About 850,000 older Singaporeans to receive cash under Assurance Package Seniors’ Bonus

SINGAPORE – About 850,000 lower-income Singaporeans aged 55 and above will get $200 to $300 from the Assurance Package (AP) 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, 2025, via PayNow-NRIC. To do so, they would need to link their NRICs 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-linked bank accounts or valid bank accounts will receive their cash benefits later, via GovCash.

Every Singaporean aged 20 years and below, or 55 years and above, will also get an AP MediSave top-up of $150 in their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts.

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

These benefits were announced in Budget 2022. Under the AP, 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.

In Budget 2024, a $1.9 billion enhancement to the AP 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 be sent an SMS after the benefits have been credited in February. Those without a Singpass-registered mobile number or who do not receive an SMS will have a letter sent to the address on their NRIC.

All AP MediSave recipients aged 16 and below will receive 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 at about 400 outlets of eight supermarket chains.

This article was originally published on The Straits Times. Its inclusion on this website is solely for education purposes.