Eligible Singaporeans to get between $200 and $400 in September to help with rising cost of living

SINGAPORE – All eligible adult Singaporeans will receive a one-off special payment amounting to between $200 and $400 in September 2024 to help with the rising cost of living.

This will apply to more than 2.4 million Singaporeans aged 21 and above in 2024, and is applicable to those whose assessable income is up to $100,000, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Aug 13.

Those who own more than one property are not eligible for the payout.

Citizens can check their eligibility for the special payment by logging in to the

govbenefits website

with their Singpass. Eligible recipients will be notified via their Singpass app in September, after the payout has been credited.

To safeguard against scams, any SMS notification sent by “gov.sg” will only inform citizens of their benefits. Citizens will not be asked to reply to the SMS, click any links, or provide any information to the sender. No messages about the payout will be sent through WhatsApp or other mobile messaging platforms, said MOF.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also Finance Minister, announced the Cost-of-Living Special Payment during

Budget 2024 in February.

Eligible adult Singapore citizens would have already received between $300 and $500 in 2022, and between $200 and $400 in 2023.

The payout is part of a suite of measures in the Assurance Package, which cushions the impact of higher inflation and the goods and services tax increase for all Singaporeans. It included CDC vouchers for all Singaporean households, and U-Save and service and conservancy charge (S&CC) rebates for HDB households to help offset utility bills and the S&CC. 

For instance, each Singaporean household has received a total of

$800 worth of CDC vouchers

so far in 2024, with $500 in January and $300 in June.

Citizens are encouraged to link their NRICs to PayNow through their banks by Aug 26 if they have accounts with the 12 participating banks in Singapore. This will allow them to receive the payment earlier, from Sept 5. The participating banks are Bank of China, CIMB, Citibank, DBS Bank/POSB, HSBC, ICBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, RHB Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Trust Bank and UOB.

Those without PayNow-NRIC-linked bank accounts but who have a DBS/POSB, OCBC or UOB bank account may provide their bank account information at the govbenefits website by Aug 27. They will then receive the cash benefits via Giro from Sept 13.

Eligible citizens who have not linked their NRICs to PayNow or provided a valid bank account will receive their cash benefits via GovCash.