ALL adult Singaporeans will receive between S$200 and S$800 in December through the Government’s Assurance Package to help with the rising cost of living.

This will apply to Singaporeans aged 21 and above in 2024, regardless of the number of properties they own.

Within this group of about 2.9 million Singaporeans, about 2.5 million will receive an additional payment of up to $200, said the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday. This additional sum applies to Singaporeans whose assessable income for year of assessment 2022 is up to $100,000.

The cash payments are part of a suite of measures – which includes MediSave top-ups and Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers – in the Assurance Package, which cushions the impact of higher inflation and the goods and services tax increase for all Singaporeans.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Sept 28 an additional S$1.1 billion Cost-of-Living Support Package to provide more support to Singaporean households, especially lower- to middle-income families. This includes an S$800 million enhancement to the Assurance Package, which brings its total to more than S$10 billion.

Citizens can check their eligibility for the payouts by logging in at the Assurance Package official website with Singpass.

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To receive their cash payments from as early as Dec 5, citizens are encouraged to link their NRICs to PayNow by Sunday if they have accounts with participating banks in Singapore.

Those without PayNow-NRIC-linked bank accounts can update their bank account information with DBS Bank/POSB, OCBC Bank or UOB at the Assurance Package official website by Nov 27 to receive the payment from Dec 13.

Citizens using the GovCash service can withdraw their payments at OCBC ATMs islandwide after entering a payment reference number that will be sent to them from Dec 22, entering their NRIC number and after passing facial verification. An OCBC account is not required to withdraw the payment at OCBC ATMs.

Other than the cash payouts in December, Singaporeans will receive several other forms of support from the Government at the start of 2024.

In January, every Singaporean household will get S$500 worth of CDC vouchers, which can be claimed digitally at go.gov.sg/cdcv from Jan 3, 2024. The vouchers can be claimed at any time during their validity period, and will expire at the end of 2024.

January will also see the disbursement of a 0.5- to one-month rebate of service and conservancy charges (S&CC), and U-Save rebates of between S$130 and S$210.

From February 2024, an AP Senior’s Bonus of between S$200 and S$300 will be paid out to for eligible lower-income seniors aged 55 and above.

In the same month, all Singaporeans aged 20 and below, or 55 and above, will receive S$150 in their CPF MediSave accounts. THE STRAITS TIMES