Budget 2025: More Financial Support For Parents With 3 Or More Young Children

Families with three or more young children will get more financial benefits and support, as part of new measures to encourage Singaporeans to have more children.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Feb 18 in his Budget speech a slew of measures for large families, who will get up to $16,000 in additional support for each third and subsequent child born on or after Feb 18.

“Couples with more children often worry about additional costs, because the demands grow with each additional child,” he said.

“We will introduce a Large Family Scheme to support married couples who have, or aspire to have, three or more children.”

The first part of the new scheme is the Child Development Account (CDA) First Step Grant, where baby number three, four or more born from Feb 18 can get $10,000, up from the current $5,000 all Singaporean children receive.

The funds can be used by parents for pre-school and healthcare expenses incurred by the child or his or her siblings.

Parents will also get $5,000 in the Large Family MediSave Grant for each third and subsequent Singaporean child born from Feb 18. This will be credited into the mother’s MediSave account, which can be used to offset pregnancy and delivery-related expenses, as well as approved dependants’ medical bills.

This is on top of the $5,000 MediSave Grant that all Singaporean children already get when they are born.

Finally, $1,000 of Large Family LifeSG Credits will be given each year to the third and subsequent child during the years that the child turns one to six. These credits can be used to defray a large range of household expenses, such as grocery, utilities and transport bills.

Existing large families with at least one child aged six or below - those born between Jan 1, 2019 and Feb 17, 2025 - will also receive the $1,000 each year in the Large Family LifeSG Credits, until the child turns six. This applies only for the third and subsequent Singaporean child.

PM Wong first mentioned that more help would be given to large families during the National Day Rally in 2024, adding that details were being worked out then. The Large Families Scheme will cost the Government around $80 million a year.

Singapore’s total fertility rate fell to a record low of 0.97 in 2023. The TFR, which refers to the average number of babies each woman would have during her reproductive years, fell to below 1 for the first time in Singapore’s history.

According to Department of Statistics figures, the number of women who have three or more children at the end of their childbearing years fell in the past decade.

In 2024, 18 per cent of resident ever-married women in Singapore aged 40 to 49 have three or more children. This is down from 24 per cent in 2014.

The new scheme for large families also comes on top of a host of initiatives to promote parenthood in the past few years, such as the larger Baby Bonus Cash Gift and the new Shared Parental Leave that will start from April 1.

The Government will also support all families with the cost of raising children with one-off top-ups to various accounts, said PM Wong.

Each Singaporean child from newborns to 12 will get $500 in Child LifeSG Credits, regardless of birth order. This means that all children, including first- and second-born children, will get this credit which can be used to defray household expenses.

About 455,000 children are expected to benefit from these credits, which will be disbursed in July 2025 for those aged up to 12 in 2025. Those born in 2025 will get the credits in April 2026.

Each Singaporean child aged 13 to 16 will get a $500 top up to their Edusave Account, and each Singaporean child aged 17 to 20 will get a $500 top up to their Post-Secondary Education Account. 

These top ups, which will be disbursed in July 2025, are expected to benefit about 300,000 students across both age groups.

This article was originally published on The Straits Times.

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