Up to 2.9 million adult Singaporeans will receive Assurance Package Cash and Cost-of-Living (COL) Special Payment in December 2022

With about 2.5m eligible adults receiving both Assurance Package Cash and COL Special Payment totalling up to $700

I.     Assurance Package (AP) 

1.    The Assurance Package (AP) for GST will cushion the impact of the GST rate increase for all Singaporeans. The package comprises cash payouts, Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers, additional GST Voucher (GSTV) – U-Save, and MediSave top-ups. These amounts will be disbursed over five years starting from December 2022. 

2.    As announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong in Parliament on 7 November 2022, the Government will increase the AP by $1.4 billion to reach around $8 billion, up from the $6.6 billion announced at Budget 2022. This ensures that even with the current inflation situation, the AP will offset additional GST expenses for the majority of Singaporean households for at least five years, with around ten years offset for lower-income households. The details of this enhancement will be announced at Budget 2023, and the enhancements will be applied to AP benefits thereafter. 

3.    To ensure households receive timely support, we will keep to our commitment to disburse the first tranche of AP benefits from December 2022 to February 2023, as announced in Budget 2022. About 2.9 million adult Singaporeans will receive up to $200 in AP Cash in December 2022. 

4.    Apart from the AP Cash in December 2022, eligible Singaporeans will receive the following benefits in the subsequent months of January 2023 and February 2023. 

a) In January 2023, eligible HDB households will receive additional GST Voucher (GSTV) – U-Save of up to $95 to offset utilities bills. This is on top of the regular GSTV – U-Save under the permanent GSTV scheme of up to $95 for eligible HDB households. 

b) In January 2023, every Singaporean household will receive a total of $300 CDC Vouchers. This comprises $200 CDC Vouchers under the AP and $100 CDC Vouchers from the $1.5 billion Support Package announced in October 2022. The CDC Vouchers can be used at participating heartland merchants and hawkers, and supermarkets. 

c) In February 2023, lower-income senior Singaporeans will receive up to $300 cash, under the GSTV – Cash (Seniors’ Bonus). 

d) In February 2023, eligible seniors aged 55 years and above, and children aged 20 years and below will receive $150 in their CPF MediSave Account under the AP MediSave.

The details of these upcoming AP benefits are in the Annex.

II.     Cost-of-Living Special Payment

5.    About 2.5 million adult Singaporeans will receive up to $500 in cash, under the Cost-of-Living (COL) Special Payment. This one-off COL Special Payment is part of the $1.5 billion Support Package announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong in October 2022 to provide cost-of-living relief for Singaporean households, with more support for lower- to middle-income groups. 

III.     Useful Information

Eligibility 

6.    Citizens may check their eligibility for the AP Cash and COL Special Payment at the AP official website (go.gov.sg/assurancepackage) by logging in with their Singpass. The AP Cash and COL Special Payment will be disbursed together in December 2022, with eligible Singaporeans receiving up to $700 in total. 

Modes Of Payment for AP Cash and COL Special Payment 

Go Digital to Receive Cash Benefits Sooner

7.    PayNow-NRIC provides added convenience and privacy for citizens to receive the cash benefits in their bank account, without having to disclose their bank account details to the sender. Since 2021, the Ministry of Finance has been using PayNow-NRIC as the default payment mode for citizens who have linked their NRIC to PayNow. 

8.    Citizens are encouraged to link their NRIC to PayNow by 20 November 2022 to receive their AP Cash and COL Special Payment as early as from 5 December 2022. Please contact your bank for more details on how to do so. For those using bank crediting, it will be disbursed on 12 December 2022. 

GovCash has Replaced Cheques as Mode of Payment 

9.    From 2022, GovCash has replaced cheques as the mode of payment to citizens who have not linked their NRICs to PayNow or provided their bank account details. Citizens on GovCash can withdraw their AP Cash and COL Special Payment at OCBC ATMs islandwide by entering their 1) Payment Reference Number (PRN) that will be sent to them from 14 December 2022, and 2) NRIC, and after passing the facial verification. They do not require an OCBC bank account to withdraw the payment at the OCBC ATMs. GovCash recipients can also use the LifeSG app to make payment to merchants by scanning their PayNow or NETS QR code, or transfer payments to their bank accounts via PayNow if they subsequently register for PayNow-NRIC.

Notifications

Singpass App as a Mode of Notification

10.    Eligible recipients will be notified in December 2022 after the AP Cash and COL Special Payment have been credited to them, either via their Singpass app inbox or SMS notifications for those who have registered their mobile numbers with Singpass, but have not downloaded or completed their one-time setup of the Singpass app. 

11.    To guard against scams, the SMS notification (sent by “MOF”) will only inform citizens of their benefits. Citizens will not be asked to reply to the SMS, click any links, or provide any information to the sender. There will not be any messages relating to AP sent via WhatsApp or other mobile app messaging platforms. Citizens are encouraged to download the Singpass app from the official app stores (e.g. App Store, Play Store or Huawei AppGallery and to check that the app is developed by “Government Technology Agency”) to receive secured notifications from the Government. 

Contact Information 

12. For more information on the above schemes, please visit the AP website (go.gov.sg/assurancepackage) or contact the following parties:

Issued by:

Ministry of Finance
Singapore
15 November 2022