PM Wong says govt doesn't rely only on one-off payouts, focuses more on longer-term schemes

While the individual payouts in this year's Budget may be smaller than last year, it remains on the whole "substantial and broader in scope", said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

He was addressing observations about the Budget 2026 in his Feb. 26 round-up speech.

Amidst persistent cost-of-living concerns, social spending — including support for families with children — has gone up, rather than down.

This is done in a sustainable way, through measures like wage increases rather than cost-cushioning policies alone, he said.

More CDC vouchers

At the same time, he acknowledged the need for measures to help specific populations, such as larger families who face greater cost burdens.

He noted suggestions by Pritam Singh and David Hoe to adjust CDC vouchers to better accommodate larger families.

Singh had suggested an additional S$150 per person to be disbursed for households with three members or more, calling the current system "not equitable".

On the suggestion, "That could be one way to help them," PM Wong said.

"But we will continue to explore other measures to help those with larger families."

He added that while the government continues to distribute resources to those with greater needs, this is complemented by investments in human capital, like education and schooling.

"Upward mobility remains central to our social compact," he said.

Not just handouts

He also rebuffed Workers' Party (WP) MP Louis Chua for making a "false claim" about the government's response to those who need support.

"Mr Louis Chua said that the government's primary response has been to rely on one-off, ad-hoc handouts.

He said that last year, I had clarified the matter then, but retractively he has repeated this false claim again this year."

Rather than through a cost-cushioning approach, the government supports Singaporeans through "steady, sustainable wage increases", he said.

He later touched on this again during the Budget debate, saying he hoped they could "banish this [claim] forever in the house".

"Because we don't rely only on one-off or ad-hoc measures. We have some, yes, five per cent of the Budget. How is that an over-reliance? We have much more allocation of resources on longer-term and structural schemes," he said.

Top image from Nigel Chua and Lawrence Wong/Facebook