Basic childcare, infant care & student care should be free for all S'poreans: Shawn Loh

Childcare, infant care and student care should be free, said PAP's Jalan Besar GRC Member of Parliament Shawn Loh, in parliament on Feb. 24.

Speaking in the Budget 2026 debate, Loh said that such services are "conceptually no different to how we provide all Singaporeans with basic education".

"I urge the government to think of childcare and pre-school as a public good," he said, positing it as one of four ways to utilise the government's S$15 billion fiscal surplus, or what he called the "elephant in the room".

Good to have budget surplus, but should benefit Singaporeans

Loh said it was always better for a country to find itself in a budget surplus position, rather than struggling to reduce budget deficits, which other countries grapple with.

However, the money could be put to good use.

"With the large surplus this year and potentially over the next few years, we should then ask ourselves, how should we use this extra money to improve the lives of Singaporeans and address long-term problems before they become more intractable?"

His stance was to consider what Singapore would look like if government policy stays the same, and current trends continued.

Some problems he felt were worth tackling included Singapore's low birthrates and wealth inequality.

Free childcare

"Parenthood is a deeply personal decision, and the joys of bringing up children can never be quantified in dollar terms. But that should not mean that the government stops trying to remove economic barriers to having children," he said.

"I believe that we can promise Singaporeans that the basic cost of child raising should never be a barrier to having children," Loh added, though acknowledging that the S$500 Child LifeSG Credits announced during the Budget was a "move in the right direction".

On that note, he further suggested that such credits can also be systematically given to all parents with children up to 16 years old and should be sized to cover more of the basic out-of-pocket costs of child raising.

He referred to his visits in Whampoa, where parents there reminded him about the costs of diapers, milk powder and doctor's visits.

Redistributing fiscal surplus

Uplifting Singaporeans and providing the assurance that they would benefit when Singapore does well, such as through providing extra CDC vouchers, can also be a way to redistribute the fiscal surplus, said Loh.

"We can do better to uplift Singaporeans today and assure them that any unexpected fiscal surpluses will be shared with all."

He recommended that any fiscal surpluses above two per cent of GDP should be given back to Singaporeans in the following year.

Addressing concerns that additional CDC vouchers may increase inflation, Loh alternatively suggested doing so through universal CPF top ups, or transport and utilities rebates.

This could assure Singaporeans that some temporary support measures could be extended or made permanent.

Quoting renowned economist Milton Friedman, Loh said that "nothing is more permanent than a temporary government programme."

Eradicate elderly poverty

He added that with the money, elderly poverty should be "eradicated", especially for generations that grew up in formerly less developed Singapore and without the lifelong support of current retirement policies.

Loh also advocated for the increase of silver support payouts and for the highest tier of silver support to be given to seniors above the age of 80 or 85, who live in HDB flats.

The government's policies should embody the value of taking care of the oldest five per cent of Singaporeans, said Loh.

Leg-up for workers

Another form of utilising the government's fiscal surplus can be through providing workers with a sense of assurance amidst job disruptions, said Loh, who added that "no amount of government handouts is as good as giving a leg up through jobs."

Quoting renowned writer Taylor Swift, Loh said that "band-aids do not fix bullet holes."

By this, he meant that schemes like the progressive wage credit and other support measures function as "band-aids" for companies, but they may be inadequate in the face of "bullet-holes" like escalating manpower costs, which are "in part driven by government policy."

"We should now give Singaporean workers the confidence that the government has their back, and anyone who is earnestly looking for a job for a while will be strongly supported by the government through a more ambitious jobseeker place-then-train programme."

For instance, Loh said employers could be given time-limited salary support to hire any job seeker who has been actively looking for a job for at least six months, regardless of age.

No major revenue-raising moves

Lastly, Loh said that with the fiscal surplus, the government should have the confidence to assure Singaporeans that it would not make major revenue-raising moves up to 2035, assuming there are no material adverse circumstances.

At present, the government has only promised not to raise GST until 2030, to which Loh said it "can do better than that".

"Taxes are not only for raising revenues, but for reflecting our values and for signalling what is important for society," he said.

Instead, he suggested that tax policies can be used to achieve other objectives, like reducing wealth inequality by making the property tax system more progressive and being more aggressive with investment property taxes.

Being more prudent

Loh concluded his speech by urging the government to be more prudent and conservative fiscally by ensuring that they do not tax more than they need to spend.

When spending, the government also needs to "[do] right by our seniors, our families and our workers," he added.

"As it gets harder to predict revenues, it is better to find ourselves in a budget surplus position than struggling to reduce budget deficits, which many other countries are facing," he earlier said.

Top images via MDDI/YouTube & Mothership