Utilisation of Government-Paid Child Care Leave Scheme and Extended Child Care Leave Scheme in Past Five Years

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development for each year in the past five years under the Extended Child Care Leave (ECL) Scheme (a) what percentage of working mothers took exactly (i) one day of childcare leave or (ii) two days of childcare leave respectively; and (b) what percentage of working fathers took exactly (i) one day of childcare leave or (ii) two days of childcare leave respectively.

Working parents with citizen children below seven years of age are provided with six days of paid child care leave. Employers absorb the cost for the first to third days, and the Government reimburses employers for the fourth to sixth days under the Government-Paid Childcare Leave (GPCL) scheme. Utilisation of these Government-paid leaves has been slowly rising. The estimated percentages of eligible working mothers and fathers who took four, five and six days of GPCL respectively in the past three years are in Table 1 below.

Introduced in 2013, the Government-Paid ECL provides working parents with two days of paid extended childcare leave per year if they have a citizen child aged seven to 12 years. The estimated percentages of eligible working mothers and fathers who took one or two days of ECL respectively are in Table 2 below.

Breakdown of data on the take-up of GPCL and Extended Childcare Leave (ECL) is not available before 2016.