Families with three or more Singaporean children aged one to six years old will receive $1,000 in credits for each child from Sept 10, under a scheme to defray expenses.
About 33,000 Singaporean children are eligible for this round of credits. This is the first disbursement under the new Large Families Scheme, which was introduced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at Budget 2025.
The families will continue to receive $1,000 every year till the child turns six.
The Large Family LifeSG credits can be used at various physical and online merchants to defray household expenses such as groceries, pharmacy items, utilities and transport, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) in a statement on Sept 10. The credits will be valid for 12 months.
The Child Development Account (CDA) trustee of each eligible child will receive the credits automatically and can access them via the LifeSG app. No application is required.
Under the scheme, the first disbursement of $1,000 in credits will be made from Sept 10 to families for each third and subsequent child born between Jan 1, 2019, and Dec 31, 2024. This covers all children aged one to six in 2025.
Subsequent disbursements will be made in April annually, with the next disbursement in April 2026 for children born between 2020 and 2025.
Apart from the credits, parents with three or more Singaporean children born on or after Feb 18 will also get a $5,000 increase in the Child Development Account (CDA) First Step Grant under the Large Families Scheme, bringing the total grant to $10,000 per child.
This amount can be used to defray pre-school and healthcare expenses for the child and their siblings in a large family.
The scheme will also provide a $5,000 MediSave Grant for each of these third or subsequent children to be used for medical expenses.
Those eligible for the CDA First Step Grant and MediSave Grant will automatically receive the money around two weeks after they have opened their CDA and successfully enrolled into the Baby Bonus scheme.
The LifeSG credits can be used at eligible physical and online merchants as long as they accept payment via PayNow UEN QR or Nets QR. The recipients of the credits will be notified via SMS once the credits have been credited to their LifeSG app.
They can also tap the Large Families Deals initiative curated by Families for Life.
As part of the initiative, more than 50 organisations like FairPrice and Tada are offering deals and privileges to large families to meet their everyday needs.
These include offers on household staples such as diapers and family-friendly transport services, and savings on bookings of large-capacity rides with ride-hailing apps.
More companies are encouraged to join this initiative to celebrate and support large families, said MSF.
More information on the Large Families Deals can be found at go.gov.sg/lfs-deals.
Syarafana Shafeeq for The Straits Times
Large families with young children to receive $1,000 LifeSG credits from Sept 10
