Care Secure explained: benefits, limits and the fine print

Care Secure is Income Insurance's CareShield Life supplement — a private policy layered on top of the national long-term care scheme, designed to raise the monthly payout you would receive if you become severely disabled. This explainer works through what the insurer's published material says the plan covers, and what to check before relying on the figures.

How it fits with CareShield Life

CareShield Life is the compulsory long-term care scheme most Singaporeans born from 1980 are enrolled into, and it pays a monthly benefit once you are assessed as unable to perform a defined number of daily living activities. Care Secure does not replace that national scheme; it supplements it, adding its own monthly benefit on top once you qualify. You need to already be a CareShield Life policyholder to buy a supplement like this one.

What Care Secure pays

According to Income Insurance's published product page, Care Secure's core structure is:

• A disability benefit you choose in S$100 steps, from S$1,200 to S$5,000 a month. You select the amount at purchase within that range, and the premium scales with it.
• Lifetime payouts once a qualifying disability claim is admitted, rather than a payout capped at a fixed number of years.
• A support benefit of 300% to 600% of the monthly disability benefit, paid depending on the severity of the claim.
• A dependant benefit of 25% of the monthly disability benefit for up to 36 months, intended to support dependants during a claim.
• A death benefit of 300% of the disability benefit.

Claim trigger and other terms

Care Secure's claim trigger is set at needing significant assistance with at least two activities of daily living — a lower bar than CareShield Life's own three-of-six threshold, which means the supplement can start paying in situations where the base scheme would not yet qualify. Other terms from the published page:

• Deferment period: 90 days from the claim date applies before payouts start, except for claims arising from an accident.
• Entry age: cover can start from age 30, with a maximum entry age of 47 for cover running to age 67, or 64 for cover running to age 84.
• Premium payment term: premiums are payable to age 67 or age 84 depending on the option chosen, on a last-birthday basis.
• MediSave payment: premiums can be paid from MediSave up to S$600 per insured person per year, with any amount above that payable in cash.
• Payout escalation: the published page does not state an escalation feature, and it notes that severe disability payouts are reduced by any concurrent CareShield Life benefits received.

What is not published here

The product page does not state a published price for Care Secure — premiums depend on the disability benefit level chosen, your age at entry, and the premium term selected, and are quoted individually. If a specific premium figure matters to your decision, get a current quote from Income Insurance or a licensed advisor rather than relying on an estimate.

What governs if there is a discrepancy

Income Insurance's own disclosure sheets and policy wordings — not the marketing page — are the documents that actually govern a claim. The insurer publishes a product summary and a separate policy conditions document for Care Secure, along with supporting materials such as a reinstatement form. Where anything in this explainer or the product page differs from what those documents say, the documents take precedence, and it is worth reading them, or asking an advisor to walk through them, before buying.

What to check when comparing this to another CareShield Life supplement

Every CareShield Life supplement on the market shares the same basic purpose, but the details that matter at claim time differ:

1. The claim trigger — some supplements start paying at two activities of daily living, others require three, and the payout for a partial trigger may be a fraction of the full benefit.
2. Whether the payout is fixed or can escalate, and at what cost.
3. The deferment period, and whether accident claims are treated differently, as they are here.
4. What happens to the benefit alongside a concurrent CareShield Life claim — this plan explicitly reduces the severe disability payout by the CareShield Life amount received, and other insurers structure this differently.
5. The lump sum, dependant and death benefits, since these vary in size and duration across insurers.

None of this makes one plan better or cheaper than another; it simply means the comparison needs to be done on the actual terms rather than the headline monthly figure. Compare current long-term care supplements at /compare/singapore/long-term-care.

Talk to an advisor

Because figures here come from the insurer's own published material as at the date shown and can change, and the actual product documents govern any claim, it is worth having a licensed advisor confirm the current terms before you commit. Use the portal's advisor matching to find one who specialises in long-term care planning.

Sources

• Income Insurance — Care Secure official product page
• Income Insurance — Care Secure policy conditions