2022 roundup: The Oct $1.5 billion Support Package for Cost of Living relief

30/12/2022

To round off 2022, Petir.sg is looking back at moments where our Party decisively took action this year.

More financial support for Singaporean households was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on October 14.

This took the form of the new $1.5 billion Support Package (not to be conflated with February’s Assurance Package increases) which helps steady our lower-income fellow citizens as well as our seniors against inflation..

“I fully appreciate how inflation affects everyone, and some Singaporeans more than others,” said DPM Wong.

“There are two groups that the Government is particularly concerned about,” he added.

“First, lower-income Singaporeans, who will find it difficult to cope with higher prices.”

“Second, retirees who have no income from work.”

The Deputy Prime Minister said that while this Support Package was designed with these two vulnerable groups in mind, the measures in it would also cover the middle-income segments, and provide some help for all Singaporeans.

What’s in this October Support Package?

Short answer: Different types of Cost of Living (COL) relief.

There’s a one-off Cost of Living (COL) Special Payment of up to $500 in December, an additional $100 CDC Voucher this coming January, Public Transport Vouchers worth $30 and enhanced financial assistance for students.

Also included: The PAP Government fulfilling its promise to look out for Singaporeans and step in when necessary, this time specially seeking the President’s concurrence to draw an advance from the Contingencies Fund so that Singaporeans can receive the October package in a timely manner.

This advance will be replaced within this financial year, said DPM Wong.

He added that the Government was able to fund this package without drawing on Singapore’s Past Reserves due to stronger-than-expected fiscal out-turn in the first half of FY2022.

“The Government will continue to live within our means and ensure fiscal sustainability,” noted DPM Wong.

$3.56 billion total in aid for 2022

“This new $1.5 billion support package, together with earlier rounds of support measures rolled out this year, will fully cover the increase in cost of living for lower-income households on average, and more than half of the increase in cost of living for middle-income households on average this year,” announced the Ministry of Finance in a press release the same day.

In the bigger fiscal picture, this October’s Support Package’s COL support is a significant part of the total $3.56 billion of financial aid disbursed to Singaporeans against cost-of-living pressures in 2022.

All these combined fully shields four in ten Singaporeans from inflation in 2022. This combined aid further covers half the inflation-induced household expenditure for another two in ten Singaporeans. And fully offsets the average retiree’s increased household expenditure from inflation too.  

“Just as what we have done during the last two-and-a-half years of Covid-19, we continue to draw on the strong foundation of solidarity and mutual trust in our society, to help one another get through this period,” said DPM Wong.

“We have each other’s backs.”

Top image credit: MOF/YouTube.