By Lee Siew Hua

TAN Lim Motor hopes to buy a laptop for an employee - an expectant mum - so she can work from home.

Its administrative director Patricia Tan, 37, told The Straits Times that it hopes to tap a newly enhanced fund for work-life balance to do so.

She herself stays home on some afternoons to care for her two children, aged six and eight.

From happy experience, the family-run firm in car repairs knows laptops can help make work-life balance work. In 2007, it applied successfully to the Work-Life Works! or WoW! Fund for a grant of $8,000 that it used mainly to acquire laptops for three employees who have children.

The fund helps employers introduce work-life balance, with a focus on flexible work arrangements.

During yesterday's debate on the budget estimates of the Manpower Ministry, Mr Ong Ah Heng (Nee Soon Central) had raised a concern about fair employment for women and older workers in the recession.

Responding, Mr Hawazi Daipi, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Manpower), began by noting that the uptick in last year's employment rate resulted mainly from more older people and women taking up jobs.

To support these groups, the Government will raise the appeal of two schemes from March 1.

First, the maximum grant from the WoW! Fund will double from $10,000 per company to $20,000.

More than 500 companies have benefited from the fund since it was set up in 2004. Of these, 90 per cent are small and medium-sized enterprises with 200 staff or fewer.

Next to be enhanced: The Flexi-Works! scheme. This ushers economically inactive people back into the labour pool by encouraging bosses to offer part-time work or other flexible plans.

Mr Hawazi said: 'We will also extend Flexi-Works! for another year, with a budget of $3 million.'

Plus, the qualifying age will be lowered from 35 to 30 years. The hope is that companies will recruit more women who seek to return to work before they turn 35.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.