility, timing and expected value. If an authority decision or formal variation is required, use the published route before relying on the change. Silence and helpdesk receipt are not approval.
If a material defect appears, pause the affected acceptance, filing or claim item. Keep original evidence, assign corrective action and set a review date. Do not backdate records, move costs between categories or adjust a baseline after seeing the result. A candid exception with an owned resolution is more credible than a clean-looking file that cannot explain what happened.
Plan handovers before the original project team disperses. The handover should identify the current version, source locations, system access owner, next review date, open exceptions and any condition that continues after payment or filing. Restrict personal, financial and commercially sensitive records to authorised users, while giving each responsible owner enough information to perform the assigned control. Record the external event that should trigger an earlier review, such as a changed programme page, revised authority letter, supplier failure or material business change.
Verify the final outcome independently
Ask someone who did not prepare the final pack to compare the decision, current official source, approved terms, deliverables, payments and operating evidence. Recalculate totals and sample source records. The reviewer should be able to reproduce the conclusion without relying on the preparer’s memory. Record unresolved points with named owners and dates.
Use the WDG(JR+) portfolio cap guide for the wider decision and keep this article as the narrower operating guide. After submission, preserve the receipt and reconcile questions, adjustments and the final registered or paid outcome. Continue any reporting, retention, asset-use or other condition that survives closeout.
Practical review checklist
- Applicant UEN confirmed
- Three local employees identified
- Payroll and CPF reconciled
- Project merits tested separately
- Changes monitored
The eligibility file is reliable when an independent reviewer can trace three current local employees from contract through payroll and CPF to the applicant, while separately confirming that the redesign project itself is justified.