Baby Bonus CDA Account

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Baby Bonus CDA Account

November 11th, 2007
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Under the Baby Bonus scheme, the government matches the amount that you save in your child’s Child Development Account (CDA), dollar for dollar.

The matching contribution from the government is capped at $6,000 for your second child, and $12,000 for your third child. The amount is also $12,000 for your fourth child.

The CDA is sometimes also called Children Development Account.

To open the CDA account, you need to go to a POSB branch.

You can use the savings to pay for education and medical-related expenses for any of your children. See this for details.

See also my calculations on how much your children can get. (The total is a whopping $68k!)

When your child enters primary school, a Post-Secondary Education Account (PSE) will be created for your child. Unused savings in the CDA Account can * be transferred to the PSE Account.

The main purpose of the PSE Account is to help you save up for your child’s post-secondary education, i.e. for courses in ITEs, local polytechnics, JCs, and universities (including UniSIM).

Your contributions to the PSE Account will also be matched by the government, but subject to a combined CDA-PSE cap similar to the caps mentioned earlier: the government’s total co-funding for your second child, whether to CDA or PSE, will be capped at $6,000 (and $12,000 each for third child and fourth child).

The PSE Account will also earn the same interest rates as the CPF Special Account, which is currently set at 4%. (Straits Times, October 24, 2007)

* Parents have recently received letters saying that they have an option to withdraw the CDA savings when the child enters primary school.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Other Money Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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15 Responses to “Baby Bonus CDA Account”


  1. Onehubster Says:
    February 14th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    Hi Salary.sg

    is this benefit applicable only to Singaporean? how about PR?

    Thanks.


  2. admin Says:
    February 15th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    The child has to be a Singapore citizen.
    See:
    link


  3. babyelmo Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    my babe is born on 14 dec 2007,when will the payment be?


  4. admin Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    “The first cash gift is given within 3 weeks after MCYS receives your properly completed forms. The subsequent cash gifts are given when your child is approximately 6, 12 and 18 months of age.”
    See: link


  5. lilyang Says:
    June 29th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    Hi, I just open a CDA account for my child who is born last year.I heard from the OCBC bank staff that I can withdraw all the funds in the CDA account by cash before my child turns 7 yrs old. Is this truth or did they give me the wrong informaion?


  6. cannot withdraw Says:
    June 29th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    @lilyang, I don’t think you can withdraw in cash. Check out http://www.babybonus.gov.sg
    It says “The funds cannot be withdrawn in cash.” You can only use the money for child-related expenses like medical and schooling.


  7. CAB Says:
    June 29th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

    i also opened an CDA account with OCBC and heard that for child born before 31 Dec 2007, they can with all the funds when the child turn 7 yrs old


  8. yes, can withdraw Says:
    June 30th, 2008 at 9:04 am

    I can confirm that you can withdraw the money in cash when the child turns 7. MCYS has sent me a written letter stating that. The article above also says “Parents have recently received letters saying that they have an option to withdraw the CDA savings when the child enters primary school.”
    However, I can’t seem to find the same info in the official baby bonus site, or the MCYS site. It will be good if more people confirm this.


  9. Haldiah Says:
    August 25th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    I had checked with MCYS and they confirmed it can either be witdrawn for cash or transfer to PSED account.And i further confirmed the information o the link below.

    http://www.babybonus.gov.sg/bbss/html/faq.html


  10. Haldiah Says:
    August 25th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    More information of what i have.
    A letter will be sent to parents somewhere in November the year the child turns 6yrs old.If parents opt to withdraw by cash, it will be transfered to our account somewhere in February the following year.


  11. dw_gal Says:
    August 26th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    thanks haldiah appreciate the info. tt was wat i’m looking for.


  12. baby Says:
    September 1st, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    will a single mother under 21 years of age be eligible for the baby bonus scheme?


  13. baby bonus Says:
    September 1st, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    i’m afraid not. according to the eligibility criteria in http://www.babybonus.gov.sg the baby’s mother has to be lawfully married to the father. wish you the best.


  14. Haldiah Says:
    December 11th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    Hi,

    My child turns 7 in August 2009.I received a letter in December 2008 to either withdraw or transfer the CDA $ to the child’s education account.I opted to withdraw, and the $ was transferred to my POSB account in February 2009.


  15. Answer Says:
    December 13th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    For children born from 2001-2007, the trustees will receive an option at their official address (as maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs) in November in the year the child turns 6 years of age to choose to transfer the CDA balance into the PSEA or to withdraw the amount in cash.

    Source: https://www.babybonus.gov.sg/bbss/html/faq.html

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