SINGAPORE — With Singapore’s Total Fertility Rate showing few signs of improvement, Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday urged the Government to provide more support for the costs of raising a child so Singaporeans would be encouraged to have children.
Speaking during the Prime Minister’s Office’s Committee of Supply debate in Parliament, Nominated MP R Dhinakaran asked for medical expenses for routine visits to be defrayed in the form of vouchers universally issued to expectant mothers “right from the point of conception until a child enters primary school”. Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Gan Thiam Poh asked if more subsidies could be provided in the childcare sector, while Sengkang West MP Lam Pin Min asked whether the one-for-one matching of savings in the Child Development Account could be reviewed, as it puts low-income families, who may not be able to save as much, at a disadvantage.
In response, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu said there are subsidies and grants to help low-income families support their children, such as the Kindergarten Fee Assistance Schemes and the Parenthood Priority Scheme. “Our approach is to provide the best support, both broad-based and targeted, to help defray the costs of raising a child while not undermining the principle that raising a child is ultimately the responsibility of the family, of the parents,” she said.
Since the Marriage and Parenthood Package was rolled out only last year, time would be needed to review its effectiveness, she added.
Singapore’s population grew 1.6 percent last year — the slowest in nine years. The citizen population rose to 3.31 million through births and immigration, while total fertility rate was 1.19, with 31,000 Singaporean babies born last year, below the replacement rate of 2.1. About 30,000 people were made permanent residents (PRs) last year and 20,000 were granted citizenship.
Urged to review policies on granting PR or citizenship to foreign spouses in Singapore, with Marine Parade GRC MP Tin Pei Ling calling for an immigration progression road map to provide certainty for these families, Ms Fu said such policies are reviewed periodically. “We’d like not to have applicants artificially improving applications to meet … the criterion. We evaluate them across a wide spectrum of factors,” she added, referring to the suggestion of a road map.
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