Prime Minister Office Society's support needed to raise birth rates
We thank Mr Andrew Seow for his suggestions on strengthening support for families (Time to look to other incentives to raise birth rate, March 16).

We agree that there are many reasons for Singaporeans staying single or not having children. While some relate to cost, other reasons reflect priorities and lifestyles. Support from the community, employers, and Government is critical for couples who want to start and raise families.

Over the years, the Government has enhanced support for marriage and parenthood to meet couples' needs.

Beyond cash benefits such as the Baby Bonus Scheme, other support includes subsidies for housing, healthcare, pre-school and education, tax reliefs, and leave.

For example, a child would have received more than $180,000 in pre-school and education subsidies by the time he is 16.

In the medium term, we aim to lower full-day childcare fees to be about the cost of primary school plus after-school care.

Working parents have 22 weeks of leave in their child's first year and continue to have childcare leave until the child turns 12.

Beyond this, we are encouraging more companies to offer flexible work arrangements.

As not all babies can be exclusively breastfed, we have introduced more brands of formula milk, and stepped up public education on children's nutritional needs to help parents make informed choices.

This year, we doubled the maximum dollar-for-dollar government co-matching of parents' savings in the Child Development Account for the second child, from $3,000 to $6,000.

We also introduced the government-paid paternity benefit and government-paid adoption benefit schemes to support working parents who may not qualify for leave.

Details on our full suite of support measures are at https://go.gov.sg/mpbooklet

Covid-19 has impacted birth rates in countries ranging from Japan to the United States.

Last year, we introduced the $3,000 Baby Support Grant to encourage couples not to delay parenthood because of Covid-19. About 10,000 couples have benefited, and initial feedback is positive. However, it is premature to determine its effect in slowing down the impact of the pandemic on our birth rate.

We will hold a series of conversations, "Building a Singapore that is made for families", from April to September this year, to better understand how perceptions and challenges related to marriage and parenthood have changed due to Covid-19.

Details are available at https://go.gov.sg/families-convo

We will need collective action and support as a society to help more Singaporeans start and raise families.

Fereen Liew (Dr)
Director, Marriage and Parenthood Directorate
National Population and Talent Division
Strategy Group, Prime Minister's Office

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-societys-support-needed-to-raise-birth-rates

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