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.
62 Comments
my babe is born on 14 dec 2007,when will the payment be?
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
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.
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.
thanks haldiah appreciate the info. tt was wat i’m looking for.
will a single mother under 21 years of age be eligible for the baby bonus scheme?
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.
hi there….
i am entittled for the cash withdrawal and i have select it to withdraw the cash. but other than the letter off notification, i did not receive any letter saying when or how are they going to give me the cash. is there anyway for me to check online cause i cant find any link on MCYS website regarding this.
hi,
i would like to check the listing for education and medical-related expenses for my child. i cant open the link given. where else can i check?
hi,i just opened a CDA acc for my son who was born year may 2010.all this while i received the baby bonus cash gift,thru my acc…n nxt mnth,my baby is going to receive the 12mnths baby bonus..is it true,that once i open the CDA acc,they will deposit the baby bonus into my CDA acc? or they eill deposit it to my initial acc?
pls..any advise?
Hi sasha, cash gift will still be credited into your personal account as per application form. The CDA account is for you to top up on your own to a maximum cap amount according to your child birth order, and govt will do the corresponding matching in the month that follows.
Hope this helps. =D
I think it’s better to pump the cash gift to CDA.
Xtra 4k for govt to match. So just use Nets for payment in any approved instituitions. Settled 🙂
Hi, I nd sm advise. My sis wantd a loan of $9K frm me to top up on her 6yr old son’s CDA ac to enjoy d govt’s dollar to dollar then withraw everythg. Q is, do u tink she is able to get all $18K by Feb. Im worried cos I cant get any info on this. Worried she wont b able 2 withraw everythg. I really want to help her cos d xtra $9K is definately gg to help her big family.
It abit confusing when some of the reply stated that we are able to withdraw the full amount when the child reach 7 years old and some reply stated we are NOT ABLE TO withdraw the funds as it will onlyto be used for the child education. So can you help me to clear my confusing about this matter? Btw i have 7 children are they entilted for the govement one to one contribution?
I already opened CDA account for my son who was born on july 2007 . He is my first son and he became singapore citizen on feb 2010.So can he eligible to get dollar for dollar match?
yes, i think so. easiest way is to deposit a few hundred dollars into your CDA and see if the government tops up your account after 1 month.
Hi, i opt to withdraw cash out of my child cda when he reach 7. Heard mcys will credit the cash by 3rd week january, is it true?
Hi juli, yes for those who opt to withdraw will received by 3rd week of Jan and infact its already been credited to my acct this morning 🙂 Have check n confirm. *wink*
Hi Naylimd… did u check that u only receive the balances in the CDA account in the bank but not the matching Govt contribution. According to MCYS they will credit the matching Govt contribution later. Will get our deposit in the CDA account and ultimately MCYS will credit the matching Govt contribution by end of Jan 2012 or early Feb 2012.
Further to my reply above. This only applies if you have top up the balance by the due date of 29 Dec 2011. Then the credit by third week of Jan 2012 is excluding the Govt matching contribution (for the mth of Dec 2011) otherwise if you have top up way earlier …. u will get all the balances + govt contribution 🙂
I,M SITI I HEARD TAHT MY DAUGTER BALANCE 3000 HOW DO I WITDRAW 3000 TO MY ACCONUT . I CHEK THAT MY BANK 400 BUT THE 3000 HOW .TO TEKE THAT IS THE BALANCE.
I have an ex-colleague who’s son turned 7 last year, so in Nov/Dec 2010, she deposited $6k to her son’s CDA account to enjoy the govt’s dollar to dollar matching contribution. Then sometime in end Jan or early Feb 2011, she told me that $12k has already been deposited in her POSB savings account. So i guess its true.
But how can we choose that option instead of the money being transferred to our child’s Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA)?? Will there be any notification letter (from MCYS or Bank) send to us?? Who should we call to get more info? The MCYS or the bank? The MCYS website doesn’t seem to state that. My ex-colleague told me not everyone knows about this option….
i am a spore citizen but my child only optain citizenship when he is 4 years old.Will he be entitled to the baby bonus?
Hi.. I am a single mother, age 27 , with a daugther age 2yrs old, i open her the cda acct, but i find it not in use or neccessary, i cant get the baby bonus benefit for my daughter, which is like the monthly payment thing….instead i have to top up my daughter cda acct myself..why must there be a differenciation between married and single mother/father…We ppl legally bore a SINGAPOREAN baby, and the baby is not at FAULT..but why government give such a rule where only legally married or such are eligible.. cant there be a way, where gvm or our salary be implementated inside?
in addition to the one-off bonus, i think there’s also a co-payment bonus, where the government will match your savings. whether you’re single or married, you still have to put in money in order to receive the matched bonus.
Hi i have withdraw & receive cash pay out for my 2004 baby. But what about my 20007 baby, can we still opt?
Hi there my son going to be 18 months this year. He born in 22 augst 2011. But now the babybonus change the law. So may i know how much do my son get?
for baby born after 2007 will not get cda cash withdrawal if closure of cda account cos 2008 government change new rule thanks
My doter born in the year 2007, which means we are eligible to withdraw the balance CDA. Can someone assist me on this… I dont understand. If we are eligible for 6k and we used only 4k…so we have to top up 2k for us to withdraw the balance 4k (after the matching). Is my understanding correct
hi there, may i ask, can a single mother (not married to father of child) open a CDA account for her child? if yes, how does she go about doing it?
it seems CDA is part of the baby bonus scheme and the latter requires the child to have parents who are legally married. this is based on what i read in the official websites, so please call the ministry directly to confirm.
hi, i just want to check, I opt to withdraw cash from my child cda when he reach 7. So once the govt matches the money, can it be used for our own purpose or is the use of the withdrawn cash going to be restricted to certain aspects?
It’s my daughter 6th year and i also opt to close and withdraw[and i just top up $12k two days ago before due date which is 25th dec c”,]],by end next mth[January2014] all the balances inc matching contribution will be deposited in my account,which means i can spent or do whatever i want with that $
Btw my daughter is my 3rd child and therefore max caps of $12k c”,]
Him Lynn, have you received the matching credited to your a/c or only received the amount you contributed into cda?
Hi Dc…yup rcvd the cda balance,the matching contributions(gov) not yet shud be anytime now coz hafta be a week later for I deposited in december if october then I,ll get in a lump sum.
hi all , my 2nd child is turning 7 next yr…she is born on feb 2008…will I get the option to withdraw the cda account?
Its really not fair that only kids born up to 2008 can choose to closed cda acct and withdraw all the money!! What abt after those born after 2008 ???
Looks like the government knows that parents use these scheme as an INVESTMENT for themselves.
I have a son born in 2009 and a girl born in 2011. I am wondering if I renunce my SG citizenship and my kids SG citizenshop, can I withdraw the funds in their CDA account? Will this be an automatic process, example, will the relevant banks receive some sort of notification that my children are no longer SG citizen and therefore the CDA account can be closed/funds withdrawn?
Issit automaticaly..Or need to apply once child turn to pri 1 as heard it can be withraw.
Hi. My son was born in april 2014. Received the first cash give via my husband’s account. And deposit everything into my son’s cda account as i wasn’t sure whether we can use that money. Question – 2nd and 3rd cash gift of baby bonus will be credited to cda account or my husband’ s account?
Hi i juz gave birth on oct 2014,i did put in $50 in the CDA acc,so when will the government top up the money?if i already use the money for his checkup,will government know how much to top up?
Hi am curious regarding my 2nd child that was born on year 2012. ive only received the cash gift of 3000 only. May i know how much exactly does the cash gift for my 2nd child.
if he turned 12mths on 26 December.
hen will be the payout day as im going oversea. so justwanna check wit u guys
If i topup the CDA account somewhere in mid january. when will i receive the gov top up? any specific date?
Hi Salary.sg,
My son turn 6 month today,27 February 2015..Approx when will i get my baby bonus deposit in my account?
i’m still 20 . how can i apply for the baby bonus for my 18 months child ?
Hi, on behalf of a family member. I would like to know if parent can still claim baby bonus after child is a yr old? Cause child was born before parents were married? And if eligible, will there be any cut of the payment ect? Thanks…