Particulars of the one-off cost can be introduced at a later date
Singapore is about to offer a one-off cost to assist dad and mom seeking to have a child in an effort to ease individuals’s monetary burden amid job layoffs and wage cuts throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve obtained suggestions that Covid-19 has triggered some aspiring dad and mom to postpone their parenthood plans,” Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat stated in parliament on Monday. “To assist with bills throughout this era, we are going to introduce a one-off extra assist for newborns.”
Heng did not instantly give any additional particulars in regards to the measure or the way it may be carried out. He stated particulars can be introduced at a later date.
Any extra assist will come on high of the federal government’s child bonus, which is supposed to encourage Singaporeans to have extra youngsters and which supplies eligible dad and mom as much as S$10,000 ($7,330) in advantages. The island nation is going through its worst-ever financial disaster due to the pandemic and job and wage cuts may additional damage its fertility price, already one of many lowest on the earth.
Singapore’s fertility price touched an eight-year low in 2018, authorities information present, and the speed of 1.14 (or 1.14 births per girl) remained unchanged final 12 months.
Neighboring Philippines has the alternative drawback. There, unintended pregnancies are forecast to spike by virtually half to 2.6 million if Covid-induced motion restrictions stay till year-end, the United Nations Inhabitants Fund stated final month.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
Source link
