THE Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board undertakes rigorous checks and investigations to ensure that the CPF savings of deceased members will go to their spouse and children, said Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong.

He was replying to Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC), who was worried that a dead member's family might lose out because of a provision in the new CPF Act, which Parliament passed on Monday.

Clause 11c of the new Act states that the CPF Board is not liable for distributing CPF money to a spouse if it was 'in ignorance of the marriage'.

This can happen, according to Madam Halimah, if the marriage took place overseas, or was not registered with the Registry of Marriages (ROM) or the Registry of Muslim Marriages (ROMM).

Madam Halimah was concerned that the new Act did not provide sufficient assurance that CPF would exercise 'due diligence' in checking the marital status of the deceased.

Mr Gan replied that the CPF Board 'conducts rigorous checks and investigations' before making payment.

It checks with the ROM as well as the ROMM for every case, as well as with nominees and the deceased's family, where possible.

Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.