Eligible Singaporeans will receive an additional cash payout of up to S$200, while households will get S$200 more in Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers, as part of the government’s latest effort to help people cope with rising prices.
The measures, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Thursday (Sep 28), come under a new S$1.1 billion (US$800 million) cost-of-living support package to help Singaporean households, especially lower- to middle-income ones.
It builds on several enhancements to the Assurance Package that were announced last year and most recently during Budget 2023 in February.
With the addition of the new measures, eligible Singaporeans will receive up to S$800 in cash in December, while households will get a combined total of S$500 in CDC vouchers in 2024.
Other measures announced on Thursday include additional U-Save rebates to help households with the latest increase in carbon tax and water prices, along with subsidies and vouchers to ease the impact of public transport fare increases that were announced last week.
In a press release, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) noted that while inflation has come down from its peak, households in Singapore are still dealing with the impact of price increases in various areas.
The cost-of-living support package includes a S$0.8 billion enhancement to the Assurance Package, bringing the Assurance Package to over S$10 billion.
Providing further details about the support measures, the Finance Ministry said about 2.5 million adult Singaporeans will receive an additional one-off sum of up to S$200 in cash in December, along with the existing component from the Assurance Package that was previously announced.
This is targeted at providing more support to lower- and middle-income adult Singaporeans, said the ministry.
For example, those with an assessable income of S$34,000 or below will receive up to S$200, on top of the existing S$600 that they will also get in December.
The cost-of-living special payment will be given to eligible Singaporeans who are 21 and above this year, have annual assessable income below S$100,000 and do not own more than one property.
Every Singaporean household will also get S$200 more in CDC vouchers next year, on top of what was announced in Budget 2023. This brings the total amount of vouchers to S$500.
