More than 2.4 million Singaporeans to receive $200 to $400 cost-of-living special payment in September

SINGAPORE: More than 2.4 million Singaporeans are set to receive $200 to $400 as part of the Cost-of-Living (COL) Special Payment in September.

At Budget 2024, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong announced a $1.9 billion enhancement to the Assurance Package (AP) to help relieve cost-of-living pressures for Singaporean households, with more support for lower- to middle-income families.

This includes additional cash for eligible adult Singaporeans, Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers for all Singaporean households, U-Save, and Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) Rebate for HDB households.

Adults who own no more than one property and have an annual assessable income of up to $100,000 are eligible for the COL special payment, regardless of the type of property they live in.

Eligible recipients of the B2024 COL Special Payment will automatically receive their payments in September. Singaporeans can check their eligibility on the govbenefits website by logging in with their Singpass.

Those who have registered to receive their payouts via PayNow will receive the cash bonuses earlier than those who have not.

The Ministry of Finance said that it has been using PayNow-NRIC as the primary mode of payment for citizens who have linked their NRIC to PayNow through their bank since 2021, as PayNow-NRIC provides added convenience and privacy for citizens to receive the cash benefits in their bank account, without having to disclose their bank account details to the sender.

The ministry encourages Singaporeans to register for PayNow-NRIC with their banks by 26 Aug 2024 if they have accounts with the twelve participating banks in Singapore.

By doing so, eligible citizens will receive their B2024 COL Special Payment earlier, from 5 Sept 2024.

Citizens without PayNow-NRIC linked bank accounts but have a DBS/POSB, OCBC, or UOB bank account may provide their bank account information at the govbenefits website by 27 Aug 2024. They will then receive the cash benefits via GIRO from 13 Sept 2024. /TISG