Strengthening Support for Large Families
Parents will receive up to $16,000 of additional support for each third and subsequent Singaporean child
1. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong announced in the Budget 2025 Statement that that the Government will introduce a Large Families Scheme (LFS) to provide more support for couples with three or more children. This initiative builds on the Government’s commitment in the 2023 Forward Singapore report to support Singaporeans in fulfilling their parenthood aspirations, and create a conducive environment for families to thrive.
2. Under the LFS, parents with a third or subsequent Singapore Citizen (SC) child born on or after 18 February 2025 will receive (i) an increased Child Development Account First Step Grant of $10,000, (ii) a $5,000 Large Family MediSave Grant, and (iii) $1,000 annually in Large Family LifeSG Credits in the years that the child turns one to six. These families can also benefit from discounts and other privileges from merchants and corporate partners supporting the LFS. The details of the LFS support measures are as follows:
(Enhanced) Child Development Account (CDA) First Step Grant
3. All SC children currently receive a $5,000 CDA First Step Grant. This will double to $10,000 for each third and subsequent SC child born on or after 18 February 2025. CDA funds can be used for approved child-raising expenses, including preschool fees and healthcare costs incurred by the child or his/her siblings.
(New) Large Family MediSave Grant (LFMG)
4. Parents will receive a $5,000 LFMG for each third and subsequent SC child born on or after 18 February 2025. This will be credited into the mother’s MediSave account and can be used to offset her pregnancy and delivery expenses, as well as for approved dependants’ medical bills and hospitalisation fees. The LFMG is in addition to the Medisave Grant for Newborns1 provided to all SC children at birth.
(New) Large Family LifeSG Credits (LFLC)
5. To provide sustained support for large families during their children’s early years, parents will receive $1,000 annually in LFLC for each third and subsequent SC child, in the years that the child turns one to six.2
6. Existing large families with at least one child aged six or below (i.e. born between 1 January 2019 and 17 February 2025) will also receive the $1,000 annually in LFLC for each third and subsequent SC child, until the child turns six.
7. Parents can access the LFLC via the LifeSG application, and spend them at a wide range of online and physical merchants which accept payments via PayNow UEN QR and/or NETS QR. This can help to defray household expenses such as groceries, utilities, pharmacy items, and transport services. The LFLC will be first disbursed in September 2025.
8. With the introduction of the LFS, parents will receive additional financial support of up to $16,000 for each third and subsequent SC child. (Refer to Table 1 for a summary of Government financial support for parents, and Annex A for an illustration of the benefits that different families will receive).
Table 1: Summary of Government Financial Support for Parents
9.
Apart from Government measures, we aim for the LFS to kickstart
a sustained whole-of-society movement to celebrate and better support large
families. This includes having corporate partners provide a broad range
of privileges and deals for large families to complement the Government’s
efforts.
10. Around 30 corporate partners across different sectors such as food and beverage, retail and transportation have stepped forward so far, and we invite more merchants to come onboard.
11. A summary of the various LFS support measures and disbursement timelines can be found in Annex B. A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be found in Annex C. More details on the LFS can be found at go.gov.sg/LFS.
Comprehensive support for Singaporeans’ marriage and parenthood aspirations
12. The LFS is the latest enhancement under our Marriage and Parenthood (M&P) Package, which provides Singaporeans with comprehensive support across areas such as financial support, parental leave, preschool, healthcare and housing. The LFS comes on top of other recent and upcoming enhancements which apply to children of all birth orders:
a) Increased Baby Bonus Cash Gift and Government contributions to the CDA, for eligible babies of all birth orders born from Budget 2023;
b) Parental leave enhancements announced at National Day Rally 2024. From 1 April 2025, two additional weeks of Government-Paid Paternity Leave (i.e. total of four weeks) will be made mandatory and a new Shared Parental Leave scheme (six weeks from 1 April 2025 and 10 weeks from 1 April 2026) will come into effect;
c) Reductions in full-day childcare fee caps at Anchor and Partner Operator preschools by $40 from 1 January 2025, and a further $30 from 1 January 2026, to $610 and $650 respectively (before GST). This means that by 2026, families enrolled in full-day childcare in Anchor Operator preschools will pay similar expenses to that of primary school and after-school student care, before means-tested subsidies.
Additional one-off measures for families with children under Budget 2025
13. As part of Budget 2025, the Government will also provide the following support measures, to help all families with children manage their child-raising costs:
a) $500 in one-off Child LifeSG Credits (CLC) for each SC child aged 0 to 12 (born from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2025), regardless of birth order.3 Similar to the LFLC, families can use the CLC at a wide range of merchants to defray their household expenses. The CLC will be disbursed in July 2025 for those aged 1 to 12 this year, and in April 2026 for those born this year.
b) $500 in one-off top-ups to the Edusave Account of each SC child aged 13 to 16 (born from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2012), and $500 one-off top-ups to the Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA) of each SC child aged 17 to 20 (born from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2008), regardless of birth order. The top-ups support the education-related expenses of families with older children, and can be used to pay for approved fees and enrichment programmes. The top-ups will be disbursed in July 2025.
14. The Government is committed to helping families grow and thrive. We will continue to review our policies to better support parents, and work with the community, businesses and employers to build a Singapore Made For Families. Details about our M&P Package can be found at www.madeforfamilies.gov.sg
1 Families who are eligible for the LFS will also receive the one-off CLC and/or Edusave/PSEA top-ups.
2 The MGN will be increased from $4,000 to $5,000 for babies born from 1 April 2025.
3 Eligibility will be determined as of 1 March each year, and the LFLC will be subsequently disbursed in April of the same year.