Government to help families with $900mil Household Support Package

17 Feb 2021

Given out every three months, the GST Voucher – U Save rebates help HDB households with their utility bills.

The government has unveiled a $900 million Household Support Package to provide additional support for families amid the uncertain economic environment.

Under this support package, a one-off special payment of $120 to $200 will be given to eligible households living in Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats this year.

About 950,000 Singaporean households will benefit from this one-off GST Voucher – U Save Special Payment, which will be credited in April and July, reported Channel News Asia (CNA).

Given out every three months, the GST Voucher – U Save rebates help HDB households with their utility bills.

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In his Budget speech on Tuesday (16 February), Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said the service and conservancy charges rebate would also be extended for another year.

Depending on their HDB flat type, the rebate will offset one-and-a-half to three-and-a-half months of the charges. It will be received over four quarters in April, July and October this year as well as January next year.

A $100 worth of Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers will also be given to all Singaporean households, which they could use at participating heartland shops and hawkers.

Heng, who also serves as Minister of Finance, explained that while Singaporeans’ “discipline” in observing COVID-19 precautionary measures helped combat the pandemic, these measures affected local merchants and hawkers.

“I hope that this new tranche of vouchers can bring more businesses to our hawkers and heartland shops,” he said as quoted by CNA.

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For this, the government will provide another $150 million grant to the CDC, added the Deputy Prime Minister.

An additional $200 top-up will be provided to each Singaporean child aged below 21 through their Child Development Account, Edusave Account or Post-Secondary Education Account.

This is to help parents “invest in their children’s future”, said Heng.

A one-off $200 cash payment under the GST Voucher scheme will also be given to all lower- and middle-income Singaporeans in June.

For this year, a total of 1.4 million Singaporeans will get up to $500 in GST Voucher – Cash and Cash Special Payment.

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