- – Absentee Payroll funding pays employers S$4.50 per hour of staff training.
- – The cap is S$100,000 per organisation each calendar year.
- – You claim it after the course, once your training provider starts the claim.
- – Only SSG-funded courses and CPF-paying employers qualify.
Absentee payroll funding is one of the few government schemes that pays you back for something you were going to do anyway: keep paying an employee’s salary while they attend approved training. It is run by SkillsFuture, it is claimed by the employer rather than the employee, and it draws on the same payroll records you already keep. If you run Sleek’s payroll services in Singapore, the salary figures a claim needs are already in one place.
This guide covers the absentee payroll eligibility rules, how much the absentee payroll funding rate is worth, how to make an absentee payroll claim, and the records that support it. Every figure below comes from the official SkillsFuture for Business portal, checked on 20 August 2026.
What is Absentee Payroll funding?
Absentee Payroll funding (AP funding) helps employers cover the salary of an employee who is away from work attending approved training. You keep paying the employee as normal, then claim a fixed hourly amount back from the SkillsFuture Absentee Payroll scheme. So if you are asking what absentee payroll is, the short version is simple: it is salary support for training absence, not a course-fee subsidy.
It is claimed by the employer, not the employee. It applies to absentee payroll Singapore employers whose staff attend SSG-funded courses, and it is paid on top of any subsidy that reduces the course fee itself.
Can your business claim Absentee Payroll funding?
Run through the absentee payroll eligibility conditions before anything else. You qualify only when all of the following are true:
- Your organisation is registered or incorporated in Singapore.
- The course is SSG-funded and listed in the Course Directory for Business.
- The employee is a Singapore Citizen, PR, or LTVP+ holder, and you fully sponsor them for the training.
- You make CPF contributions for that employee.
If your business does not meet these, other government funding and grants for Singapore businesses may still apply.
| Requirement | What proves it | Where it comes from in your payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore-registered employer | ACRA registration / UEN | Company records |
| Eligible employee (SC / PR / LTVP+) | Residency status on file | Employee master data |
| Employer makes CPF contributions | CPF contribution history | Monthly payroll run |
| SSG-funded course, fully sponsored | Course listing + sponsorship record | Training / finance records |
How much can you claim?
The absentee payroll funding rate is a flat S$4.50 for every hour of training your employee attends. There is no percentage calculation on salary; it is a fixed hourly rate. The absentee payroll funding rate is capped at S$100,000 per organisation per calendar year across all your claims.
For a very small employer sending one person on a short course, the claim can be modest against the admin time it takes. It is worth totalling the training hours before you plan around the money.
Which training courses qualify?
Only SSG-funded courses listed in the Course Directory for Business qualify under the SkillsFuture Absentee Payroll scheme. Courses your team books privately, or non-SSG providers, do not. Tell your training provider up front that you intend to claim, because the provider is the one who starts the process.
How do you make an Absentee Payroll claim?
An absentee payroll claim is provider-initiated, not something you file cold. The sequence is:
- Tell your training provider before the course that you will claim AP funding.
- Your employee attends and completes the course.
- The provider starts the claim; you receive an email to complete the AP application.
- You log in, open the AP Funding tab, and declare each employee’s hourly salary before CPF deduction.
Where do you log in to submit a claim?
You submit through the SkillsFuture “Claim Absentee Payroll funding” system. You will not log in cold: the system emails you once the provider has started the claim, and you finish the application from there. There is no separate absentee payroll login to hunt down before that email arrives.
When do you have to claim by?
This is the detail employers most want pinned down, and it is the one SkillsFuture does not publish as a fixed employer countdown. The claim is triggered by your provider after the course ends, and the portal states the email “does not happen immediately once the course ends.” The practical rule: complete your absentee payroll claim as soon as the email lands, and confirm the exact timeline with your provider or SkillsFuture for your specific course.
What payroll records do you need to support a claim?
The claim asks for each employee’s hourly salary before CPF deduction, so your payroll has to show that cleanly. Bank-statement bookkeeping cannot: a single salary transfer does not prove the hourly rate or the training hours behind it. You need:
- Each employee’s basic salary and the hourly rate derived from it.
- CPF contributions recorded against that employee.
- The dates and hours of training attended.
This is also where IR8A and employment income reporting and choosing a payroll service provider matter, because the same records feed both. Running accounting and payroll together keeps the hourly figures and the CPF trail consistent.
Do you still pay CPF while an employee is in training?
Yes. Training absence does not suspend CPF. For employees aged 55 and below, CPF is 17% from the employer and 20% from the employee, 37% in total, effective 1 January 2026. You keep contributing as normal during the course, and you declare the pre-CPF hourly salary when you claim. If you need the basics, here is how CPF works.
Is Absentee Payroll the same as the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme?
No. Both schemes put money back in an employer’s hands, but they trigger on different things. The Progressive Wage Credit Scheme co-funds wage increases for lower-wage staff, while Absentee Payroll funds salary during training absence.
| Feature | Absentee Payroll funding | Progressive Wage Credit Scheme |
|---|---|---|
| What triggers the claim | An employee attends approved training | You raise a lower-wage employee’s pay |
| What it funds | Salary during the training absence | Part of the wage increase |
| Who claims | The employer, after the course | The employer (co-funding is applied) |
What goes wrong with Absentee Payroll claims?
Absentee payroll Singapore claims tend to fail for a handful of avoidable reasons:
- Booking a non-SSG course, then finding it does not qualify.
- Missing the provider’s prompt and leaving the application incomplete.
- Payroll that cannot show the hourly rate or the training hours.
- Assuming the funding is larger than the flat S$4.50 hourly rate delivers.
If you are mapping every scheme available, keep your filing dates alongside the annual compliance and company management FAQs so a claim window is never the thing you miss.
How Sleek helps with Absentee Payroll funding
An Absentee Payroll claim only works when your payroll is in order, which is exactly what Sleek runs for you. We keep each employee’s hourly salary, CPF, and hours in one place, so the figures the claim needs are ready the moment the provider’s email arrives.
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FAQs on absentee payroll funding
Can I claim Absentee Payroll funding and course-fee funding for the same course?
They are two separate types of SkillsFuture support. Absentee Payroll funds the salary you pay during the training absence, while course-fee funding reduces the fee itself. Claim the Absentee Payroll portion on its own, and confirm the course-fee support with your training provider.
Who submits the claim, the employer or the training provider?
Both play a part. Your training provider starts the claim once the course ends, then you receive an email and complete the application yourself. Nothing moves until the provider begins the process.
How is Absentee Payroll funding paid to my company?
If the claim is approved, SkillsFuture pays the funding to your corporate PayNow, within about two and a half weeks of your submission. Make sure your company PayNow is set up so the payment is not held up.
Do I keep paying my employee's salary during the training?
Yes. You pay the employee as normal throughout the course, then claim the fixed hourly funding afterwards. Absentee Payroll reimburses part of that salary cost; it does not replace your payroll run.
