Singapore ties childcare leave to the number of children

Working parents in Singapore will receive more childcare leave under changes announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the National Day Rally on 23 August, with entitlement now tied to the number of children a parent has rather than the age of the youngest.

The existing Childcare Leave and Extended Childcare Leave schemes will be merged into a single streamlined scheme covering working parents with children aged 12 and below. Each working parent will receive eight days a year with one child, 10 days with two children, and 12 days with three or more. Under the current arrangement, a working parent receives six days if their youngest child is aged six or below, or two days if the youngest is between seven and 12, regardless of how many children are in the household.

Wong illustrated the shift using a working couple with three children in primary school. Today that couple receives four days of childcare leave between them; under the new scheme they would receive 24. The change, he said, gives parents more time and greater flexibility to care for their children.

For employers, the more immediate change concerns cost. The government will reimburse employers for the full duration of all child-related leave schemes – Government-Paid Maternity Leave, Government-Paid Paternity Leave, Government-Paid Adoption Leave, Shared Parental Leave, Childcare Leave, Extended Childcare Leave, and Unpaid Infant Care Leave – up to the existing reimbursement cap. Currently, the government and employers share the cost of statutory child-related leave. The change will also apply to eligible self-employed persons, who can currently claim compensation for income lost during the government-paid portion of these schemes.

Wong paired the funding shift with a direct expectation of employers, asking them to give employees the confidence to take the leave they are entitled to, to help them settle back into work afterwards, and to ensure “becoming a parent never becomes a disadvantage in someone’s career”. Parents who feel supported, he added, are better able to perform both at home and at work.

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Existing parental leave entitlements remain unchanged. Parents currently receive up to 30 weeks of government-paid leave, comprising 16 weeks of maternity leave, four weeks of paternity leave and 10 weeks of shared parental leave. Wong said he would not rule out extending this further, but that the recent changes need time to settle and employers need time to adapt.

The start date for the new Childcare Leave scheme has not been announced. The leave changes form part of a wider family support package that also includes a new SG Child Support Package worth around S$70,000 per Singapore Citizen child from birth to age 17, reduced fees at government-supported preschools from 2028, and additional housing ballot chances for first-timer families with children.

The measures are the first set of recommendations from the Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup, led by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah, to be accepted by the government. The workgroup will publish a fuller report in early 2027.