The levy is not the salary, and a freelance helper is not a loophole

A legal part-time cleaner in Singapore is from S$20 an hour, often S$240 to S$416 a month. A live-in helper is often S$1,000 to S$1,500 a month once levy, food and the bond are counted, and the placement is extra. The MOM concessionary levy is S$60. The normal levy is S$300. The security bond is S$5,000 and the medical insurance floor is S$60,000. An illegal freelance arrangement is an EFMA penalty, not a saving.

The concessionary levy of S$60 a month applies only when MOM’s conditions are met, typically a household with a young child, an elderly person or a person with a disability, within the rules published for that year. Everyone else pays the normal levy, S$300 a month. Families plan on the S$60 figure and then receive the S$300 bill. Over 24 months that gap is S$5,760 before salary. Salary for a transfer helper and a new helper are not the same market, and food or a food allowance is a real line. The S$5,000 security bond is not a fee you burn on day one, but it is money at risk if obligations are breached. Medical insurance of at least S$60,000 is compulsory. Put those lines in the 24-month sheet or the sheet is a brochure.

A new fly-in FDW takes weeks: the employer’s orientation, the helper’s settling-in programme, the work permit, and often a loan of the placement fee that is then deducted from salary in a way the Employment Agencies Act limits. A transfer helper already in Singapore can be quicker, sometimes days once MOM approves, and the placement fee is usually lower. She still needs the levy, the bond and the insurance. A weekly part-time cleaner has none of those lines. At S$20 to S$26 an hour, one four-hour visit a week is the S$320 to S$416 band before any levy, because there is no levy. Two visits, or a three-hour concession-household pattern, is what the calculator toggles. The calculator’s hybrid bridge is for households who want a live-in later and a legal cleaner now.

The Employment of Foreign Manpower Act is why the cheap Sunday helper is not a hack. An FDW may not take paid work outside the employer’s household. The employer who sends her out, and the household who pays her, both sit in the penalty. A part-time maid employed by a company, on a legal work arrangement, is the product on the part-time page. Since 1 January 2023 a live-in FDW is entitled to a weekly rest day, or to pay in lieu if she agrees to work. The house still needs cleaning that day. Price a relief visit or accept a dirty Sunday. Do not price it by breaking her rest day without the legal pay, and do not price it by lending her to the neighbour.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, carries the permit-exempt portion of this work. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), listed on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, carries any scope that needs an HDB renovation permit. Those two invoices are not interchangeable. MOM levy is S$60 concessionary or S$300 normal. The security bond is S$5,000. Medical insurance is at least S$60,000. Weekly rest day applies from 1 January 2023. Employment agencies need an EAA licence. Illegal freelance work is an EFMA matter.

Spend ten minutes with a torch, your phone camera, and a tape before you buy a product or book a hack. Write down what you see. The safe checks below do not ask you to open a live wire, cut a pressurised pipe, or lean out of a window. Write hours per week, whether a qualifying person lives with you, and whether you actually have a room. A part-time plan without a spare room is often the honest plan. Run both columns for 24 months.

Stop at the red-flag column. Stop if the saving depends on a tourist helper, a borrowed work permit, or cash on a Sunday. The reason DIY fails is almost never a lack of effort. It is that the tool or chemical makes the next professional repair harder, or it hides a leak, a live conductor, or a deposit line until the damage is larger than Part-time from S$20 an hour, S$240 to S$416 a month at a modest frequency. Live-in cashflow is higher once levy and insurance are in..

This is the sequence a careful technician uses so you can tell a shortcut from a finished job. Tools stay in the van. Readings and photos go on the same worksheet as the price. The calculator is the tool: hours, levy band, and transfer versus new placement. The part-time service is a scheduled crew. Placement paperwork is an employment agency, not a cleaning slot.

1. Step 1. Make the area safe and confirm the symptom still matches the photos. For The levy is not the salary, and a freelance helper is not a loophole, that means Stop if the saving depends on a tourist helper, a borrowed work permit, or cash on a Sunday.
2. Step 2. Measure before touching the finished surface. Write hours per week, whether a qualifying person lives with you, and whether you actually have a room. A part-time plan without a spare room is often the honest plan. Run both columns for 24 months.
3. Step 3. Set protection and lay out the tools that belong to this material. The calculator is the tool: hours, levy band, and transfer versus new placement. The part-time service is a scheduled crew. Placement paperwork is an employment agency, not a cleaning slot.
4. Step 4. Carry out the repair in the order the material allows. levy is omitted, rest-day cover is omitted, or an FDW is deployed outside her employer’s household is the failure this order is written to avoid.
5. Step 5. Test in place. You leave with a 24-month figure that includes levy, insurance and rest-day cover, or with a part-time schedule and no work-pass exposure. The invoice for cleaning is from Homey Furnishing.
6. Step 6. Clean, label the photographs against the invoice lines, and leave the statutory openings, weep holes, access panels and labels visible.

The order matters because levy is omitted, rest-day cover is omitted, or an FDW is deployed outside her employer’s household is what happens when a step is rushed. Handover is a measurement, not a handshake. You leave with a 24-month figure that includes levy, insurance and rest-day cover, or with a part-time schedule and no work-pass exposure. The invoice for cleaning is from Homey Furnishing. If the reading or the water test fails, the visit is not closed and a second line is priced before anyone leaves. Permit work, if the diagnosis has moved into hacking, waterproofing, or a new layout, stops here and is repriced through V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H.

These bands match the calculator’s planning range. Your hours and levy band move them. Placement fees are not part of the monthly part-time price. Agency fees in Singapore typically start around S$1,200–1,300 for a new helper or transfer. That figure is a market range, not a HomeySG fee. Prices below are 2026 Singapore bands for the described scope. They are not a coupon and they are not a guess after an unopened door. A second trade, such as a PUB licensed plumber or an EMA licensed electrician, is named when the law requires it rather than buried inside the labour line. Compare rows by what they include. The planning-life column belongs to that row only.

2026 SGD scope bands

Brand, material and lifespan

Open the part-time maid page and the cost calculator. If you still want a live-in helper, use a licensed agency and read the hiring guide.

Three worked jobs show how the same symptom is priced differently in a new BTO, an older resale flat, and a private condo or landed house. The totals are the lines a household actually paid, not a national average. Permit-exempt invoices are issued by Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. UEN 202018148K.

Case 1: 4-room BTO, two working adults

No qualifying person for the S$60 levy. A live-in quote at salary only looked like S$650. With S$300 levy, food and insurance it was about S$1,350, plus placement. They booked one weekly part-time visit at S$380 a month. Over 24 months the gap was larger than a renovation.

Case 2: resale flat with an elderly parent

The household checked the concession and qualified for S$60. They still hired a transfer helper because the parent needed daily care, not four hours. Levy, insurance and a S$5,000 bond were on the sheet before the agency fee. A part-time cleaner covered the helper’s rest day at S$90 a visit.

Case 3: condo couple who were offered a neighbour’s helper

They refused the Sunday cash arrangement. Two part-time visits a week through the company came to the upper part of the calculator band and stayed legal. The neighbour’s helper kept her rest day. Nobody tested the EFMA.

Run the part-time versus live-in calculator, then book the part-time service if the hourly column wins. Send the photos and the measurements from the ten-minute check. The reply prices the band on this page against what the photos actually show.

• Book a part-time cleaner
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