Children up to age six to get S$200 in Child Development Account top-ups

Parents who have yet to open a CDA must do so by June 30 next year for their children to receive the top-up. - ST

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): About 230,000 Singaporean children up to six years old will receive $200 in their Child Development Account (CDA) from Sept 8.

The amount will be credited directly into the child's CDA in batches from Sept 8 or after the CDA is opened, whichever is later, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) said in a media statement on Monday (Sept 5).

Parents who have yet to open a CDA must do so by June 30 next year for their children to receive the top-up.

The CDA top-up is part of the Household Support Package announced during Budget 2022 to provide families with additional support for their child-raising expenses.

Funds in the CDA can be used to pay for the child's or his sibling's educational and healthcare expenses at approved institutions. These include registered childcare centres, kindergartens, special education schools, providers of early intervention programmes, providers of assistive technology devices, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and optical shops.

Nur Shafiqah Hamzah, 32, said that her three children, aged eight months and four and five years old, will benefit from the top-ups.

"We have been using the children's CDAs to pay for their medical and childcare expenses. We also regularly save into their CDAs to benefit from the Government's co-matching contributions," she said.

Another parent, M. Sharanya, 31, said: "My son, who is turning two this year, will be benefiting from the $200 top-up. We have been using his CDA to pay for his medical and infant-care bills, so the top-up will help to defray some of these expenses."

CDA trustees will be notified via SMS, e-mail or hard-copy letter after the CDA top-ups have been credited. Parents can view their child's CDA balance by checking their bank's monthly CDA statement.

To guard against scams, MSF and MOF said that SMS notifications sent to CDA trustees will be only from the SMS ID "MSF". The notification will contain only information on the status of the top-up after it has been credited into the child's CDA.

CDA trustees will not be asked to reply to the SMS, click on any links or provide any information to the sender. Messages on the CDA top-up will not be sent via WhatsApp or other mobile app messaging platforms.

Singaporean children aged seven to 20 years this year would have already received a one-off $200 top-up to their Edusave account or Post-Secondary Education Account in May.