Structuring Singapore for Flourishing Families

ADJOURNMENT MOTION

The Deputy Leader of the House (Mr Zaqy Mohamad): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That Parliament do now adjourn."

Question proposed.

Structuring Singapore for Flourishing Families

Mr Speaker: Ms Elysa Chen.

9.03 pm

Ms Elysa Chen (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Mr Speaker, Sir, recently, I have been going around asking every couple I meet a question, "What would encourage you to have one more child?" Those who are parents smile knowingly. Then, some reply, "Nothing. Nothing would make me consider having one more child."

The Government has tried many financial incentives, but what we need is something money cannot buy – time.

Over the weekend, I visited residents and one had a doormat which read "Tired Adults Club". I jokingly said that I am from the same club. I think many of us here are also from the same club. But the more I thought about it, the less funny it seemed. Young Singaporeans have little breathing space to socialise, to build a community, to find life partners. How will they have babies?

Young couples try the Build-To-Order (BTO) again and again to no avail. Mothers are regarded as risky hires because maternity leave is seen by some employers as a problem to be managed, rather than a milestone to be supported. Infant care waitlists are measured in months, not weeks, and children are too often tolerated rather treasured, seen as noise in public places, inconveniences to career progression and financial burdens rather than the precious gift they are.

We have built world-class infrastructure for economic productivity and ingrained in ourselves a hardworking work culture. But we may not have built the equivalent infrastructure, nor inculcated the same priorities for family life. We must question whether a successful career and a successful home are mutually exclusive.

We need a fundamental rethink across four pillars: time, care, work and housing.

The first pillar is time and breathing space. We cannot build strong families if our young people and parents are running on empty and feel they do not have space to breathe. Work can be all consuming if left to our own devices. We need to provide for employers to be able to play their part.

Presently, the statutory minimum annual leave under section 88A of the Employment Act is seven days, increasing by one each year, up to a cap of 14 years. [Please refer to clarification later in the debate.]

With the ongoing review of the Employment Act, now is the time to increase the minimum annual leave. Seven days of annual leave is really too short. Let us structurally mandate breathing space for our young people to socialise and date, and for people to spend quality time with their families.

We need to structurally mandate "breathing space" for our young people to socialise and date, and for people to spend quality time with their families.

Furthermore, we must recognise the reality of caregiving in our childcare and sick leave policies. I propose that the Government consider allowing employees to utilise their own sick leave based on the Medical Certificates of their dependants, such as young children or elderly parents.

Additionally, we should increase Government-paid childcare leave. Children frequently require checkups and may experience extended bouts of illness. Childcare leave is currently only six days for those aged 0-7, and many times, these are just sufficient to cover preschool closure days. Childcare leave drops to two days for those aged 8-12. If just one child catches hand, foot and mouth disease, how will families cope?

On this, I note that my fellow Members David Hoe and Charlene Chen had raised related Parliamentary Questions last year and they were told that the Government is committed to supporting working parents in caring for heir children and that the Ministry will be reviewing the leave provisions. Will the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to give an update on the review of the leave policies?

The second pillar is strengthening the structures of care. To care for children well, childcare must make sense. We therefore need to relook our policies on childcare, childminding, postpartum care and transport-related friction for care journeys.

First, childcare subsidies should be the same for everyone. Currently, the higher tier of basic infant care and childcare subsidies are available only to a "working main applicant", that is a mother or a single father for divorced, separated or widowed parents, who works at least 56 hours per month. Non-working mothers receive significantly less subsidy than working mothers.

This penalises mothers who choose to be stay-at-home caregivers to their second or subsequent newborn children, or those with modern work arrangements. For example, a mother working as a freelancer may not accumulate enough formal hours to qualify for the working mother subsidy.

Childcare is an essential form of early childhood education and care. Such basic subsidies should be universal for all children, regardless of the mother's employment status.

As a mother shared with me at a People's Action Party Women's Wing Listening Session two weeks ago: "Why s unpaid caregiving at home less valuable than the contributions of a working mom?"

Second, we must increase the accessibility of childcare centres. There are parts of Singapore where parents face long waitlists for nearby Ministry of Education Kindergartens (MK), anchor-operator (AOP) or partner-operator (POP) childcare centres. On the other hand, some centres in older neighbourhoods may have lower take-up.

To address this spatial mismatch, we could provide a limited subsidy to such underutilised operators to fund shuttle services, regardless of whether they are MK, AOP or POP, much like the school bus system our primary school children enjoy. This helps reduce geographic friction, improves spatial mobility and achieves better allocative efficiency for childcare services.

I also propose that, beyond AOP and POP, the Government extends site tender access to all operators, including mid-tier operators, to scale centres to neighbourhoods with high demand. This helps alleviate the high demand with a higher and more diverse supply of options for parents, and not only the Government-supported centres.

Third, we must scale and improve access to flexible childminding options. Families with children often need extra caregiver help. If there is no grandparent or domestic help, parents need additional childminding options.

At the piloted infant childminding services with three operators since December 2024, I would like to ask: what are the preliminary observations from the pilot. What is the take-up of these services? Are there plans to expand the pilot or increase publicity for the pilot? And will the pilot be made permanent and scaled up? If so, what is the timeline for that?

In addition to such professional childminding services, I hope to see neighbourly childminding normalised in Singapore. In Bishan, some playground mummies organise playdates and take turns to look after one another's children. How can we facilitate more of these and build a stronger communal parenting culture? As families in the same estate become friends, they may feel more assured in leaving their children to be minded by one another's families when needs or extenuating circumstances arise. We can suggest guidelines for the respective families to adopt in such informal childminding in the neighbourhood.

Fourth, we also need strong postpartum care. If new parents are well supported in this regard, they will feel more confident in subsequently having more children. As I have previously raised in this House, I propose comprehensive home visitation postpartum support. The Netherlands' "kraamzorg" entitles every mother to 80 hours of trained maternity nurse home care. Taiwan launched government-funded postpartum healthcare checkups in May 2025, providing structured check-ups, including health and postnatal depression screening.

While we currently have follow-up healthcare after delivery, we should enhance this with structured in-home postpartum visits in the first year. Trained maternity nurses could provide guidance on newborn care, breastfeeding, physiotherapy and mental health screening. They could also identify signs of family stress, social isolation or financial difficulty, and coordinate follow-up support with health and social services so families can receive timely counselling and financial assistance.

In all of this, we should not overlook fathers. Many fathers want to be more hands-on. Yet, fathers often feel like bystanders, unsure how to help and anxious about a wife recovering from birth and a baby they do not yet know how to hold.

If postpartum support is to strengthen the whole family, it must include fathers too. I therefore propose that the structured in-home postpartum visits deliberately engage fathers, offering practical guidance on newborn care, on supporting a spouse's physical and emotional recovery, and on recognising the signs of postnatal depression in their spouses, and in themselves. Let us equip fathers to be confident co-parents rather than well-meaning "helpers", so we can build the equal parenting that I hope will one day be the norm in every Singaporean family.

Fifth, to reduce transport-related friction for care journeys, I propose a transport care credit scheme. This is a targeted, flexible transport support for low to lower-middle-income families in Singapore who face high "care journey" transport costs due to family members with specific needs – young children, elderly, persons with permanent or temporary disabilities or medical conditions, where use of public transport is impractical, insufficient, challenging, or burdensome. "Care journeys" would be trips to hospitals, polyclinics or therapy centres.

The grant will be in the form of credits, which can be used for a range of transport options, such as public transport fares, taxis, private hire vehicles and car sharing.

The proposed grant will address the "last mile" problem for individuals and caregivers who need non-standard public transport options for themselves or frail or young dependents but do not qualify for existing disability-specific work schemes. I note that my fellow Member David Hoe had raised a related Parliamentary Question in February. Will the PMO also be able to give an update on the review of these policies?

The third pillar is empowering women and protecting careers. The "motherhood penalty" is real. Women who have children in Singapore experience reductions in earnings and career advancement.

First, we should restructure maternity leave to make business sense for employers so that employers are better able to support career planning for employees who are mothers.

I propose extending maternity leave up to six months, fully Government-paid up to a salary cap, with an optional additional six months at half-pay, also Government-funded up to a cap.

First, hiring maternity cover for a brief 16 weeks is incredibly difficult for employers. By the time they can find the right person and train them, time is over.

Second, mothers feel pressured to rush back to work at the end of the 16 weeks when they may not be ready, in order to keep their jobs. They may end up returning to work but utilising other types of leave or means to provide stepped-down caregiving to their newborn. A six to 12-month window makes it viable for employers to hire contract cover, removing the pressure on mothers to rush back and allowing employers to retain them long-term.

Small employers may face cashflow issues as the Government payment of maternity and other related leave will only be paid on a reimbursement basis, even while the employers may hire additional maternity covers. Will the Government consider a mechanism that could alleviate such cashflow issues for employers?

Second, I propose we introduce a Career Comeback Tax Credit for employers who hire returning stay-at-home parents. This mitigates the parenthood penalty. In this Career Comeback Scheme, companies that hire stay-at-home parent returnees may qualify for a tax deduction on the employee's salary for up to 12 months.

Additionally, we should also encourage employers to redesign certain jobs to offer part-time roles for parents of young children, allowing companies to augment their workforce while keeping parents engaged in the economy so that it will not be a binary choice only between full-time parenting or full-time employment.

Third, we should incentivise and encourage employers to provide flexibility in work schedules and private spaces for mothers to pump breast milk at work. I suggest we introduce a "Make It Work" grant for building owners to install self-contained, lockable lactation pods to provide a safe and conducive space for working moms to pump breast milk at work, and it could include refrigerator space to store breast milk.

Fourth, to help women who are marrying later in life still have a chance at having a child, the Government should consider partially subsidising elective egg freezing (EEF) or allowing MediSave to be used for it. We should, of course, caution the public against the potential misperception that EEF would work miracles. Live-birth success rate remains low. Even as we make EEF more accessible, we should also mitigate the potential issue that subsidising EEF might inadvertently encourage couples to intentionally delay marriage and parenthood. However, EEF is increasingly becoming a necessary response to the reality of later marriages, where our fertility will be adversely affected. While take-up rates might be modest initially, preserving fertility offers couples a vital option. Once the biological clock passes, it is past. We should give couples the chance of still having children.

The fourth pillar is housing for family formation. Our housing policies must proactively encourage larger and inter-generational families. If we want families to grow, we must give them the physical space to do so.

I propose allowing large families or two-family units, comprising elderly parents and couples with children, to apply for "side-by-side" 3-room or 4-room BTO units, with the structural option to knock down the dividing wall. We should mandate that HDB designs future blocks to make this practically feasible. Additionally, families with two or more young children should be given priority and expanded options to ballot and receive additional grants for 5-room or larger units across BTO and Sales of Balance Flats.

Currently, there is a Third Child Priority Scheme. We should have a "Second Child Priority Scheme" also for 5-room BTOs and Sales of Balance Flats. The leap from one to two children is where the spatial crunch hits hardest, often requiring domestic help or a live-in parent. We should thus provide priority earlier.

I also propose a Family Expansion Grant targeted at the HDB resale market. If a family has a second or subsequent child and needs to upgrade to a 5-room flat, they can receive a targeted CPF grant to offset the cost of a larger resale flat. This solves the spatial issue now, without waiting for BTO construction.

Mr Speaker, I am not asking the Government to merely spend more money on financial incentives for people to have children. I am asking the Government to make a wholly different and wholesome kind of commitment, so people feel secure raising a family in Singapore.

Even so, the Government alone cannot solve this. It takes our whole society. So that our society will view parenthood as valuable, beautiful, joyful and not a high stakes competition, so that everyone will play their part in supporting families to flourish. And as a stay-at-home father told me, so that success in Singapore can go beyond the "5Cs", but also celebrate our children, the “C” that matters the most for building our nation. Let us start chasing that sixth “C”.

Some people have told me they do not want to bring children into a world of pain and suffering. And I get it. The world is scary. But there is also much joy and beauty that our world still holds. Very often, I see that in the eyes of a young child.

When I see our children, I see the future of Singapore. Joyful, energetic, caring and most precious of all, cute. Like many others, I was delighted when we saw selfies of babies popping up on the official LTA, MCCY, and gov.sg's social media pages. Many others have hopped on that trend. And many of us felt a spark of that childlike wonder and joy. That is the kind of Singapore I hope we will build. Not a tired adults club but a country that actually has the time and space to enjoy our children.

And in that Singapore, if we were to ask couples if they want to have one more child, the answer would be, "Why not?" [Applause.]

Mr Speaker: Minister Indranee.

9.20 pm

The Second Minister for National Development (Ms Indranee Rajah): Mr Speaker, I thank Ms Elysa Chen for her Adjournment Motion on this important topic. Indeed, many of her observations are consistent with feedback that we have received regarding marriage and parenthood.

Let me first give a quick update on the Marriage and Parenthood (M&P) Reset Workgroup. Since the Workgroup was announced, many Singaporeans have come forward to share their suggestions and lived experiences, and we have also conducted many engagements. Across these conversations, what is clear is that Singaporeans do value family, relationships and meaningful connections. However, they also encounter challenges and practical realities in pursuit of their marriage and parenthood aspirations.

Recently released statistics on marriage and parenthood have also sharpened our urgency to act. Last year, there were about 24,700 registered marriages, a 6.2% drop from 2024. Singapore recorded about 26,100 citizen births in 2025, a 10.8% decrease from 29,200 in 2024. Hence, the Workgroup’s focus is to see how we can better support Singaporeans across the whole marriage and parenthood journey. To that end, we are developing a long-term roadmap to strengthen support for marriage and parenthood, mobilise whole-of-society action and support a broader societal reset.

Ms Chen has insightfully identified some of the key issues that influence M&P decisions, which are time, care, work and housing. Let me share how we are approaching these.

First, work-life. Ms Chen called for more leave days to address the scarcity of time and the challenges faced by parents in managing work and caregiving commitments. Other Members in this House, on both sides of the House and members of public have also called for more leave days, such as childcare leave for those with more children or older children to cover school closure days and exigencies.

We recently enhanced our parental leave provisions, such that working parents now have a total of 30 weeks of paid parental leave to care for and bond with their infants. We are actively working on how we can provide more protected time for working parents while managing the impact on business operations. We are engaging tripartite partners on this.

However, providing leave alone is not enough. Workplace culture and norms have a strong impact on how well-supported parents feel at work and whether they are able to utilise their statutory leave provisions. Line managers and supervisors, in particular, can make all the difference as they are the ones who approve such leave. How they do so and whether well-managed covering arrangements are in place can make a big difference.

Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are a key form of support. We implemented the Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests in December 2024 and will continue to work with tripartite partners to foster work-life friendly practices and support employers in implementing them well. While many associate FWAs with working from home, it is also much broader than that. There is also flexi-time and flexi-load.

A recent CNA article found that flexi-time and flexi-load may matter much more for parents, as it gives them the space to manage their work schedules in ways that best meet their responsibilities at work and at home. We will continue to push for these flexible arrangements to support parents better.

To Ms Chen's point on job redesign and part-time work, employers can tap on the Productivity Solutions Grant to offset the costs of adopting FWAs and the SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant (Job Redesign+) to engage consultancy services to support enterprise job redesign. They can also benefit from FWA implementation resources and training by tripartite partners and the Institute of Human Resource Professionals to better implement work-life friendly practices.

Ms Chen also highlighted the challenges parents face in returning to work after parental leave or after taking a temporary career break to focus on caring for their children.

We agree that this is an important area that needs to be tackled. We have been enhancing measures to support career transitions, employment facilitation and reskilling. Examples include, the Skills and Workforce Development Agency's (SWDA's) HerCareer initiative for women jobseekers and career advisory and skills training offered by SWDA and the National Trades Union Congress' (NTUC's) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). Jobseekers can also tap on Career Conversion Programmes and the Mid-Career Pathways Programme to improve their employability and be placed in a new role.

We are exploring how we can better support returning parents beyond these current initiatives.

Employers can also support parents by providing family-friendly infrastructure and amenities. For example, they can support breastfeeding mothers by tapping on NTUC's Better Workplace Programmes to set up proper lactation spaces or the Building and Construction Authority's (BCA's) Accessibility Fund to retrofit their premises with universal design features, including lactation facilities.

On housing, we agree with Ms Chen that housing is an important determinant in marriage and parenthood. We currently provide larger families a range of housing options to meet their need for more space. For example, multi-generation families may apply for 3Gen flats, which are specifically designed for extended families who wish to live under one roof. Flat owners may also apply to combine two adjoining 3-room or smaller flats under the Conversion of Adjoining Flats Scheme. We also recently enhanced the Third Child Priority Scheme, which gives priority in BTO and SBF exercises to eligible families with three or more children. We are exploring what more we can do and we will study Ms Chen's suggestions as part of the Workgroup.

Ms Chen also mentioned EEF. Today, women can already receive Government subsidies and tap on MediSave for egg freezing done on medical grounds, for example, to preserve fertility before undergoing cancer treatment. The Workgroup will review the Member's suggestion to provide financing support for EEF and consider ways to reduce the cost of fertility tests and treatments. We will also study her suggestions on postpartum support.

Ms Chen also highlighted the importance of enhancing care infrastructure. Over the past decade, the number of full-day infant care places has nearly tripled while the number of full-day childcare places nearly doubled. At the end of last year, we achieved our commitment of ensuring that 80% of preschoolers can have a place in a Government-supported preschool.

We have also enhanced preschool affordability for all. The industry median childcare fee before means-tested subsidies has fallen to $680 last year, compared to $760 in 2021. Applicants who are not working due to extenuating circumstances and need full-day childcare can apply for special approval to receive subsidy support equivalent to what a working applicant can receive. We will do more to support parents in caregiving and will take Ms Chen's suggestions into account.

On Early Childhood Development Agency's (ECDA's) infant childminding pilot, feedback from parents and childminders so far has been positive. The pilot concludes next year. We will review the learnings from the pilot in considering additional moves and will bear Ms Chen's suggestions in mind.

Over and above policy moves, support for marriage and parenthood must be a whole-of-society effort. The Workgroup is looking at how we can bring on board all segments of society to participate in this. I am heartened that various groups will put forth their suggestions to the Workgroup, such as the joint White Paper on fertility and human development by National University of Singapore Medicine and the Population Association of Singapore, and the People's Action Party Women's Wing. We will study the recommendations closely.

In the coming months, we will continue to engage widely across society, with Singaporeans, businesses and community partners. We invite all Singaporeans to be part of this Reset – to contribute their ideas, lend their support and help shape a Singapore where families are not only supported, but can truly flourish.

Mr Speaker: Ms Chen, you have a clarification to make? Go ahead.

Ms Elysa Chen: Yes, Speaker. I misspoke earlier. I said that the statutory minimum annual leave under the Employment Act goes up to a cap of 14 years. I meant to say 14 days.

Mr Speaker: If it was 14 years, it would be mind-boggling.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn."

Adjourned accordingly at 9.30 pm.