Nobody signs a two year contract expecting to be unhappy eight weeks in. It still happens, and most families sit on it far too long, hoping it sorts itself out, before saying anything to anyone.
Here is what we actually do when a placement is not going well, who decides what happens next, and what the rules are if you decide to change helper.
The short answer
Tell us early and we counsel. That counselling is unlimited and it does not run out. We do not decide that a placement is over. Only you or the helper can. If you want a replacement you may use it whenever you see fit, and inside the first six months MOM also gives you a refund option.
Counselling comes first, and it does not run out
Most of what gets called a bad match is a gap nobody has closed. She does not know what you actually want. You do not know what she finds hard. Both of you are being polite about it, and three weeks later it feels permanent.
So we counsel. We message you first to say we are looking into it and to agree a time, then we speak to the helper on her own. Hearing both sides separately is the only way to find out what is really going on, because neither of you will say it plainly in front of the other.
There is no cap on this. Some helpers are counselled once every few months for close to a year, some right through to the end of the contract, and they finish their two years. We do not stop at a certain number of sessions and we do not charge you for them.
Our counselling is unlimited. We are here to bridge the gap between the employer and the helper.
Most of it is the first three months
There are broadly two kinds of case. In the first, which is the large majority, she is adjusting. New country, new household, new standard of cleanliness, and a family whose routine she is learning by watching. That takes about three months, and then it settles and she goes on to complete her contract.
In the second, something stays unresolved and needs revisiting every few months. That is still a working placement. It just needs us in the middle of it more often.
We do not decide that it is over
This is the part families are most surprised by. We do not initiate a transfer. That decision belongs to you or to the helper, and it is not ours to make for either of you. Our job sits between the two of you, not on one side of it.
In practice that means you are not waiting for our permission. You may use the replacement process at any point you consider right, without sitting through a set number of sessions first or arguing your case to us.
If you decide to change helper
The order matters, because the Work Permit dates are tight and the penalties for missing them fall on you.
Tell us before you tell her. It gives us the chance to try one more conversation, and if you have already decided, it gives us a head start on finding the next helper.
Settle what is outstanding. Agree her last day of work and clear anything owed, salary included. MOM’s own advice is to try to resolve a dispute before ending the employment over it.
Serve the notice in your contract. Either of you may end it that way. If notice is not served, the one ending it pays salary in lieu, and the notice can be waived if you both agree to that.
She transfers, or she goes home. A transfer needs your consent through MOM’s eService, her written consent, and the new employer’s application. Send her for her six monthly medical first, and expect to pay the levy until the new permit is issued.
If she goes home, watch the dates. Cancel the Work Permit within one week of her last day, on the myMOM Portal. She must leave within two weeks of that cancellation, and she cannot work in between. You pay for the flight home, with check in luggage, to the airport nearest her hometown.
Replacement, and the refund you may be owed
Our replacement period runs from your first signed contract: six months if you took a transfer helper, twelve months for a helper coming in from overseas. A replacement is a new helper, not a new contract, so the paperwork is lighter the second time.
Separately from that, MOM requires employment agencies to offer a refund of at least half the service fee if the employment ends inside the first six months. Ours is a flat half of Section A. Tell us within a reasonable time that you intend to cancel, repatriate or transfer her. See MOM’s page on the service fee refund.
The exceptions are real. It falls away if the employment ended through a breach of employment law or an offence against the helper, if she was hired as a caregiver and that care is no longer needed, and once you have taken two replacements where one lasted beyond six months. On a replacement case there is usually no Section A to refund, so the figure is often nil.
The one thing that changes the outcome
Message us early. Not when you have made up your mind, but on the day you first think this is not working. That is the point where a conversation still fixes it, and it is the difference between a placement that recovers and one that ends with a flight to pay for.
If it is not working
Tell the consultant handling your case what is happening and we will arrange the counselling. If you would rather talk it through before you say anything at home, call either branch. Still choosing, and want to get the match right the first time? Browse who is available at unistarr.com.sg/helpers. 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
