Budget 2025: Putting steel behind Forward SG’s ‘leave no one behind’ creed
PM Wong signals that remaking our social compact is woven into policymaking – but citizens must temper expectations, as generous aid isn’t permanent.
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Budget 2025 was pitched as one for all Singaporeans.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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Truth be told, in June 2022, when Prime Minister Lawrence Wong – then barely weeks into his deputy prime ministerial tenure – first unveiled plans for the Forward Singapore exercise
Laden with inspiring credos, it aimed to recast our social compact: making our meritocracy more open and compassionate, ensuring no Singaporean is left to fend for themselves in hard times, all while spending in a sustainable way that preserves today’s fiscal resources for future generations.
These ideals struck a chord – even as sceptics (this columnist included) questioned how they would translate into policy. And when Mr Wong ascended to the prime ministership, could he secure the funds for what, in 2022, appeared a costly yet indispensable endeavour?
Fast forward 33 months – with Budget 2025
Budget 2025 not only sustained that focus but also advanced another crucial element: extending greater social support to the most vulnerable, including those who have stumbled and need a helping hand.
Yes, the Budget was pitched as one for “all Singaporeans”, as Mr Wong declared – a sentiment echoed by commentators scrutinising the $143.1 billion spending plan. Yet the deeper argument is unmistakable: When the state wields abundant largesse, it must prioritise those most in need.
“No one is left behind,” Mr Wong repeated twice, and here that promise is far from empty rhetoric. It is a deliberate, measured effort – a mission conceived nearly three years ago that is now being built out with meticulously costed and funded policies.
In Singapore, we tend to take our Government’s ability to deliver on promises for granted, yet such capacity is increasingly rare in a world awash with leaders who offer platitudes but struggle to execute.
Help for those who need it
Take, for example, the extension of the Uplifting Employment Credit
Of course, this is only part of the equation. As my Straits Times colleague Syarafana Shafeeq r eported in December 2024
Another area where early abstractions of the Forward Singapore agenda have crystallised into concrete policies is in support for persons with disabilities and vulnerable families. For instance, in this Budget, the Enabling Employment Credit – which provides a wage offset to incentivise employers to hire persons with disabilities – is extended to 2028 (originally set to run from 2021 to 2025), offering continued support to employers concerned about the costs and effort needed to redesign jobs and adapt workplaces for employees with disabilities.
In addition, subsidy rates for adult disability services
For vulnerable families, there are enhanced measures, including an expansion of the Fresh Start Housing Scheme. Originally launched in 2016, the scheme helps families who once owned a flat and are now transitioning from public rental flats to home ownership. Under the enhanced scheme, eligible second-time home buyers
First-time families with children living in public rental flats – many of whom, as Mr Wong noted, face challenges such as medical issues or single parenthood – will also receive help overcoming the difficulty of purchasing a full 99-year lease flat. These families are now eligible to buy subsidised shorter-lease flats through the Fresh Start Housing Scheme.
Taken individually, these policies might seem like an alphabet soup of measures, likely lost in the noise of bigger-ticket spending items. But together, they reveal a coherent, steadily built Forward Singapore blueprint – a progression of efforts combining fresh ideas on social support from the 2022-2023 national engagement exercise with enhancements to longstanding initiatives from Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s prime ministership from 2004 to 2024.
We are witnessing a real-time transformation: an abstract vision being forged into tangible policies through a deliberate, measured process. From initial concept to detailed blueprint, from costed policies to anticipated real-world impact, this is a vision evolving before our eyes. As these measures continue to be refined and expanded, the effect is unmistakable – government spending is increasingly targeted at those who need it most. This is not mere box-ticking; it is the right, fiscally sustainable approach – exactly as Mr Wong conveyed when first outlining the thinking behind the Forward Singapore initiative in 2022.
Look around you
Not to gratuitously praise state largesse, but Singaporeans who catch only snippets of these developments should recognise the serious spending behind these social support schemes.
On top of disbursements aimed at boosting growth, supporting companies navigating shifting trade winds, and easing cost-of-living pressures, there is genuine fiscal capacity – cash to spare – to invest in those who need it most. This is, in fact, rare, and we must acknowledge that. Look around: many governments are increasingly forced into invidious choices between funding growth, paying for defence in a more dangerous world, and containing ever-rising social spending.
For instance, British politics offers a cautionary tale – there is growing talk that Britain’s embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces the prospect of cutting public spending or raising taxes in the coming months after a private warning from the fiscal watchdog about a weaker economic outlook. In some neighbouring countries, genuine intent to do more for the vulnerable is hampered by insufficient fiscal headspace – forcing governments to make painful trade-offs, from scrapping infrastructure projects to reducing office supplies and even curbing air-conditioner use, all to free up funds for social spending.
We are in a very different position. Singapore possesses the firepower to spend on immediate social needs while strengthening its social capital – in other words, building a “Singapore where we have each other’s backs,” as Mr Wong put it in his Budget speech.
Managing expectations
What is the upshot then? For citizens – not just for the vulnerable who rely on this Budget’s aid, but also for the majority who enjoy extra spending power, such as that provided by the SG60 vouchers
This is why Singaporeans must support pro-growth policies – investments in our technology and innovation sectors
However, managing expectations is crucial: our ability to redistribute generously during prosperous periods is not guaranteed indefinitely. The SG60 goodies, it must be noted, come after a year when the Singapore economy exceeded expectations by expanding 4.4 per cent
From the Government’s standpoint, it of course faces punditry that the generosity of this Budget is linked to the looming election. The rejoinder should be: So what? Any leader seeking re-election would relish the chance to use fiscal firepower to help individuals and families, boost innovation, and invest in infrastructure with long-term benefits. Public finances remain sound and healthy, and as Mr Wong stated, the Government is “spending prudently to meet our immediate and future needs, ensuring that our revenues cover expenditures, and keeping the tax burden as low as we can, while not burdening Singaporeans with debt”.
That the Forward Singapore initiative is now hardwired into policy and budgetary planning just three years after Mr Wong’s June 2022 speech is indeed admirable. But beyond building out this initiative, the Government must also temper citizens’ expectations about handouts. While today’s state largesse is the result of sound fiscal management and a strong commitment to remaking our social compact, such generosity cannot always be taken for granted as we enter this new era of likely entrenched global economic uncertainty.
Bhavan Jaipragas is deputy Opinion editor and a columnist at The Straits Times.
