Effective Date of Enhanced Baby Bonus and Medisave Grants

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for the question and I am also happy that she is very focused on the issue of marriage and parenthood.

The enhancements to the Marriage and Parenthood Package were announced on 21 January 2013. Many of the enhancements are effective from January 2013. These include the enhanced co-funding for Assisted Reproduction Technology treatment, alignment in accouchement fees, and the Government-Paid Maternity Benefit which took effect from 1 January 2013, as well as the Parenthood Priority Scheme and Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme which were launched by HDB in the last week of January.

The Government also encouraged employers to voluntarily grant the new and enhanced leave measures to their employees from 1 January 2013, and employers will be reimbursed by the Government if they do so. In other words, if they voluntarily do so before the legislation is passed, we will also honour and give them the grants that we have promised. These include Paternity Leave, Shared Parental Leave and the Extended Child Care Leave.

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To be inclusive, the Government has exercised flexibility for the enhanced Baby Bonus Cash Gift and the new Medisave grant for newborns to apply to births on, or after 26 August 2012. So, although we announced the package in January, we have decided to make the Baby Bonus Cash Gift and the Medisave grant effective on or after 26 August. This was the date of the National Day Rally when these enhancements were first mentioned.

We recognise that couples wish to receive as much support as possible and may be disappointed that they have missed these start dates. However, we seek the public's understanding that we have to specify the start dates because this is important for us to have administrative efficiency when we make public announcements.

While we have tried to be as inclusive as possible, whichever start date is chosen, there will be always be some who will marginally miss the start date. Those who do not qualify for the latest enhancements will still be eligible for the existing benefits under the Marriage and Parenthood Package. These include the existing Baby Bonus Cash Gift and Child Development Account co-savings, tax benefits, the foreign domestic worker levy concession, as well as existing leave provisions, such as the 16-week maternity leave and childcare leave of six days per year for parents with children aged 0-6 years.

Parents of children born before 26 August 2012 can also benefit from the extended childcare leave of two days per year for children aged 7-12 years, and the enhanced infant care and childcare subsidies.

I thank the Minister for the reply. I have four supplementary questions. Firstly, would the Minister agree that 26 of August 2012 is a date that is too arbitrary?

Secondly, could there be a better defined criteria, for example, dated from the date of announcement earlier this year, one year back? This is so that parents of children who are at least one year or younger can benefit from the Enhanced Baby Bonus Package.

The third question: would the Minister think that this is fair to the parents who had heeded the previous calls for more babies, since they have already given birth and contributed to the baby pool? Would it not be unfair to them in this instance?

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And lastly, would the Minister agree that the Baby Bonus, in general as a concept, would help to encourage more babies in a family, given that couples who already have babies are more likely to have more babies?

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. Is 26 August 2012 arbitrary? I think, for most Government policies, it is very rare for us to implement measures or policies retrospectively. But for this particular case, we have taken cognisance of the hopes of many couples and we have actually back-dated the policy to the day when these measures were first alluded to by the Prime Minister.

So, it is not an arbitrary date. In fact, we have, in a way, back-dated these measures for baby cash bonus, as well as Medisave grants, to a date that is before the details were actually announced. Whether we should have a defined criterion of one year prior or two years prior, as I mentioned earlier, we would prefer not to have measures that are retrospectively applied. I am sure that if we had heeded the call of the Member and applied the effective date to one year prior to the announcement in January, those who have just missed the deadline would also say that it is unfair to them. Taking all views together, we believe that it is just good practice not to retrospectively apply measures as much as we can.

Whether it is fair to parents, I would like to say that we have to adjust our measures from time to time. Whenever we improve or change our policies and incentives, unfortunately, some people may feel that they have not been able to take advantage of the new enhancements, but this is how things work. It is not possible for us to back-date all future announcements and make the commitment to apply benefits to all cases retrospectively. My encouragement to the parents who feel that they are disappointed by these measures, that we have not back-dated, that perhaps they would consider having more babies, and then these new babies would benefit from the enhanced package.