Singaporean Children Eligible for Child Development Account (CDA)

Ms Lee Li Lian asked the Minister for Social and Family Development in respect of Singaporean children eligible for the Child Development Account (CDA) as of 31 December 2013 (a) what is the percentage of (i) children who have not opened an account; (ii) first-born and second-born children whose parents have not saved up to the maximum of $6,000 in their accounts; (iii) children with maximum CDA savings whose savings are used up in the first six years; and (b) what is the total amount of CDA funds used for education, healthcare and others respectively.

For the 2001 to 2005 birth cohorts, parents had six years to open and save into the CDAs. Of these cohorts, 3% of the children do not have CDAs. For the 2006-2013 cohorts, so far 5% of the children do not have CDAs. As parents now have 12 years to open up and save in the CDA, we expect the percentage without CDA to fall over time as seen in Table 1.

Information on parents who saved up to the maximum cap and those who also fully used the savings is provided at Table 2. As there is now a longer period to save in the CDA, we expect the percentage for the 2006-2013 cohorts to rise over time.

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Eighty-five percent of CDA funds used have been for educational expenses, such as childcare centre and kindergarten fees. The remainder has been used for healthcare related expenses as seen in Table 3.