Amidst issues over the cost-of-living, there has additionally been extra authorities assist and money payouts this yr. Have you ever used up your advantages but?
As a part of the sandwiched technology having to assist a number of dependents, I’ve been paying attention to the assorted advantages that I get this yr, notably within the following areas:
- To assist struggle inflation
- To buffer in opposition to rising healthcare prices
- To stay aggressive within the workforce and upskill
- For my household, the younger and the outdated
The simplest method to verify your advantages can be to make use of this Help for You Calculator to calculate the whole estimated advantages that you simply and/or your family might obtain from the Authorities.
Advantages for households
Dwelling in a HDB flat signifies that we obtain U-Save rebates each quarter. With further rebates given in 2024, we might get between $550 to $950in complete to offset our utilities payments. In response to the federal government, in Monetary Yr 2024, the U-Save rebates will on common, cowl about 8 months of utilities payments for these dwelling in 1- and 2-room flats, and about 4 months of utilities payments for these dwelling in 3- and 4-room flats. In fact, being conscious of your electrical energy and water utilization will assist too.
HDB households can even obtain as much as 4 months of S&CC rebates altogether in 2024 to offset our S&CC payments.
We’ve additionally used our $800 CDC vouchers – which have been disbursed in January and June this yr -to pay for our meals at taking part hawker stalls, in addition to for groceries at taking part supermarkets and heartland retailers.
Psst, your $800 CDC vouchers expire on 31 December 2024 so don’t overlook to assert and use them in case you haven’t already completed so! Singaporean households may stay up for one other tranche of $300 CDC vouchers that will probably be disbursed in January 2025!
Underneath the Assurance Package deal Money payouts, my husband and I every acquired $200 through PayNow, whereas our mother and father acquired $600 every as a substitute as they earn a decrease earnings.
Advantages for households
My youngsters attend full-day childcare at MyFirstSkool (an anchor operator), so I’m definitely wanting ahead to paying decrease childcare charges subsequent yr (which we’ve already acquired the notification for)!
Beforehand, I used to be unable to assert the Mother or father Aid on my dad, as he labored part-time and had an annual earnings of $4,800. The annual earnings threshold for all dependant-related tax reliefs, together with the Mother or father Aid, has now been elevated from $4,000 to $8,000. Which means that for these of you supporting dependant members of the family who’re doing part-time work, this could enable for extra of you guys to assert the tax aid.
To assist buffer in opposition to rising healthcare prices, there are the CPF MediSave top-ups from Price range 2024 and we have now additionally made additional voluntary contributions by ourselves.
My husband and I are supporting aged mother and father of their 60s – 70s, who every acquired the Retirement Financial savings Bonus (as a part of the Majulah Package deal) of $1,000 or $1,500. And since 3 of our elders are nonetheless working, they may profit from the Earn and Save Bonus to get $400 to $1,000.
Help for mid-careerists to reskill
In case you’re aged 40 and above, you need to use the $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit score (Mid-Profession) top-up for round 7,000 chosen coaching programs that meet trade and employment wants. The wide selection of programs consists of each part-time and full-time programmes.
The SkillsFuture Mid-Profession Enhanced Subsidy additionally provides larger subsidies of as much as 90% after all charges for an extra publicly funded diploma.
In case you are seeking to make a profession change and pursue full-time coaching, you’ll be able to try the brand new SkillsFuture Mid-Profession Coaching Allowance, which supplies a coaching allowance of as much as $3,000 a month for a most of 24 months over a person’s lifetime (computed as 50% of your common month-to-month earnings, based mostly on the most recent accessible 12-month interval of earnings information).
In case you haven’t been monitoring your payouts and rebates below the Price range 2024 Assurance Package deal, right here’s the timeline so that you can observe again on:
A lookback at 2024
There’s little question that 2024 has been a yr of speedy modifications.
Macro components together with world provide chain disruptions and the continuing conflicts in numerous components of the world have led to inflation stress on economies.
And due to this, throughout the board, prices are typically rising, whereas we’re seeing extra job layoffs and retrenchments occur on the identical time. There’s additionally a really actual concern about whether or not synthetic intelligence will take away our jobs within the close to future.
In instances like these, we will make use of varied authorities assist advantages and payouts to deal with larger prices within the brief time period, whereas upskilling ourselves in the long term to make sure our incomes energy continues to climb.
Moderately than simply depend on authorities payouts, I’ve additionally shared numerous tips about lowering prices reminiscent of saving with member reductions and reducing down on meals deliveries and snacks, and so on.
What’s extra, I’ve been constantly nagging my readers (on my Instagram) to construct further sources of earnings through facet hustles to take care of larger prices all through this yr. Whether or not it’s from incomes Shopee affiliate commissions or doing paid authorities surveys on CrowdTaskSG, each little bit counts.
It’s now turning into more and more apparent that we must always all begin to look significantly into the right way to equip ourselves with AI in order to stay aggressive and be ready for the altering panorama of labor. I personally signed up for a couple of AI lessons this yr to discover ways to use instruments like ChatGPT higher, and am seeking to broaden my repertoire to extra AI instruments within the close to future.
As I watch my mates world wide complain about rising prices of their nations too, it’s clear that the challenges we face is just not occurring in Singapore alone. My US mates have additionally quipped that they want they get as many authorities advantages as we do right here, which was a terrific reminder for me to not take what we have now with no consideration.
Whereas the federal government assist measures have undoubtedly been extra beneficiant this yr, I don’t anticipate to at all times be spoon-fed so I’m taking it upon myself to hustle, maintain upskilling and earn extra.
Now, earlier than 2024 involves an finish, don’t overlook to make use of your CDC vouchers earlier than they expire! Declare your CDC vouchers digitally by visiting go.gov.sg/cdcv
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Discover out the estimated authorities advantages you could obtain by utilizing the Help for You Calculator!
To verify your eligibility for the assorted authorities disbursement schemes for Singaporeans, go to this govbenefitswebsite right here!
Disclosure: This text is dropped at you in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance. All opinions are that of my very own.
