S'pore parents to receive additional S$16,000 in grants for 3rd & subsequent child under new Large Families Scheme

Singaporean couples with three or more children can receive an additional S$16,000 for their third and subsequent child, under a new government initiative to support large families.

This comprises three parts: an increase in the First Step Grant, a new Medisave grant for mothers, and LifeSG credits.

Announcing the new initiative in his Feb. 18 Budget Statement, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong acknowledged that couples with more children often worry about additional costs.

The new scheme will provide more support to married couples who have, or who aspire to have, three or more children, he said.

Large families scheme

The three components of the new scheme are as follows:

• A S$5,000 increase in the Child Development Account (CDA) First Step Grant (on top of the current S$5,000 grant)
• A S$5,000 Large Family Medisave Grant disbursed into the mother's Medisave account, to offset pregnancy and delivery costs or dependants' healthcare expenses
• S$1,000 in LifeSG credits, disbursed annually during the ages of one to six, to defray household expenses

This adds up to an additional S$16,000 for the their third and subsequent child.

The first two components apply to each child from the couple's third and subsequent children, born from Feb. 18.

Meanwhile, the third component — involving the LifeSG credits — will apply to a couple's third and subsequent children aged six and under in 2025.

This means if you're a parent with an eligible three-year-old child now, you'll still receive S$1,000 in LifeSG credits each year until your child turns six.

The LifeSG credits will be disbursed in September 2025 for this year's disbursement, and in April for subsequent years' disbursements.

The credits can be accessed via the LifeSG app and spent at online and physical merchants that accept payments via PayNow UEN QR and/or/NETS QR.

Better support for large families

In a separate statement published the same day, the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) said the scheme aims to help "kickstart a sustained whole-of-society movement to celebrate and better support large families".

"The government is committed to helping families grow and thrive," NPTD said.

It added that this comes on top of the S$500 LifeSG credits provided for Singaporean children aged 12 and below.

It added that it has also worked with around 30 corporate partners to provide privileges and deals for large families, to complement the government's efforts.

These include merchants across different sectors like food and beverage, retail, and transportation.

Top image from Conikal/Unsplash