Budget 2025 will provide for Singaporean women at all stages of life. Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah shared this fact with some 60 activists at the Women’s Wing’s (WW) post-Budget dialogue this past weekend (22 Mar).
Here are 4 big ways how:
For working women: Skills training to level up
Source: Indranee Rajah / Facebook
The 2025 Budget funds the SkillsFuture Level-Up programme, which lets Singaporean workers aged 40 years and above learn new, relevant skills for the economy.
These workers get a $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit top-up, which pays nearly all the course fees for a part-time diploma at institutions like Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
“Many women take time out to look after their children. Some of them would have left the workforce in their late 20s or early 30s,” said Minister Indranee. “Then now the children are grown up and in school and independent, and suddenly these women find that ‘I want to go back to work. But I don’t know how.’.”
“Here, the SkillsFuture Level-Up programme, for those women who are 40 years and above, is a very empowering tool.”
For older women: More job security and healthcare
Source: Indranee Rajah / Facebook
Older workers can also have more job security. The Senior Employment Credit scheme, where the Government provides up to 7 per cent in wage offsets to employers of staff aged 60 and above earning less than $4,000 monthly, is being extended to end-2026.
“So basically the Government funds the employer [to] employ older workers,” said Minister Indranee. “And we’re going to have a tripartite workgroup on senior employment to see how we can review senior employment policies.”
Senior women who have lower incomes will also have help for healthcare expenses. Under the new Matched MediSave Scheme, the Government will match every $1 topped up in their MediSave accounts, for up to $1000 annually. These top-ups will begin from 2026, for five years.
“For residential care services, we’ll increase the subsidies. And there’s extra for those who are born in 1969,” added Minister Indranee about how up to 25 per cent more subsidies are coming for low-income households which need nursing home services.
These Budget enhancements will help protect Singaporeans from global cost-of-living increases. This includes $500 of CDC vouchers usable at food centres and supermarkets and up to $760 in U-Save utility rebates.
For mums: Support for large families
Source: Indranee Rajah / Facebook
The new Large Families Scheme gives up to $16,000 of support to families with three or more children. In particular, a third or later child born on or after 18 February this year will have an extra $5,000 of First Step grant money put into his or her Child Development Account (CDA).
This $5,000 is on top of the existing $5,000 CDA First Step grant for all newborn Singaporean children.
“That First Step Grant of $10,000 is not limited to using only for the third child,” said Minister Indranee, “The third child is the key that unlocks the $10,000 which you can use for the other children as well.”
“It basically helps with the whole family system. And so that way the family will be happy.”
All Singaporean children aged 12 years and below will also have $500 in ChildLifeSG credits in FY2025. These can be used at participating merchants to defray household expenses.
For newlyweds: Over 50,000 BTOs during the next few years
Source: Indranee Rajah / Facebook
About 19,600 BTOs are launching in 2025 in estates all over Singapore — from the picturesque Kallang/ Whampoa riverfront, to the bustling streets of Woodlands and Yishun, to the first-ever public housing project at heritage neighbourhood Mount Pleasant.
These are 19,600 options for newlywed women to set up home and a family.
In fact, 50,000 BTOs will launch during the next few years — the PAP Government expanded BTO construction post-COVID.
“We recently, in February, launched the largest-ever Sale of Balance Flats with around 5,500 flats either completed or under construction,” added Minister Indranee. “And HDB plans to move another Sale of Balance Flats exercise later this year.”
“We are a Government that’s inclusive,” said Minister Indranee about the principles underpinning Budget 2025’s broad-ranging support. “We’re a party that is driven by principles of inclusivity and we are trying to make sure that no one gets left behind.”
