Workplace accidents in Singapore are more common than most employers would like to acknowledge. According to the Ministry of Manpower's Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Report 2025, published in April 2026, there were 3,712 workplace injuries in Singapore in 2025, resulting in 54 fatal injuries and 3,658 non-fatal injuries.
For the directors, HR managers, and finance teams reading those numbers, the immediate questions are practical: which of our employees are covered, what are we required to hold, and what does the policy actually pay out?
This post answers all three. It starts with what the law requires and works through how Group PA fits alongside WIC as a voluntary enhancement.
What the law requires: WIC insurance
Work Injury Compensation (WIC) insurance is mandatory for two categories of employee under the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 (WICA).
First, all employees performing manual work, regardless of their salary. Manual work includes any work involving physical labour, the use of tools or machinery, or direct contact with the materials being worked on.
Second, all non-manual employees earning S$2,600 or less per month in basic salary.
For these employees, the employer must hold WIC insurance. The policy covers the statutory compensation defined by WICA: medical expenses up to S$53,000 per accident (effective 1 November 2025), medical leave wages during recovery, and lump-sum compensation for permanent incapacity or death. The statutory compensation for permanent incapacity ranges up to S$346,000 depending on the degree of incapacity and the employee's earnings. For fatal accidents, the maximum statutory compensation is S$269,000.
WIC is a no-fault scheme. The employee does not need to prove that the employer was negligent to receive statutory compensation. The employer cannot avoid the statutory liability by demonstrating that the employee contributed to the accident.
You can read more about WIC in our post on WICA and WIC Insurance in Singapore and about the claims process in our post on What Happens When a WIC Claim is Made.
What is not required but widely provided: Group Personal Accident insurance
Group Personal Accident (GPA) insurance is not mandated by Singapore law. It is a voluntary benefit that an employer chooses to provide, covering employees for accidents that occur at any time, in any location, subject to the policy terms.
The distinction from WIC is structural. WIC covers work-related injuries under a statutory compensation framework. GPA covers any accident, whether it occurs at work, during a commute, at home, or on holiday, and pays a defined lump sum based on the outcome of the accident rather than a statutory formula based on wages.
The typical benefits structure of a GPA policy includes accidental death (a defined lump sum payable to the employee's beneficiaries), permanent total or partial disablement (a lump sum proportional to the degree of disablement), temporary total disablement (a weekly benefit during the period the employee cannot work), and in some policies, medical expenses arising from the accident.
For an employee, GPA provides protection that extends well beyond what WIC covers. WIC responds only to workplace accidents. GPA responds to any accident. WIC pays statutory compensation calculated as a multiple of wages. GPA pays the sum insured, which the employer selects when structuring the programme.
For an employer, GPA is both a welfare provision and an employment proposition. A 2025 employer benefits survey found that 100% of respondents ranked group medical as the most important employer benefit. Group PA typically sits alongside group medical as the second most valued employer contribution, because it addresses the risk an employee carries personally, the risk of a serious accident, rather than the risk the employer carries legally.
Why GPA and WIC work together
WIC and GPA address different scenarios and different risks. They do not duplicate each other, and holding both does not create a situation where the employee is compensated twice for the same event.
For a work-related accident, WIC responds to the statutory obligation. If the employer also holds GPA for the employee, the GPA policy may respond to the portion of the loss that WIC does not address: a GPA accidental death benefit that exceeds the WIC statutory death compensation, a disablement lump sum that is not limited by the WICA formula, or a weekly benefit during medical leave that supplements the statutory medical leave wage.
For a non-work-related accident, WIC does not respond at all. A construction supervisor injured in a cycling accident over the weekend has no WIC claim. If the employer holds GPA for that supervisor, the GPA policy responds to the weekend accident in the same way it would respond to a workplace accident.
For employers with a workforce that includes both mandatory WIC categories and non-mandatory categories (senior executives and professional staff on salaries above S$2,600 per month), GPA provides the non-mandatory employees with accident protection that the employer has chosen to extend to them, without the statutory obligation that applies to the manual and lower-earning workforce.
How to structure the programme
For most Singapore SMEs, the practical approach is to hold WIC for all employees in mandatory categories, and to consider GPA as a programme-wide voluntary benefit for all employees regardless of WIC obligation.
The sum insured for GPA should reflect the employer's welfare intention and the profile of the workforce. A construction company with site-based employees carries a different risk profile from a professional services firm with office-based staff, and the sum insured appropriate for each reflects that difference.
You can read more about our Group PA cover and WIC cover on the products page.
If you are reviewing your current WIC and GPA arrangements and would like to understand how the two interact for your specific workforce profile, or whether the current sums insured reflect the welfare provision you intend to offer, we would be glad to work through it with you.
This article provides general information only. It is not insurance advice. Compensation limits cited reflect MOM's updated WICA figures effective 1 November 2025. Policy availability, terms, conditions, and exclusions vary by insurer and product, and cover is subject to the full policy wording. Please contact TZY CO for advice on your specific situation.