Proposal for Permanent Baby Gift to Support New Parents

24 Ms Valerie Lee asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance whether the Ministry will consider permanently introducing a baby gift, similar to Singapore's SG60 Baby Gift and Finland's baby box scheme, to support new parents with parenting essentials.

The Minister, Prime Minister's Office (Ms Indranee Rajah) (for the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, the SG60 Baby Gift is an initiative to commemorate Singapore's 60th year of Independence. There are currently no plans to introduce such gifts on a permanent basis as the purpose of these gifts is to mark special milestones in our nation's journey. However, we will continue to review how we can celebrate and support families.

We have enhanced and introduced new measures in the Marriage and Parenthood package over the years to provide greater financial support for parents. For instance, parents have flexibility in using the Baby Bonus Cash Gift, which ranges from $11,000 for the first and second child, to $13,000 for the third and subsequent children, to purchase baby essentials. We have also introduced the Large Families Scheme, under which parents with three or more children will receive $1,000 of Large Family LifeSG Credits each year for every third and subsequent Singapore Citizen child, from the year that the child turns one to the year that the child turns six.

The Government remains committed to promoting marriage and parenthood, and we will continue to review our policies to ensure they remain relevant in supporting parents.

Mr Speaker: Ms Lee.

Ms Valerie Lee (Pasir Ris-Changi): Thank you, Speaker, and thank you, Minister. I had a SG58 baby, so I did not have the privilege of getting a SG50 or SG60 gift pack. But I know of many mothers and parents were delighted to have them. I have two supplementary questions.

Would the Ministry or Government be open to exploring a pilot programme in specific regions or demographics, to assess the feasibility and impact of the Baby Gift on a smaller scale? My second supplementary question will be was there any formal survey or feedback done on the impact of the Baby Gift for both the SG50 and SG60 cohorts?

Ms Indranee Rajah: Sir, I thank the Member for her supplementary question. On the first suggestion to have a pilot within specific regions, have a Baby Gift on a smaller scale, just two things. Singapore is already quite small, and I am fairly sure that if we were to give a Baby Gift to, let us say the central region, and not to the others, the other regions will very quickly put up their hands.

But I think that the more important point is this: the Baby Gift is meant to be a commemoration. It is meant to be something to mark a milestone. But in terms of the essentials and what is needed, what most parents actually need is the cash. And hence, that is why we have the Baby Bonus Cash Gift. And also, why we have the First Step Grant, which puts cash into the hands of the parents and then, they can choose what they want.

The other thing also – and we went through this when we were preparing the SG60 gift – different parents want different things. So, when we were road-testing it, some came back and said, "Can I change this gift for something else, because I already have this?" So, you will run into those issues and therefore, the general policy is we give the parents cash; they can buy what they want, but for special occasions we have something to mark that special occasion.

As to whether any survey or study was done on the impact of the Baby Gift, not that I am aware of. I may stand corrected, but not that I am aware of, simply because the Baby Gift was not intended to be a policy measure to achieve a certain outcome. It was just intended to be a nice thing to commemorate a special occasion.