When a Placement Does Not Work Out: Replacements, Refunds and Your Rights
Fees and refunds are where these situations usually turn sour, and the rules are rarely set out plainly before you sign. So here they are. Since 1 June 2022 an agency must refund at least 50% of the service fees you paid if your helper's employment ends inside her first six months and a short list of conditions is met. That is law, not goodwill.
What actually goes wrong
Almost none of it is dramatic, and most of it is information rather than character.
- Expectations nobody said out loud. You assumed daily ironing and a cooked dinner. She assumed the routine she was taught in training.
- Workload that reads fine on paper. Three floors, two toddlers, a dog and an elderly parent is four jobs, not one.
- Homesickness. The first six to eight weeks are the hardest. A helper who is quiet in week three is often fine by week ten.
- Skills that were oversold. That failure belongs to the agency. If a biodata says infant care and she has never held a newborn, somebody wrote that down.
- Genuine incompatibility. It exists, and coaching does not fix it.
What to try before you ask for a replacement
A replacement is free for nobody. It means a fresh Work Permit application, a fresh security bond and insurance, a settling-in period starting again, and a woman who borrowed money to be here going back into limbo. It is rarely the right call in week two.
Have the conversation properly, sitting down. Ask her to describe what she thinks her job is, write it out as a schedule with times, then correct it together. Be specific about tasks rather than attitude: "the bathroom floor gets dried after the last shower" travels, "be more careful" does not. Show her once instead of telling her twice. Agree what she does when she cannot finish everything, because otherwise she guesses. If language is the barrier, ask your agency to interpret. Then set a review date a fortnight out and keep it.
How a replacement actually works
The order matters, because getting it wrong can cost you your refund.
- Tell the agency first, in writing. MOM requires you to notify it within a reasonable time that you intend to cancel her Work Permit, repatriate or transfer her, before you do it. Acting first and telling the agency after is a listed ground for losing the refund.
- Agree how she leaves. MOM's recommended service agreement asks you to make her available to the agency for interviews for a stated number of days, and recommends that period does not exceed 21.
- Keep meeting your obligations meanwhile. Salary and levy run for as long as her permit does. Acceptable accommodation, adequate food and medical treatment stay yours until she leaves Singapore or starts with a new employer, not merely until her permit is cancelled.
- Interview the replacement properly. Under the same template she should meet the criteria you originally set, and you may reject one who does not.
A helper already here is the fast route: MOM states that a direct transfer outcome arrives within a week, and the new permit must be issued within 21 days of approval or before the current one expires, whichever is earlier. From overseas is longer: a new application, a new medical and, for a first-time helper, the Settling-in Programme.
What should not happen is your service fee being charged in full again. MOM's template carries a separate replacement fee schedule, signed up front. The unavoidable costs do recur, because a replacement is a new placement: the MOM Work Permit application and issuance fee of S$70, and a fresh security bond and insurance. The bond is a guarantee furnished by a bank or insurer rather than cash you hand over, and it is usually bought as part of an insurance package, so what recurs is the premium, not the face value.
The refund rule, in plain terms
Since 1 June 2022, under Rule 13A of the Employment Agencies Rules 2011, an agency must refund at least 50% of the service fees you paid if your helper's employment is terminated within her first six months and the refund conditions are met. It covers agreements entered into on or after that date, and the money is due within 14 working days of your written request or the cancellation of her work pass, whichever is later.
MOM lists the exceptions: the agency did administrative work only, with no matching service; you breached an employment law or committed an offence against her; you did not notify the agency in reasonable time before cancelling, repatriating or transferring her; you had up to two replacements and any one of them lasted more than six months, or a third replacement was provided; or she was hired as a caregiver, stated as such in the agreement, and the person she cared for has died or moved to other care.
MOM's own wording is that agencies "should not set their own terms for employers to qualify for the service fee refund". Hurdles your agency added are not part of the rule.
Service fees means everything you paid the agency apart from a defined list.
| Outside the refund | What that covers |
|---|---|
| Local placement costs | Work Permit application and issuance, Settling-in Programme, medical examination, the one-way ticket into Singapore, serology tests |
| Home country requirements | Fees set by her own government, such as the Indonesian employment contract |
| Training you asked for | Third-party trainers, at your request |
| Her placement loan | Her own debt, never your fee |
The transfer route
If an agency agrees to take her over and cancels her permit for the transfer, it becomes responsible for her: accommodation, adequate food, medical treatment, medical insurance of at least S$60,000, and her ticket home if she finds no employer before her Special Pass expires, which is issued with up to 30 days validity. MOM advises documenting that handover by email and keeping a copy. If no agency will take her and she does not want a transfer, you remain responsible for her upkeep until she leaves Singapore. Our transfer helper page covers the other side.
What you owe her, whatever the dispute
- Salary. Monthly, no later than 7 days after the last day of the salary period, at not less than the amount declared to MOM. You must not hold her salary, bank book or card, even if she asks.
- Her wellbeing. Acceptable accommodation, adequate food and medical treatment until she leaves Singapore or starts with a new employer. If the agency houses her at your request, MOM's template is explicit that you stay legally responsible, including her medical costs.
- Notice. Either of you may end the contract at any time by serving the notice stated in it or paying salary in lieu. Usually the party ending it pays.
- Getting her home. Her air ticket is yours to buy, including connecting transport to the port of entry nearest her hometown and her check-in luggage. Cancel her permit within a week of her last working day, and she must depart within two weeks of cancellation. The bond is discharged once she is home, and forfeited if you fail to send her.
- If you suspect wrongdoing, report it. You may not punish her yourself.
If the agency will not help
Your agency must set out its replacement terms, refund terms and dispute resolution mechanism in the agreement it signs with you. If it will not resolve the matter, MOM points employers to the agreed dispute resolution mechanism, and says you could consider the Small Claims Tribunals for a service agreement dispute that mediation cannot settle.
Every agency licence here is public: look up any agency and its registered staff in MOM's directory, which also carries customer ratings given by its employers, surveyed about three months after a helper is deployed and shown once there are at least three reviews. And keep the paper. Your signed agreement, the fee schedule and the emails are what a mediator or a tribunal reads.
Where we stand
We do not publish our placement fee as a number, because it depends on where she is coming from and what the placement involves, and a wrong number is worse than none. What we do is put the replacement and refund terms in front of you in writing before you pay, on MOM's template, with the blanks filled in and read through rather than initialled in a hurry.
We will also say when a replacement is the wrong answer. And if a placement ends inside six months and you meet MOM's conditions, that refund is your entitlement, not a favour.
Questions employers actually ask
- Am I entitled to a refund if my helper leaves in the first few months?
- Often yes. Since 1 June 2022, MOM requires an agency to refund at least 50% of the service fees you paid if the helper's employment is terminated within her first six months and the refund conditions are met. It is a legislative requirement under Rule 13A of the Employment Agencies Rules 2011, and MOM states that agencies should not set their own terms for employers to qualify.
- What counts as service fees for the refund?
- Everything you paid the agency except a defined list: Work Permit application and issuance, the Settling-in Programme, the medical examination, the one-way ticket into Singapore, serology tests, costs set by her home government, third-party training you asked for, and her own placement loan.
- Does a replacement mean paying the whole agency fee again?
- It should not. MOM's recommended service agreement carries a separate replacement fee schedule, signed up front, and the replacement should meet the criteria you originally set. The unavoidable costs do recur, because a replacement is a fresh Work Permit application with its own security bond and insurance, so what you pay again is the MOM fee and the premiums.
- How long does a replacement realistically take?
- A helper already in Singapore is the faster route. MOM states that the outcome of a direct transfer application arrives within a week, and the new Work Permit must be issued within 21 days of approval or before the current one expires, whichever is earlier. From overseas takes longer.
- What if the agency ignores me?
- Your agency has to disclose its dispute resolution mechanism, and MOM's recommended agreement provides for an independent third-party mediator, named in the agreement itself, to go to first. If a service agreement dispute cannot be settled by mediation, MOM says you could consider the Small Claims Tribunals. You can also check any agency's licence and its customer ratings in MOM's public directory.