Seniors' Mobility and Enabling Fund

The Seniors' Mobility and Enabling Fund (SMF) helps eligible seniors age in the community by subsidising mobility and assistive devices, and specified home healthcare items. Devices include walking aids, wheelchairs, motorised scooters, commodes, hospital beds, pressure-relief equipment, hearing aids, spectacles and specialised or customised equipment. The device and home-healthcare-item pathways have separate application and service conditions (AIC, accessed Aug 2026; AIC, home healthcare items, accessed Aug 2026).

Device eligibility and means testing

For the mobility-and-assistive-device pathway, the care recipient must be a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident aged 60 or older, not living in a nursing home or MSF home, and have the equipment need assessed by an approved healthcare professional. The household must have monthly income per person of S$4,800 or less, or property annual value under S$21,000 when there is no household income. Assessment fees can range from S$10 to S$180 depending on the subsidy tier (AIC, accessed Aug 2026).

The two means-test routes use different inputs: household monthly income is divided by the number of family members living at the NRIC address, while annual value is used when there is no household income. Annual value is an estimated rental value, not a second household-income figure, and AIC says 2026 subsidy levels use 2025 annual values. The assessment fee is not a separate device subsidy; it varies with the applicable subsidy tier (AIC, accessed 12 September 2026).

Subsidy and application rules

If approved, SMF funds up to 90% of the device cost or the applicable maximum device subsidy cap, whichever is lower; the means-test result determines the actual subsidy and co-payment. The application must be approved before purchase because AIC says advance purchases cannot be reimbursed. A complete application may take up to 15 working days to process, with longer processing possible for motorised devices or incomplete submissions (AIC, accessed Aug 2026).

The 90% figure is therefore a ceiling within the device route, not a guaranteed reimbursement rate or a cash payment to the applicant. The lower of the percentage calculation and the device-specific cap controls, and the applicant remains responsible for the required co-payment; purchase timing matters because approval must precede the transaction (AIC, accessed 12 September 2026).

Motorised devices and replacements

Applicants for a motorised device must additionally show that the care recipient needs it to age in place, cannot use a manual wheelchair independently, has no full-time caregiver or domestic helper able to push the wheelchair, and is mentally and physically able to use the device safely. Replacement applications are subject to device-specific blackout periods: AIC lists 24, 36 or 48 months for different categories, measured from the previous approval date to the replacement application date. These conditions make a motorised-device request or replacement request more specific than a general request for any mobility aid (AIC, accessed Aug 2026).

The motorised-device safeguards are suitability and replacement rules, not an entitlement to a particular model. A manual-wheelchair user who has a caregiver able to push the chair, or who cannot safely operate the motorised device, may not satisfy the additional conditions even if the general age and means-test criteria are met. The blackout period also runs from the previous approval date to the new application date, not simply from the date the device was delivered (AIC, accessed 12 September 2026).

SMF, home healthcare items and ATF boundary

The SMF home-healthcare-item pathway covers specified items such as catheters, milk supplements, thickeners, adult diapers, nasal tubing and wound dressings, and requires the person to be receiving an eligible home-nursing, home-medical, home-palliative or day-hospice service. Since the 2022 policy boundary, a person who first used the Assistive Technology Fund (ATF) before age 60 generally continues under ATF, while a person who first used ATF at age 60 or older is served by SMF. SMF is therefore not a universal cash grant and should not be merged with HCG or ATF (AIC, home healthcare items, accessed Aug 2026; AIC, device guidance, accessed Aug 2026).

The home-healthcare-item route has different operational rules from the device route. AIC says approved support can fund up to 80% of the item cost, subject to the maximum subsidy cap for each financial year from 1 April to 31 March, and the means-test result determines the co-payment. The care provider for home nursing, home medical, home palliative or day hospice services must help submit the application; a person cannot assume that a device application or a direct retail purchase activates this pathway. AIC says processing may take up to three weeks, and items bought before approval cannot be reimbursed (AIC, home healthcare items, accessed Aug 2026).

The distinction is important when comparing headline percentages. The up to 90% figure belongs to approved mobility and assistive devices, while the home-healthcare-item page states up to 80% for its specified items; neither is an automatic payment of that percentage to every applicant. Both routes depend on eligibility, means testing, approved items or equipment needs, prior approval and applicable caps, while the ATF transition rule concerns which fund serves a person based on the age at which ATF was first used (AIC, device guidance, accessed Aug 2026; AIC, home healthcare items, accessed Aug 2026).