Terms of Service

1. About Schemes.sg

Schemes.sg is a community project operated by better.sg Limited, a Singapore public company limited by guarantee and registered charity.

Legal entity: better.sg Limited
Unique Entity Number: 202015048G
Charity Registration Number: 202016788N

In these Terms, "Schemes.sg", "better.sg", "we", "us", and "our" refer to better.sg Limited in its operation of Schemes.sg. "You" means the person who accesses or uses the Service and, where applicable, the organisation on whose behalf that person acts.

2. Acceptance and Scope

These Terms govern access to and use of:

• The Schemes.sg website at https://schemes.sg and associated pages or subdomains
• Search, chat, feedback, contribution, and other interactive features
• Public scheme records, structured datasets, downloads, feeds, and documentation that we publish
• Published Schemes.sg APIs and related developer services
• Schemes.sg applications, integrations, and other resources that refer to these Terms

Together, these are the "Service". By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you use the Service for an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to accept these Terms for that organisation. A separate written agreement with better.sg takes priority to the extent that it conflicts with these Terms.

3. Nature of the Service

Schemes.sg helps users discover information about assistance schemes offered by government agencies, social-service organisations, charities, foundations, and other providers. Volunteers and automated tools compile, structure, summarise, translate, and update information from public and contributed sources.

The Service may use search algorithms and generative AI to identify and explain potentially relevant schemes. It does not determine eligibility, approve applications, reserve funding, or submit an application to a scheme provider.

We provide the Service on a best-effort basis. Unless a separate written agreement states otherwise:

• The Service is provided "as is" and "as available"
• No service level, uptime, response-time, maintenance, support, or data-refresh commitment applies
• Features, data fields, endpoints, schemas, limits, and models may change
• We may correct, suspend, discontinue, or withdraw any part of the Service

4. General Permission to Use the Service

Subject to these Terms, you may use the public Service for lawful personal, charitable, research, educational, public-interest, or commercial purposes. You may link to public Schemes.sg pages without prior permission, provided that you do not imply endorsement or present Schemes.sg within a misleading frame.

Different licences may apply to source code, Public Scheme Data, third-party content, and trade marks. Sections 5 and 10 explain these distinctions.

5. Automated Access, Scraping, and Public Scheme Data

5.1 Express Permission for Automated Access

Schemes.sg permits responsible automated access to Public Scheme Data. You may use crawlers, scrapers, indexing tools, agents, scripts, or published APIs to access, retrieve, copy, and process Public Scheme Data from public Schemes.sg pages or endpoints.

You may use Public Scheme Data to build and operate applications, websites, search tools, directories, research, archives, analyses, and machine-learning or AI systems for lawful commercial or non-commercial purposes. You do not need separate written permission if you comply with these Terms.

Use of a published API is encouraged for repeat or high-volume access where an API provides the required data. Scraping public pages remains permitted when no suitable API or data export is available.

5.2 Meaning of Public Scheme Data

"Public Scheme Data" means factual and structured information about schemes that Schemes.sg intentionally makes available on public scheme pages, in a public dataset or feed, or through a documented public API. It can include scheme names, providers, summaries, categories, eligibility information, benefit descriptions, application steps, contact channels, source URLs, and update metadata.

Public Scheme Data does not include:

• Search terms, chat messages, conversation history, feedback, ratings, or session records
• Contributor or user names, email addresses, or other personal data collected through forms
• API keys, account records, security information, or non-public logs
• Administrative interfaces, unpublished endpoints, private repositories, or access-controlled data
• Website design, user-interface elements, illustrations, photographs, logos, or trade marks
• Source code, which is governed by the licence stated in its repository

Accessing a public web page does not make every element on that page Public Scheme Data.

5.3 Responsible Retrieval

When using automated tools, you must:

• Access only public pages, documented public endpoints, or data exports that do not require you to bypass an access control
• Follow published API documentation, authentication requirements, technical limits, and crawl instructions that apply to the relevant endpoint or path
• Use a reasonable request rate and reduce or stop requests when you receive a rate-limit, overload, or similar response
• Avoid conduct that degrades the Service or prevents other users from accessing it
• Identify your API client or automated user agent and provide a working contact address where technically practicable
• Keep source URLs and available update dates with records so downstream users can verify current information

You must comply with any rate limit or fair-use standard published in the API documentation or communicated through the Service. We may contact you to agree a more suitable access method for sustained bulk use.

5.4 Licence for Schemes.sg Rights in Public Scheme Data

To the extent that better.sg owns or is authorised to license rights in Public Scheme Data, that data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence ("CC BY 4.0").

This means that, subject to the licence and these Terms, you may copy, distribute, display, adapt, and use those rights worldwide for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You must:

• Give appropriate credit to Schemes.sg
• Include a link to https://schemes.sg and to the CC BY 4.0 licence
• State the date on which you accessed the data
• Indicate if you changed the data
• Not suggest that Schemes.sg, better.sg, a government agency, or a scheme provider endorses you or your use

A suitable attribution is:

Contains information from Schemes.sg (https://schemes.sg), accessed on [date], used under CC BY 4.0. Changes were made [if applicable].

The CC BY 4.0 licence governs Public Scheme Data that better.sg owns or is authorised to license if it conflicts with a general provision of these Terms. Third-party and source-specific rights remain subject to Section 5.5. Where practicable, datasets and API documentation will include a machine-readable licence notice.

5.5 Third-Party and Source Rights

Schemes.sg aggregates information from many sources. We can license only rights that we own or are authorised to license. These Terms do not grant rights in:

• Third-party copyright, database content, photographs, illustrations, logos, or trade marks
• Government or other datasets that remain subject to their own licence
• Personal data, even if exposed inadvertently
• Material that a source provider has not authorised us to sublicense

The original source link and any record-specific licence or notice identify terms that may apply to source material. For example, some Singapore public-sector datasets are subject to the Singapore Open Data Licence. You are responsible for complying with applicable source terms and obtaining any additional permission that you need.

5.6 Personal Data Is Not Open Data

Permission to scrape or use an API does not grant any right to collect, use, disclose, sell, profile, or republish personal data. If personal data is exposed unintentionally, stop using and redistributing it, delete local copies where reasonably practicable, and notify our Data Protection Officer.

Business contact information that a scheme provider publishes for programme enquiries may be included in Public Scheme Data. You remain responsible for complying with applicable privacy, direct-marketing, and anti-spam laws.

5.7 Your Applications and Derived Work

You own your application, analysis, and original additions, subject to rights in the underlying data and content. You are responsible for your product, users, security, legal compliance, and privacy notice.

If your application provides scheme recommendations, you should display the original scheme source, the date of your data, and a clear notice that users must verify eligibility with the scheme provider. You must not present altered or stale information as current, unmodified Schemes.sg data.

6. API Terms

This Section applies when you access a published Schemes.sg API.

6.1 Access

You may call and use a published API for lawful commercial or non-commercial purposes. You may include API results in your own application, subject to Section 5 and any endpoint-specific documentation.

6.2 Credentials and Client Conduct

Access to the partner API requires a key that we issue to approved partner organisations. If we issue you a key, you must:

• Give accurate registration information
• Keep credentials secure and confidential
• Use credentials only for the registered client or organisation
• Notify us promptly of suspected compromise
• Not sell, transfer, share, conceal, or misuse credentials except as permitted in the API documentation
• Not misrepresent or mask the identity of your API client

You are responsible for activity under your credentials until you notify us of compromise.

6.3 Monitoring and Limits

We may monitor API use to operate and improve the Service, measure demand, enforce these Terms, and protect security. We may apply reasonable quotas, rate limits, authentication, or technical controls. We may suspend API access that creates security risk, materially disrupts the Service, or breaches these Terms.

6.4 Changes and Availability

An API, schema, field, endpoint, authentication method, or limit may change or be discontinued. We will use reasonable efforts to give notice of material breaking changes, but we do not guarantee notice, backward compatibility, continued availability, or support.

7. Acceptable Use

You must not:

• Use the Service in breach of law, regulation, court order, or another person's rights
• Attempt to access a non-public system, record, endpoint, account, or credential without authorisation
• Bypass authentication, rate limits, robot exclusions for restricted paths, or other technical controls
• Probe, scan, exploit, or publicise a vulnerability except by reporting it privately to info@better.sg, without accessing data or disrupting the Service
• Introduce malware, malicious code, automated attacks, or content designed to disrupt or manipulate the Service
• Attempt to cause the chat assistant to produce sexual content, content that attacks or demeans any group, or content intended to inflame racial or religious tension or to attack Singapore's institutions, or attempt to circumvent the limits that prevent it
• Use automated access in a way that materially impairs availability for other users
• Collect or republish user personal data from the Service
• Submit identity documents, passwords, Singpass credentials, bank details, or unnecessary case files
• Submit another person's personal data without authority or a lawful basis
• Knowingly give false, deceptive, defamatory, infringing, or unlawful feedback or scheme information
• Claim that Schemes.sg determines eligibility, guarantees assistance, represents a government agency, or endorses your product
• Use Schemes.sg or better.sg names, logos, or trade marks in a way that causes confusion about sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement

8. Feedback and Contributions

You may submit feedback, new scheme information, corrections, and other content ("Contributions"). You confirm that:

• You have the right to submit the Contribution
• The Contribution is accurate to the best of your knowledge
• The Contribution does not contain unnecessary personal data or confidential information
• Our use of the Contribution as permitted below will not infringe another person's rights

You grant better.sg a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable licence to use, reproduce, verify, edit, adapt, translate, publish, distribute, and incorporate your Contribution into Schemes.sg and related public-interest resources. This licence does not transfer ownership of your Contribution and does not apply to personal data as such.

We may accept, reject, edit, remove, or decline to publish a Contribution. We do not have to compensate or credit you unless we agree otherwise.

9. Third-Party Schemes, Links, and Services

Scheme providers, application portals, websites, and other external services are independent of Schemes.sg. A link, record, or search result does not mean that better.sg controls, endorses, or guarantees the provider or service.

You access and use third-party services at your own risk and subject to their terms and privacy practices. Schemes.sg is not responsible for their availability, decisions, conduct, data handling, or content.

10. Intellectual Property and Branding

Unless a specific licence states otherwise:

• Better.sg owns or licenses the Schemes.sg website, original text, software, graphics, design, and documentation
• Public Scheme Data is governed by Section 5
• Source code in the public Schemes.sg repository is licensed under the MIT Licence. The MIT Licence applies to software code only. CC BY 4.0 applies only to eligible Public Scheme Data. Neither licence applies to third-party material or to Schemes.sg and better.sg names, logos, or other brand elements unless expressly stated
• Third-party material remains subject to the rights and terms of its owner or source
• Schemes.sg and better.sg names, logos, and other brand elements are not licensed for reuse except for factual attribution
• No implied licence is granted. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

11. Information Accuracy and No Professional Advice

We try to keep scheme information useful and current, but schemes, eligibility rules, benefits, funding, deadlines, and application processes can change without notice. Information may be summarised, translated, or generated from a source and may not reproduce every condition.

The official source and scheme provider take priority over Schemes.sg information. You must make your own checks or obtain advice appropriate to your circumstances.

12. Volunteer-Built Service and No Support Obligation

Schemes.sg is developed and operated primarily by volunteers on a best-effort basis. Unless a separate written agreement states otherwise, better.sg does not undertake to maintain, update, fix, customise, or support the Service or any integration.

Requests and reports are welcome, but we do not guarantee a response or resolution.

13. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data. It forms part of these Terms.

An operator that uses Public Scheme Data or a Schemes.sg API in its own application is responsible for its own privacy notice and compliance. Schemes.sg does not become responsible for personal data collected independently by that operator.

14. No Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service, Public Scheme Data, APIs, Contributions, and outputs are provided "as is" and "as available", without any express, implied, or statutory warranty. This includes warranties of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, reliability, availability, security, merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that:

• The Service will identify every relevant scheme or determine eligibility correctly
• Information or AI output will be accurate, complete, current, or suitable for your circumstances
• The Service or an API will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or compatible with your systems
• A defect, broken link, or vulnerability will be corrected
• Data or conversation history will be preserved
• Use of data or content will not require additional third-party permission

15. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, better.sg and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers, contractors, project leads, and affiliates will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from or connected with the Service, Public Scheme Data, an API, or these Terms, whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty, or otherwise.

This exclusion includes direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive loss, and loss of data, revenue, profit, opportunity, goodwill, assistance, benefits, or anticipated savings. It also includes loss caused by:

• Reliance on scheme information, search results, translations, or AI output
• A missed scheme, deadline, eligibility condition, or application opportunity
• A service interruption, endpoint change, data error, security event, or discontinuation
• A third-party scheme provider, application, website, API, or service
• Your application, integration, scraping activity, or derived analysis

These exclusions and limitations apply only to the extent permitted by applicable law. Nothing in these Terms excludes a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded.

16. Indemnity

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you will indemnify better.sg and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers, contractors, project leads, and affiliates against claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising from:

• Your material breach of these Terms
• Your unlawful, infringing, or unauthorised use of the Service, data, content, or API
• Your application, integration, dataset, analysis, or redistribution of information
• Your violation of another person's privacy, intellectual-property, or other rights
• A third-party claim resulting from content or personal data that you submit

17. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time.

We may restrict, suspend, or terminate access where we reasonably believe this is needed to protect users or the Service, comply with law, investigate misuse, enforce these Terms, or manage technical capacity. We may revoke credentials or block abusive traffic without prior notice where urgent action is required.

On termination, your permission to access the Service ends. Rights already granted under CC BY 4.0 remain subject to that licence. Provisions that by their nature should continue will survive, including provisions on intellectual property, disclaimers, liability, indemnity, and governing law.

18. Changes to the Service or These Terms

We may update these Terms. We will post the revised Terms with a new effective date and give additional notice where required by law. Changes apply prospectively. Your continued use after the effective date means that you accept the revised Terms.

An open-data licence already granted for a specific copy of Public Scheme Data remains governed by that licence. A later change to these Terms does not retroactively withdraw rights that the applicable data licence makes irrevocable.

19. Notices and Contact

For questions about these Terms, data reuse, API access, permissions, or partnerships, contact:

Organisation: better.sg Limited
Schemes.sg general enquiries: info@better.sg
Data and API enquiries: info@better.sg
Data Protection Officer: Data Protection Officer, better.sg Limited
Email: info@better.sg
Website: https://schemes.sg

20. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by Singapore law. The Singapore courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising from or connected with these Terms or the Service.

Before starting formal proceedings, we encourage you to contact us so that we can try to resolve the matter in good faith.

21. General Terms

If a court finds part of these Terms invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. These Terms and any documents expressly incorporated into them form the agreement between you and better.sg about the Service, except where a separate written agreement applies.

No person other than you and better.sg has a right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2001 to enforce these Terms.