Single payment details will be announced at a later date
Singapore is set to provide a one-time payment to help parents looking to have babies in a bid to ease the financial burden on people amid layoffs and pay cuts during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have received comments that Covid-19 has caused some expectant parents to postpone their parenting plans,” Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat told parliament on Monday. “To help with the expenses during this time, we will be introducing additional one-time support for newborns.”
Heng did not immediately give more details on the measure or how it could be implemented. He said details would be announced at a later date.
Any additional support will come in addition to the government’s Baby Bonus, which aims to encourage Singaporeans to have more children and which provides eligible parents with up to S $ 10,000 ($ 7,330) in benefits. The island nation is facing the worst economic crisis in its history as a result of the pandemic and cuts in jobs and wages could further hurt its fertility rate, already one of the lowest in the world.
Singapore’s fertility rate hit its lowest level in eight years in 2018, according to government data, and the rate of 1.14 (or 1.14 births per woman) remained unchanged last year.
The neighboring Philippines have the opposite problem. There, unintended pregnancies are expected to climb by nearly half to 2.6 million if Covid-induced movement restrictions persist until the end of the year, the United Nations Population Fund said on Wednesday. last month.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
