As mentioned in an earlier post, 笨mummy received a call from a childcare centre
that there is an infant care vacancy for Child 2. She visited the childcare
centre and had a rather positive vibe on the environment as well as the
teachers. 笨mummy
went ahead to register for a two week trial that would commerce in Sept.
笨mummy
is quite shocked by:
(1) how expensive infant care fees are in Singapore
The one which she registered was quoting a monthly infant
care school fee in the range of S$1,364.25. She also did a check with the other
big names and noted that the fees are also within the same range.
(2) the big difference between the government subsidy amount
for a working mother and a non working mother.
Being Singapore citizen, there is government subsidy
available depending on the working status of the mother:
- For working mothers - $600
- For non-working mothers - $150
The difference in the subsidy between the two is S$450,
which is quite substantial.
In her attempt to find ways to reduce the childcare
expenses, 笨mummy
did some research on the subsidy and these are what she found out:
- All parents with Singapore Citizen children enrolled in child care centres licensed by ECDA will continue to be eligible for a Basic Subsidy (either S$150 for families with non-working mother or S$600 for infant care and S$300 for families with working mother )
- To be eligible for the basic subsidy as a working mother, one need to be working at least 56 hours per month (i.e 1.86 hours/day)
- For a freelance or self-employed, one's income will be based on the monthly income derived from the last available net trade income assessed by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) in the latest Notice of Assessment. If the Notice of Assessment is not available, a Statutory Declaration on the working hours and monthly income will be needed to supplement the application for subsidies.
Though 笨mummy
is a SAHM, she spends time at home to generate income, such as selling stuff on
Carsouell, as well as some freelance assignments that she could find. Given
that the requirement is a minimum of 56 hours per month, which is something
that 笨mummy
could easily meet since she already spent a 1 to 2 hours a day to sort out the
pre-loved/used items, taking photos, listing them on carousell, communicating
with buyers and arranging to mail out the items. 笨mummy decided to give ECDA helpline a call to
check if she could qualify for working mother subsidy for childcare as an
online seller on carousell.
To her surprise, the officer from ECDA informed her as an
online seller she could qualify for the working mother subsidy and she needs to
make a statutory declaration with the Commissioner of Oath that she has met the
required working hours of 56 hours per month. It also does not matter whether
her online business is registered with ACRA.
笨mummy
arranged for Child 1 to her in-law in the afternoon while she made a trip with
Child 2 to the Commissior of Oath located at the level 3M of Supreme Court
Building. Details of the Commissior of Oath as follows:
Level 3M
Supreme Court Building
1 Supremel Court Lane
Singapore 178879
The whole process was fast and took less than 10 minutes:
- Once arrived at the office, inform the person at the counter that you are here to make a statutory declaration for working hours for childcare subsidy.
- Request for the declaration form from the person, fill it up accordingly
- Make payment via NETs of S$25 at the counter
- You would be call into one of the rooms available and the Commissior of Oath (i.e. The officer in the room) would instruct you to read a paragraph to make the statutory declaration.
- The Commissior of Oath would then sign and stamp the declaration form and pass the copy to you once it is done.
The original declaration form needs to be submitted to the
childcare for the subsidy application.
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