Singapore — On Friday (Feb 18), Finance Minister Lawrence Wong started off his speech by talking about the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been going on for more than two years.
He briefly gave an overview of some of the support schemes for companies, before touching on those for households.
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“During this period, we mounted multiple public health responses that pushed us to new limits. We faced a major economic challenge and fought to save jobs,” he said, announcing the Household Support Package.
As part of it, Mr Wong said, GST Voucher-U-Save rebates will be doubled for the rest of the year. This means that eligible HDB households will receive additional rebates of up to S$285.
He added that another set of S$100 CDC vouchers will be distributed this year to all Singaporean households. These vouchers can be used at participating heartland shops and hawkers.
Children below the age of 21 will be provided with a top-up of S$200 each in their Child Development Account, Edusave Account or Post-Secondary Education Account. This will be on top of the annual Edusave top-ups they already receive.
In total, these amount to a S$560 million package to help Singaporeans with their utility bills, children’s education and daily essentials. /TISG