Subsidies for Stay-At-Home Mothers

Ms Low Yen Ling asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports whether the Ministry plans to review the current amount of subsidies provided for stay-at-home mothers as they receive considerably less subsidies for infant care and childcare compared to working mothers.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (for the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Sir, the Government recognises the value of centre-based care in supporting parenthood and the development of young children. All Singapore citizen children enrolled in childcare or infant care centres receive some form of subsidy.

Working mothers have more limited care arrangements for their children while they are at work. They are in greater need of full-day services provided by childcare centres, which are more costly. For this reason, working mothers receive higher Government subsidies compared to non-working mothers who are more likely to be able to care for their children or to enrol them in half-day programmes for socialisation and development opportunities.

We do, however, exercise flexibility in situations where a non-working mother is unable to perform the role of primary caregiver for her child, and therefore requires full-day centre-based care. Examples include situations where the mother is undergoing training, suffering from a long-term illness or disability, or required to perform the role of primary caregiver to another sick or disabled member of the family. Appeals can be made through the childcare centre with relevant supporting documents.

We periodically review the scope and adequacy of centre-based infant and childcare subsidies to help keep fees affordable for parents. We will consider Ms Low Yen Ling's suggestion for future reviews.

Ms Low Yen Ling (Chua Chu Kang): I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive reply as well as the flexibility that is accorded. Stay-at-home mothers have made an informed choice, and in some cases, by circumstances stay at home to look after their children themselves.

And for some stay-at-home mothers who have to take a career break, there can be very high opportunity cost. Can I ask a follow-up question: will the Ministry consider more help for stay-at-home mothers who are thinking of having a second or third child during her best reproductive years, especially when the first child is very young? To this end, will the Ministry consider a child home-care allowance like what Finland is practising where the parents of a child less than three years old receive an allowance as long as the child is not cared for under public childcare services?

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Mdm Halimah Yacob: I want to thank Ms Low for that question. I think the basic issue here is one of vacancies or places available in the childcare centres for us to provide mothers with opportunities so that they can go to work. As Members know, currently, we are already ramping up our efforts to increase the number of childcare centres. Under the plans that we have for the childcare development for the whole sector, we have already built almost up to 200 centres, way ahead of the time that we have set. But even then we know it is not enough. So it is a question of prioritisation, ie, prioritising the needs of mothers who are working and who need to place the children in the childcare centres as against mothers who are not working and who can take care of the children at home. But notwithstanding that, we do also provide opportunities for mothers who, although are stay-at-home mothers, need to place the children in childcare centres because of specific reasons, like long-term illness, disability or the need to take care of a family member who is very ill. So there are exceptions that we will make in those situations.

With regard to Ms Low's question about whether we could provide an allowance for stay-at-home mothers, I think the logic and the rationale are the same, and that is, we should consider providing support for mothers who are working and for mothers who are not working and staying at home. And we are fully sympathetic as we know that stay-at-home mothers have given up their careers in order to fully focus on taking care of their children. But there are resources that we need to think of in terms of how we allocate our resources.

With regard to all mothers, regardless of whether they are stay-at-home mothers or they are working mothers, they benefit from the Baby Bonus that the Government gives. So stay-at-home mothers also benefit from the Baby Bonus that is given to all mothers.