$100 in vouchers for each household to use at hawker centres, heartland shops

All Singaporean households can now collect $100 worth of vouchers that they can spend at about 10,000 participating hawker stalls and heartland merchants.

The Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers, worth $130 million in total and given out to 1.3 million households, were available for collection digitally from yesterday and can be used till Dec 31 next year.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who launched the latest tranche of the voucher scheme yesterday, said in a Facebook post later in the day that more than 200,000 households had claimed the vouchers.

One Singaporean per household can claim the vouchers through an online link that requires the use of Singpass. He will then receive a link on his registered mobile number. This link can then be shared via messaging apps with household members, who can use the vouchers, which come in denominations of $2, $5 and $10.

A decal will be used to identify participating merchants, with more expected to come on board.

Those unable to claim or use the vouchers digitally - those without a smartphone for instance - can approach community clubs or centres for assistance, such as to print hard-copy vouchers.

To spend the voucher digitally, the resident has to click on the CDC vouchers link, select the voucher amount and show the QR code to the merchant, who then scans it using the RedeemSG App.

Hard-copy vouchers will have a QR code for the merchant to scan.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had announced this third update to the scheme at Budget 2021, as part of a $900 million Household Support Package.

The CDC voucher scheme was launched last June to help up to 400,000 lower-income families, with a second tranche for them announced in January this year.

PM Lee said at the launch held at Jurong Spring Community Club that the vouchers are to express the Government's appreciation for everyone's solidarity amid the pandemic. They are also meant to help defray some daily expenses such as for food, and to support hard-hit heartland shops and hawkers, he added.

The voucher scheme has gone digital so that the vouchers are easier to use, said PM Lee, who is also chairman of the People's Association, which CDCs come under.

Merchants can better track transactions and receive payment faster, while residents have the convenience and flexibility of digital vouchers, he added. The earlier tranches of the vouchers involved physical vouchers.

Mr Sheam Kannan, 29, who lives with his parents in Bukit Batok, said the digital vouchers would be more convenient as any family member can use them at any time.

Having the link to share with family members is also useful, as "it reduces the need and trouble of having to log into Singpass individually", added the senior executive in the social service sector.

PM Lee said help on the use of the vouchers will be available to residents at all community centres and clubs, SG Digital community hubs, as well as selected residents' committee or residents' network centres in areas with a higher proportion of the elderly.

Silver Generation Office ambassadors will also conduct house visits to explain the voucher scheme to seniors.