Paternity Leave Increased, Unwed Parents Finally Get CDA

After being caught up in the Bukit Batok By-election fever last week, the EasyRates team’s focus now shifts to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, who made some pretty interesting announcements on Monday.

Paternity Leave Extended To 2 Weeks

The government will be reimbursing employers and self-employed individuals for a second week of paternity leave, if the employer opts to voluntarily provide employees such a benefit. This had been previously mentioned in last year’s national day rally. Under the amendment, the second week of paternity leave can be taken on or after 24^th August 2015, and is applicable to fathers of…

1. Children born on or after 1 Jan 2015;
2. Children born before 1 Jan 2015, but whose estimated delivery date (EDD) was on or after 1 Jan 2015;
3. Adopted children where the application to adopt is on or after 1 Jan 2015 (for child who is a Singapore citizen); or,
4. Adopted children whose dependant’s pass is issued on or after 1 Jan 2015 (for a child who is not a Singapore citizen).

Unwed Parents Finally Get CDA

In a long-awaited move, the Ministry of Social and Family Development, has finally extended Child Development Account (CDA) benefits to unwed parents. This includes access to the $3,000 CDA First Step Grant as well as dollar for dollar matching – where the government matches the deposits parents make by up to $6,000, this is typically used to pay for kindergartens, child care and medical expenses. The only downside, is that this will only be given to children of unwed parents who are born from September 2016.

It is encouraging to see more support for parents, though this is by no means the end of the line, with more changes expected to the Child Development Co-savings Act (CDCA) later in the year.

For more information about these changes, please refer to the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s factsheet here.

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