Singapore Budget 2024: Support for Children, Students and Seniors

Here’s an overview of the new initiatives and assistance outlined in the Budget 2024 speech, which the government has pledged to provide for children and seniors.

In this year’s Budget 2024 speech, DPM Lawrence Wong highlighted the importance and commitment to enhancing the well-being and quality of life for all citizens, including vulnerable groups such as children, seniors, and individuals with special needs. 

In line with this belief, a comprehensive array of initiatives has been introduced to provide essential support and services tailored to the unique needs of these demographics. 

Among the key measures are substantial reductions in preschool fees to alleviate financial burdens on families, the implementation of improved infrastructure catering to the needs of seniors for enhanced accessibility and comfort, and subsidies for special needs children in special needs schools.

Here’s a lowdown of everything you need to know!

Table of contents:

• Lower fees for pre-schools
• Support for children with special needs
• Retirement for seniors: Majulah Package
• Enhancements to Silver Support Scheme 
• National programme for seniors who age actively: Age Well SG initiative
• Support for ITE graduates

Lower fees for pre-schools

In order to alleviate the financial burden of parents when sending their children to preschool, the government has decided to improve preschool affordability and lower fees further. If you’re a parent with children enrolled in government-supported pre-schools, you can look forward to lower fees starting in 2025.

These are the new monthly childcare fee caps in 2025:

• S$640 for anchor operators
• S$680 for partner operators

The government has also mentioned that there will be an additional reduction in fee caps for 2026, and will be discussed at a later date. The government will also be providing funding to these operators to help keep their fees affordable.

Currently, there are also subsidies for children who come from lower-income families with working mothers. The Early Childhood Development Agency provides a basic childcare subsidy of S$300 to working mothers. However, this will be extended to lower-income families with non-working mothers as well who will receive S$150 and is believed to benefit up to 17,000 children.

Additionally, ComLink+ Progress Packages will be launched to support lower-income families that enrol their children in preschools. This aims to help them remain employed, stay financially stable and save up for their future home. For example, if these families ensure a child is enrolled in preschool in the year the child turns three, they will get a one-off $500 top-up to the child’s Child Development Account (CDA).

With the fees becoming more affordable, the expenses of dual-income families who are sending their kids to full-day preschool will be comparable to the cost of sending a primary school student to school and after-school student care.

Support for children and adults with special needs

As we all know, caring for a child with special needs is no easy feat, and it also comes with its own set of financial issues, as specialised treatment and education are expensive.

Therefore, the government has decided to lower the maximum monthly fees at special education schools (SPED) from the current S$150 to S$90. Fee caps at all special student care centres will also be reduced to lessen the families’ out-of-pocket expenses.

Moreover, the support also extends to adults with special needs to help them integrate into the community better. There will be expanded spaces in sheltered workshops for vocational training and day activity centres where adults can undergo skills training to improve employability.

They will also be launching more Enabling Services Hubs to provide community support to adults with special needs, as well as their caregivers, with the first hub opened in Tampines West Community Club in 2023.

Retirement for seniors: Majulah Package

The Majulah Package was first announced at last year’s National Day Rally to boost retirement savings for seniors who were born in 1973 and earlier.

Seniors who are employed full-time or part-time and earn up to S$6,000 a month will receive an Earn and Save bonus of up to S$1,000 in an attempt to accumulate more retirement savings. They will receive the payout in their CPF Retirement Account (RA) or Special Account (SA) in March 2025.

*Persons with disabilities, workers who qualify for ComCare Short-to-Medium Term Assistance and caregivers of care recipients (generally includes caregivers residing with care recipients who are medically certified to have permanent moderate to severe disabilities) will qualify for concessionary ESB of $400/year, even if they earn less than $500 per month.

There will also be a one-time retirement savings bonus of between S$1,000 and S$1,500 credited to their accounts in December 2024, for elders whose retirement savings are below the 2023 Basic Retirement Sum of S$99,400. Seniors seniors who live in a property with an annual value of S$25,000 or less, and own no more than one property will be eligible for these components.

Additionally, a one-time MediSave Bonus will also be given to elders born in 1973 or earlier in December 2024. Those with less means will receive S$1,500, while the rest will receive S$750.

Enhancements to Silver Support Scheme

Taking effect from 2025, the Silver Support Scheme quarterly payments will be increased by 20% to increase support for eligible senior Singaporeans who have lesser means for retirement.

In addition, the qualifying household monthly income per person threshold will also be raised from S$1,800 to S$2,300.

National programme for seniors who age actively: Age Well SG initiative

Over the next decade, the government has announced that they will be setting aside S$3.5 billion for the Age Well SG initiatives, targeted at seniors to help them age actively and stay socially connected.

Part of the initiatives includes expanding networks of active ageing centres to include more physical exercises and volunteering opportunities for seniors to interact more and stay physically active, and provide more assisted living options like Community Care apartments.

Residential estates will also be enhanced with “silver upgrades” to accommodate more senior-friendly fixtures like barrier-free ramps, home fittings like shower seats and wider entrances, and therapeutic gardens. Improvements will also be made to commuter infrastructure to include facilities like sheltered linkways and more pedestrian-friendly roads.

Support for ITE graduates

In order to incentivise ITE graduates to further their education, the government has implemented a new ITE Progression Award that involves government top-ups for those looking to pursue a diploma after ITE.

A S$5,000 top-up will be made to their Post Secondary Education Accounts (PSEA) when they enrol in a diploma programme, while a S$10,000 top-up will be made to their CPF Ordinary Accounts (OA) when they officially attain their diplomas.

According to Mr Wong, they want to “encourage and support more young ITE graduates in their upskilling efforts, so they can excel in a profession they have trained in, and get themselves on a better career and wage trajectory."