Debated in Parliament on 4 Jul 2022.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) whether the Ministry is able to share any insights on the anonymised data of the Community Development Council (CDC) digital voucher usage from the CDCs; (b) how do the CDCs intend to use these data insights to provide further targeted support for lower-income households; and (c) how will this data and system be used to support the voucher schemes of social agency partners.
The $130 million CDC Vouchers Scheme 2021 using digital vouchers was launched on 13 December 2021 to thank Singaporeans for their solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to support heartland merchants and hawkers. On 11 May 2022, the CDCs rolled out another tranche of vouchers under the CDC Vouchers Scheme 2022, to support Singaporean households in their daily expenses. As the Scheme is open to all Singaporean households regardless of their household income, there is no need for the collection of such data.
As of 30 June 2022, about 1.17million households, or 96% of 1.22 million eligible households, have claimed their 2021 CDC Vouchers. Out of the $122 million under CDC Voucher Scheme 2021, over $98 million (or 80.3%) has been spent. For the 2022 tranche of CDC Vouchers, about 1.02 million households or 83% have claimed their 2022 CDC Vouchers since the launch in less than two months; of which over $49 million (or 40.2% of the total amount claimable) was spent in more than 17,500 participating hawkers and heartland merchants.
We are encouraged by the positive feedback received on the Scheme from Singaporeans, many of whom found the digital vouchers easy to use. The digital CDC Vouchers Scheme uses the RedeemSG platform developed by GovTech, which is a general voucher system that serves various government schemes. Government agencies which are interested to use the system can approach GovTech for further discussion.
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