850,000 S'poreans to get cash under Assurance Package Seniors’ Bonus

Chin Soo Fang for The Straits Times

Jan 15, 2025 10:57 am

About 850,000 lower-income Singaporeans aged 55 and above will get $200 to $300 from the Assurance Package Seniors’ Bonus in February 2025.

The money will go to seniors living in Singapore who do not own more than one property.

They must also be living in properties with an annual value of up to $31,000, and with an assessable income not exceeding $34,000, said the Ministry of Finance on Jan 15.

Eligible seniors can get their payouts from Feb 5 via PayNow-NRIC. To do so, they would need to link their NRIC to PayNow through their banks.

They can also provide their bank account information at the govbenefits website (govbenefits.gov.sg) by Jan 27, and get the cash benefits via Giro from Feb 13.

Those without PayNow-NRIC or valid bank accounts will otherwise receive their cash benefits later via GovCash.

Depending on their flat types, eligible households will receive up to $285 in U-Save for their utility bills and a maximum of one month of rebates for their service and conservancy charges.

Singapore

950,000 households to get U-Save, S&CC rebates in January

Dec 30, 2024

Every Singaporean aged 20 years and below, or 55 years and above, will also get an Assurance Package MediSave top-up of $150 in their CPF accounts.

About 2 million Singaporeans living here will benefit, regardless of the annual value of their homes or their assessable incomes. These payments will go into their CPF accounts from Feb 11.

These benefits were first announced in Budget 2022. Under the Assurance Package, eligible Singaporean seniors will get a Seniors’ Bonus totalling $600 to $900 over three years.

All Singaporeans aged 20 years and below, and 55 years and above, will also receive AP MediSave top-ups totalling $450 over three years. The disbursements are made annually, from 2023 to 2025.

At Budget 2024, a $1.9 billion enhancement to the Assurance Package was announced to help alleviate cost-of-living pressures for Singaporean households and provide more support for lower- to middle-income families.

Eligible recipients will get an SMS after the benefits have been credited in February. Those without a Singpass-registered mobile number or who do not get an SMS will get a letter, sent to their address on their NRICs.

All AP MediSave recipients aged 16 and below will get a letter addressed to their parents or guardians, informing them of the top-up to their child’s CPF account.

To safeguard against scams, the SMS notification sent from “gov.sg” will only inform citizens of their benefit. Citizens will not be asked to reply to the SMS, click any links, or provide any information to the sender. No messages regarding the payments will be sent through WhatsApp or other mobile messaging platforms.

Citizens can check their eligibility on the govbenefits website by logging in with their Singpass. They can also contact 1800-2222-888 or go.gov.sg/apcontactus for more information.

From Jan 3, every Singaporean household can also claim $300 worth of CDC vouchers to help them with daily expenses. A total of 1.33 million households will benefit from this sixth tranche of CDC vouchers, which can be used at 23,000 heartland merchants’ stores and hawker stalls; and eight supermarket chains, with about 400 outlets involved.