Almost every request we turn down comes from a reasonable family who simply did not know. The rules are not obvious, they are not in one place, and the consequences land on the employer rather than on the helper.
Here are the ones we say no to most often, what MOM actually requires, and what we tell families to do instead.
The short answer
A helper may do only household and domestic duties, and only at the address on her Work Permit or another address MOM has approved in writing. She cannot work in your business, work for another household, or clean the outside of a window above ground level unless the grilles are locked and an adult is supervising.
The three requests we turn down most
- Helping in the family business. The shop, the stall, the home office, the packing in the spare room.
- Working in two households. Usually your home and a parent’s or a sibling’s.
- Living at a different address from the one on her Work Permit.
None of these is a grey area. Each one puts your Work Permit privileges at risk, and the first one is the one families are most surprised by.
Your business is out, completely
This is the firmest no we give. Her Work Permit says she may perform only household and domestic duties, and the employer’s condition is plainer still: you may not permit her to be employed by or contracted to any other person or business to do work for them. There is no version of helping with the business that is allowed, including unpaid, including occasional, including when the business runs from your own flat.
A second home, and following the children or a parent
A helper may work at the residential address on her Work Permit, or at any other residential address MOM has approved in writing. That second part is the one families miss. Approval means MOM has it in writing. An arrangement agreed within the family is not the same thing, however sensible it is.
Where her work genuinely follows a person rather than a place, it can be done properly. If her job centres on the children and the children spend their days at grandma’s, or if she is caring for an elderly parent who lives elsewhere, that address can be added with MOM. The test is whose care she is employed for, not where the work happens to take place. We handle the submission. What we cannot do is leave it undeclared.
Cleaning the outside of windows
If your home is above ground level, she may clean the exterior of a window only when both of these are true at the same time:
Window grilles are installed and locked for the whole time she is cleaning.
You or another adult are physically there, supervising. Not in the next room.
No grilles means no exterior window cleaning, however careful she is and however much she offers. Windows at ground level or along a common corridor are outside this rule. Use an extended-handle tool, and keep her body inside with only her arms past the ledge. Anything the tool cannot reach is a job for a window cleaner.
Her passport and her Work Permit stay with her
Her original Work Permit and visit pass must remain in her possession. You may not hold them. Her passport is her own document too: MOM’s position is that employers should not keep it and should not ask for it, and that if she offers it she should be told to keep it herself. We have seen this become a dispute more often than any other small thing.
Where she is genuinely worried about keeping it safe, often because she shares a room, the answer is a lockable place that she controls and can reach any time without asking you. See MOM’s own note on whether an employer can keep a worker’s passport.
Where she sleeps
You must provide acceptable accommodation. Most Singapore homes do not have a spare room, and that is not a disqualification. The two arrangements we see most are sharing a room, usually with a child, and a partitioned corner of the living room. Both can be done decently. What matters is that she has her own sleeping space, somewhere to put her belongings, and enough privacy to change and sleep without being walked past.
If something goes wrong, speak to her directly. Tell her what went wrong and why, give one firm warning, and tell her what to do next time.
Her phone
Our view: daily use after work is reasonable, winding down somewhere between 9pm and 10.30pm. Households settle at different hours, so set it by the end of your own evening. If you agree an hour, hold to the hour you agreed rather than changing it week to week. Let her use her own phone rather than yours, and let her have the privacy to speak to her family. A helper cut off from home does not settle, and she does not stay.
When you need extra help
A one-off at home is fine within what she can reasonably manage. A birthday party, a spring clean, tidying up after a job you are doing in the flat. She can help with all of that.
What she cannot become is the mover. Shifting the boxes is heavy work, and it belongs to a company that does it for a living.
When a rule has been broken
Speak to her, not around her. Say what went wrong and why it matters, give one firm warning, and be specific about what she should do next time. Most things end there. If it does not, message us and we will counsel her ourselves. MOM’s page on the contract and safety agreement is worth a read before she starts, not after.
Not sure if you can ask
Ask us before you ask her. If it can be arranged properly we will tell you how, and if it cannot we will say so plainly. Browse who is available at unistarr.com.sg/helpers, or talk it through at either branch. There is no charge for a consultation or an interview.
Bukit Timah +65 9723 4920
Katong +65 9647 4781
Mon-Fri 11am-7pm · Sat-Sun 11am-5pm
How to be the employer a helper stays with
The Unistarr Employer Handbook. What to set up in the first week, how to talk about money and days off, and the mistakes that cost families a good helper. Written from over 4,000 placements since 2015.
Free, whether or not you are a Unistarr client. One email, no spam.
Unistarr Employment Pte Ltd · MOM EA Licence 15C7448
As featured on CNA + 8world, June 2026
