Jamus Lim: High childcare costs are one reason many “decline to have large families”

SINGAPORE: In a recent social media post, Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) highlighted a common challenge many Singaporeans face: the high childcare costs. He added that the high expenses parents pay are one reason why many do not choose to have large families.

Assoc Prof Lim wrote that in the course of conversations he had lately at a coffee shop at Compassvale, he talked with residents about how expensive it is to raise children for middle-class households.

Expenses are the highest in the earlier years due to infant and childcare, and when subsidies are “relatively more limited subsidies,” noted the MP, a father of a young child who turns five years old this year.

Read related: ‘You know what would really boost fertility rate? Lower cost of living’ 

Assoc Prof Lim added that the situation improves when children enter the primary grades, “when fees drop to $13 a month for most public schools.”

And when mothers also work, the burden is eased somewhat because families receive higher subsidies. Nevertheless, costs are still not completely offset by them, and when extra classes such as music, swimming, or language are added, the costs of raising kids get even higher,

“Of course, they multiply for every additional kid. This is one of the key reasons why so many parents decline to have large families, contenting themselves to stop at one or two.

Better to focus on fewer, than to spread family resources too thin. But this private choice has spillover effects for the economy down the road, as fewer children eventually imply a smaller workforce, even as elderly dependents live longer,” noted Assoc Prof Lim.

He added that for this dilemma, there are no simple solutions. And neither is this a problem that only Singapore has, as “falling fertility is a reality that confronts many higher-income countries.”

However, the trend “tends to be most acute in the newly-industrialized East Asian economies,” he wrote, “and the current handouts for kids, while appreciated, seldom alter the calculus for most households.”

One way to help lower costs for parents would be to provide more financial support for their children’s early years and reduce testing pressure, which leads numerous households to spend more on tuition, the MP wrote. /TISG

Read also: ‘Only 2 things needed to have more kids—a house and good childcare support’ — S’porean on Louis Ng’s fertility leave proposal for couples needing IVF