Singaporean households can claim S$300 CDC vouchers from Jun 25

SINGAPORE: Singaporean households can use their S$300 (US$222) in Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers from Tuesday (Jun 25). 

Similar to the previous rounds, the vouchers can be claimed digitally at go.gov.sg/cdcv. One member of each household can log in with their Singpass account to claim the latest CDC vouchers, which are valid until Dec 31, 2024, on behalf of their household.

The CDC vouchers were first launched in June 2020 and January 2021 to help lower-income households defray their cost of living and to support hawkers and heartland merchants affected by the pandemic.

The CDC vouchers scheme was in 2021 expanded to include all households, with this being the fifth tranche distributed nationwide.

Every Singaporean household received S$500 in CDC vouchers in January. Like the previous tranches, the S$300 CDC vouchers have been split into two halves – S$150 can be used at participating heartland merchants and hawkers, while the other half can be used at participating supermarkets, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong at the launch event at West Coast Community Centre on Tuesday. 

This is the first time that two tranches of CDC vouchers have been given out in the same calendar year.

More than 650,000 Singaporean households had claimed their June 2024 vouchers in the two days following the launch, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

At Budget 2024 in February, then-Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced Singaporeans would get more payouts to help with cost-of-living concerns. Among the payouts were S$600 in CDC vouchers - half of it can now be used, with the remaining half to be disbursed in January 2025. 

About 23,000 merchants are participating in the scheme in 2024, with Mr Gan noting that the CDCs have continued to onboard more, said Mr Gan.

Eight supermarkets with 415 outlets are also part of this year's scheme, including Ang Mo Supermarket, Giant Singapore, HAO Mart, NTUC FairPrice, Prime Supermarket, Sheng Siong, U-Stars Supermarket and Cold Storage. 

"I am also glad that, similar to the previous tranche of the CDC vouchers, some participating hawkers, merchants, and supermarkets are also extending their own discounts and rebates when residents use CDC vouchers at their shops," said Mr Gan. 

FairPriceGroup announced on Tuesday that it will give shoppers S$4 in FairPrice return vouchers for every S$50 worth of CDC vouchers spent in a single transaction at any store until Jul 1. The return vouchers will be valid from the day of issuance until Jul 31 with no minimum spend requirement.

Cold Storage said on its website that it will give a return voucher worth S$8 to shoppers who spend at least S$80 worth of CDC vouchers in one receipt.

Giant Singapore will also give shoppers a S$6 return voucher if they spend at least S$60 in CDC vouchers in a single receipt. Both promotion periods are from Tuesday to Sunday.

Members of the public can find the nearest participating supermarket, hawker centre or heartland merchant where they can use their CDC vouchers at this website. 

Mr Gan said he was "heartened" to see that the CDC voucher scheme continues to be well-received by Singaporeans. "All in all, each household would have received S$1,300 worth of CDC vouchers to date," he added.

Ms Low said in her Facebook post that across the first four tranches of the CDC voucher scheme, more than S$1.1 billion have been spent at participating hawkers, heartland merchants and supermarkets.

"Close to S$650 million was spent at heartland shops and hawker stalls," she added. "We expect this amount to rise to more than S$900 million by the end of this year."

About 1.3 million households have claimed the vouchers disbursed in January and more than S$500 million have been spent at participating heartland merchants, hawkers and supermarkets. 

The vouchers are part of the S$1.9 billion enhancements to the Assurance Package that was announced earlier this year to help households cope with cost-of-living concerns. 

The government is also providing assistance in other ways – eligible Singaporean households will receive U-save and service and conservancy charges (S&CC) rebates next month to help them offset their utility bills and S&CC charges.

They will again receive these rebates in October and in January 2025.

"Singaporeans can also look forward to receiving the Budget 2024 Cost-of-Living Special Payment in September," said Mr Gan. 

"Today, we live in a very uncertain and volatile world. As a small and open economy, Singapore will naturally be affected by global developments. But I am confident that as long as we stay united, we can overcome any challenges together."