S$1.7m in Medisave grants paid mistakenly to babies to be recovered
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board said on Wednesday (April 5) that it is clawing back between S$1,000 and S$3,000 in Medisave grants wrongly given to 885 children who obtained citizenship after birth, with the total sum in the administrative blunder amounting to S$1.7 million.
The lapse was discovered in January during checks on a parent’s enquiry regarding the amount of his child’s Medisave grant for newborns, a CPF Board spokesperson told TODAY. “Upon investigating, we discovered that the child had been given a higher (grant) amount than he was eligible for,” the spokesperson said.
Stressing that the processing error was confined to the specific scheme, the spokesperson added: “Some records of children who were not Singapore Citizens at birth were wrongly processed as citizens at birth. This resulted in the overpayment.”
The sum will be recovered from the Medisave accounts of the affected children by April 12, and notification letters were sent to their parents on Wednesday. For those who have already spent part of the money and have insufficient funds in their Medisave accounts for recovery, they will be asked to pay the shortfall in cash. The CPF Board will work with them on alternative arrangements if they have any difficulties, the spokesperson said. Fewer than 100 children do not have sufficient funds in their Medisave Accounts for full recovery. Of these, the maximum shortfall is S$159 per child.
Apologising to affected parents for what is understood to be an unprecedented slip-up of such nature, the spokesperson said the CPF Board has “conducted a thorough review and enhanced the work processes involved”, by having additional payment verification checks on all newborns who are eligible for the grants.
As part of the Marriage and Parenthood Package, all newborn citizens are credited with a S$4,000 grant in their CPF Medisave account, which helps parents defray their child’s healthcare expenses, such as MediShield Life premiums, recommended childhood vaccinations, hospitalisation, and approved outpatient treatments. Since they were not citizens at birth, these 885 children were either not eligible for the grant or should have received a pro-rated amount.
The grant, introduced on Aug 26, 2012, was enhanced from S$3,000 to S$4,000 for citizens born from Jan 1, 2015. Children who are not born Singaporeans but obtain citizenship before they turn 2 years old are given pro-rated amounts, depending on when they become a citizen.
Lawyers noted that those who received the grants erroneously were legally obliged to return them, “unless they are able to show that their position has so adversely changed that it would be inequitable for the families to pay back the sums to the CPF Board”, said I.R.B Law managing partner Mohamed Baiross.
Mr Amolat Singh from Amolat & Partners added: “Money mistakenly paid is always recoverable in law as that is unjust enrichment of the recipient. It is recoverable as a debt and some sort of an instalment plan can be worked out perhaps.”
Tampines GRC Member of Parliament Desmond Choo said while the money has to be recovered eventually, he hoped the CPF Board can be “sensitive to the financial needs of families who might have used the funds”.
“This did not begin as a fault of the parents. A case-by-case approach should be taken so as not to impose undue financial distress,” he said.
Adding that “everyone makes mistakes”, Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng said “what is crucial is that we admit our mistakes, be transparent about it and put our efforts into rectifying the mistake... finding out and addressing the root cause of it”.
“The CPF Board has done exactly this. Moving forward, I do hope that they will also share with the public the results of the ‘thorough review’ they are conducting,” he added.
