Enhanced childcare leave details to be announced in early 2027: Indranee Rajah
The government is working with employers and tripartite partners on how to implement the expanded childcare leave scheme, including measures to help companies manage staffing gaps.
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SINGAPORE: The Marriage and Parenthood Reset Work Group will announce details of childcare leave enhancements in early 2027, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah said in parliament on Thursday (Sep 10).
The enhancements will take time to implement as they require legislative amendments, and the government is working out implementation details with tripartite partners, she said.
Employers also need time to manage the operational impact of the changes, added Ms Indranee, who chairs the workgroup.
She was responding to questions by Members of Parliament (MPs) on how the expanded childcare leave policy would affect the wider workforce and workplace operations.
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Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced at the National Day Rally that parents will get up to 12 days of childcare leave each. Under the new scheme, each parent will get eight days off if they have one child, 10 days if they have two children and 12 days if they have three or more children.
This is up from the current six days off a year if the parent has a child aged six and below, or two days a year if the child is between seven and 12 years old.
The government will reimburse employers for the full duration of all child-related leave up to a cap.
The enhancements are the first set of recommendations from the workgroup, which was formed earlier this year to develop a roadmap for making marriage and parenthood more achievable.
SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYERS
Employers may use the increased government reimbursement to cover arrangements such as hiring temporary staff or recognising employees who take on extra covering responsibilities, Ms Indranee said.
The government is also studying ways to better support companies with backfilling arrangements.
“The longer-term solution to this issue is for workplaces to recognise and accept that leave for caregiving needs, such as parental leave, is now part and parcel of normal HR policy, and for them to plan and design their workplace norms and practices around this,” she said.
This could include job redesign, flexible work arrangements, short-term covering arrangements, and artificial intelligence and automation where appropriate, she added.
18:33 Min
The government is working with its tripartite partners on the implementation details of enhanced childcare leave. Legislative amendments are required and employers need to be given more time to manage the operational impact. Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah gave this update in reply to parliamentary questions on Thursday (Sep 10). She pointed out that the government will reimburse employers for the full duration of all child-related leave, up to a cap. It is also studying ways to better support companies with backfilling arrangements, as well as work life-friendly practices, including an accreditation mark. It will identify the barriers and develop practical solutions tailored for different sectors and firms. The full set of recommendations will be shared in early 2027, said Ms Indranee.
All employees, not just parents, stand to benefit from improved workplace culture and norms that help them to balance work and personal responsibilities, including caregiving needs, Ms Indranee said.
The government is working with employers, tripartite partners and other stakeholders to foster work-life-friendly practices, she added. It will also study a suggestion from MP Cassandra Lee’s (PAP-West Coast-Jurong West) to publish criteria that employers must meet to be accredited for the "Made for Families" mark.
On take-up rates for childcare leave, Ms Indranee said the government tracks these based on employer claims, with the data published annually in the Ministry of Social and Family Development's Family Trends Report.
“We will also identify barriers companies face in facilitating leave-taking to develop practical solutions that are tailored to the needs of different sectors and firms to address these,” she said.
CHANGING MINDSETS
Non-Constituency MP Andre Low from the Workers' Party asked how the government would prevent Singapore citizen parents from being disadvantaged in hiring and career progression, and what practical support could be given to smaller companies so operational concerns do not discourage parents from taking leave.
Ms Indranee said "a big part" of changing workplace norms means changing mindsets. "The signal that we're sending to all employers is that the workplace of today has changed. We cannot work on the same paradigm and model as we have for the last 10 and 20 years," she said.
As the population ages, employees will need time off to care for elderly parents, meaning workplaces must become more flexible, she added. The workgroup is looking at how to build capability and upskill companies to bring employers, human resources managers and middle management on board.
On backfilling, she said the government has eased the financial burden by paying for parental-related leave, but a longer-term solution requires working with tripartite partners on sustainable arrangements.
“Companies should not do as they are doing today, where it's like the moment somebody is taken out, you're struggling to fill the gap. Companies should be planning on the assumption that there will, at any given time, be a gap,” she said.
MP Poh Li San (PAP-Sembawang West) raised concerns that the scheme could create an unintended divide between parents and non-parents at the workplace, especially for non-parents with genuine caregiving needs.
Ms Indranee said that while the workgroup focuses on parental caregiving, the government is also looking at caregiving more broadly, including for seniors.
She noted that many employers equate flexible work arrangements with working from home, when the concept is broader and includes flexi-time.
"All this really needs employers to have conversations with their employees because every sector is different. How you might do backfilling or flexible work arrangements in a retail sector or in a hospitality sector is very different from how you would do it for professional services."
She added that the government intends to approach the issue sector by sector, working with trade associations, chambers and tripartite partners.
MIDDLE-INCOME MOTHERS
MP Jessica Tan (PAP-East Coast) asked whether the government would consider a refundable Working Mother’s Child Relief top-up or refundable childcare credit for middle-income working mothers with three or more Singaporean children who have reached the S$80,000 (US$63,200) personal income tax relief cap.
She said some middle-income mothers with more children and senior caregiving duties may hit the cap through other reliefs before reaching the working mother's child relief, describing them as part of the "sandwich class".
Ms Indranee said the current cap does not affect the vast majority of working mothers, including those with more children. Among those currently claiming the relief, about eight in 10 can claim it in full without being affected by the cap; for mothers claiming the relief on two or three children, about seven in 10 are unaffected.
While the government is not "closed to ideas", she pointed to measures announced at the National Day Rally, including the S$10,000 baby gift, S$2,000 in child credits per child per year and a S$10,000 top-up to a child's Post-Secondary Education Account.
“So in effect, what we've done is that although we have put in place the cap, we're actually giving a lot more to all, which will include that group that would be affected by the cap. So that's the intent and the design to make it more broad-based,” she said.
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