More babies to receive S$3,000 Baby Support Grant as Government relaxes criteria
- The grant was only eligible for babies born from Oct 1 onwards
- Parents whose estimated date of delivery was on or after Oct 1 are now also eligible for the grant
- No new start date will satisfy everyone, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah
- The Government considered giving out the grant next year but this was brought forward to discourage parents from delaying parenthood due to the Covid-19
SINGAPORE — Babies born before Oct 1 but who were expected to arrive on or after that date — based on their estimated delivery date — will now be eligible for the one-off Baby Support Grant of S$3,000.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah who announced this in Parliament on Thursday (Oct 15) said that the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) will provide more information to parents on how they can apply for the grant in due course.
When the Government announced last week that parents with babies born after Oct 1 would be eligible for the one-off grant, it was met with a number of online petitions signed by parents who had missed out on the grant.
Ms Indranee said the Government was aware of the feedback and petitions but sought the public’s understanding on the decision to impose a specific start date.
“Regardless of the effective start date, there will always be some babies who are born before it. The appeals we have received to change the start date of the Baby Support Grant have come with a wide range of suggestions for the start date,” she said.
Ms Indranee pointed out that some had suggested that the grant should cover babies born in September, on the basis that it is close to October, while others suggested April, the start of the circuit breaker.
Others, including Member of Parliament for Tampines Group Representation Constituency Cheng Li Hui, suggested that the start date should be moved to Feb 7, when the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) alert level was raised to orange, she said.
She pointed out that there are also two petitions — one asking for the grant to cover children born from Jan 1 this year, as that was when the Covid-19 pandemic started, and the other asking for it to cover children aged one and below as of Oct 1. She had also received another appeal asking for the grant to be given to children under the age of seven years.
“So you can see, it is not straightforward. And each group has reasons for the age proposed, and looking at it from their perspective, these reasons are all valid. But we can only choose one date, and whichever date we choose, there will be groups who are not covered,” she added.
Ms Indranee said that the Government could also have decided on a later start date for the grant given that the intention is to provide additional support to parents who wish to have a child, and discourage them from postponing their parenthood plans.
A survey by NPTD and the Ministry of Social and Family Development in June found that three in 10 Singaporean couples were planning to delay having a child due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We could have taken a very strict approach, and if we took a strict approach, it would mean that the start date should be nine months after the date of announcement which would actually be July 2021,” she said.
“Indeed, one of the residents wrote in saying that ‘if the grant was meant to encourage couples to have children, then children born in October 2020 should not qualify, as the child is already conceived prior to the grant announcement’.”
She said that one of the plans being considered was to provide this additional support only next year from Jan 1, drawing on next year’s budget.
However, the Government later settled on an earlier date, as it felt it was “important to get the support out as quickly as we can” to help more Singaporeans with their parenthood aspirations, Ms Indranee said.
“Announcing the plans next year could mean that parents may delay attempts to have a child in the meantime. So, we tried hard to see how we could do this earlier.”
SINGLE PARENTS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR GRANT: INDRANEE
Responding to Member of Parliament (MP) for Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Joan Pereira and Workers’ Party MP for Sengkang GRC, He Ting Ru, on whether single parents would be eligible for the grant, Ms Indranee said that they would not.
“(The grant) is an add-on to the baby bonus cash gift, which in itself was designed to encourage marriage and parenthood, so it is not quite consistent to extend it to singles in this context,” she explained.
She reiterated the point that the scheme was “to help reassure couples, minimise delays in their marriage and parenthood plans”.
She assured the House however that government benefits for the growth and development of children, including childcare and infant care subsidies, are given to all Singaporean children regardless of the marital status of their parents.
WP chief Pritam Singh, separately, asked if the Government would consider extending the grant to Singaporeans who have received Covid-19-related subsidies, such as the self-employed persons income relief scheme or Covid-19 Support Grant, since they had already “exhibited a particular difficulty”.
Ms Indranee said again that the grant has “a very specific policy intent” and that there are other existing schemes to help lower income groups.
“The assurance we can give is, if you are low-income, and you have a child before Oct 1, and you have financial difficulties, we will help you. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of the Baby Support Grant, but we will still help you,” she said.
