Employees in Singapore are eligible for childcare leave and, in certain circumstances, extended childcare leave in terms of either the Child Development Co-Savings Act or the Employment Act.
An employee is only entitled to benefits provided by one of the Acts in respect of any child and the distinguishing feature between the two is the citizenship of the child in question:
- Citizen – eligible parents will be entitled to six days of paid childcare leave per year for children younger than 7 years old and additionally qualify for extended childcare leave for children aged between 7 and 12;
- Non Citizen – parents of non-citizen children will be entitled to two paid childcare leave days per year for children younger than 7 years old.
For more information about childcare leave, please visit this page of the Ministry of Manpower.
Setup
SimplePay has a built-in system policy for childcare leave that is set up in accordance with these Acts. Eligibility and entitlement for childcare leave is determined by the age of an employee’s youngest child and their citizenship. It is therefore essential to capture this information on the system as follows:
- Go to Employees and select the relevant employee
- Click on Edit Info > Family Info
- Click on Add Child
- Enter the Name and Birthdate of the employee’s youngest child
- Click the SG citizen? checkbox if the child is a Singapore citizen
- Click the Leave used in birth year? checkbox if the employee took childcare leave in the year that the child was born (i.e. before they turned 1 years old). Since childcare leave is capped, this checkbox allows the system to check that the maximum has not yet been reached.
- Repeat the previous four steps until all of the employee’s children have been captured.
- Then click Save.
- Repeat the above steps for each employee.
Once this has been configured, the system policy for childcare leave will determine which of the following scenarios the employee falls into.
Scenario 1: The employee has a child who is a Singaporean Citizen under 7 years old
An employee, who is a parent, will qualify for 6 days of childcare leave when all of the following three criteria are met:
- The employee’s youngest child (this includes legally adopted children and stepchildren) is younger than 7 years old, as captured on the Family Info page;
- The employee’s youngest child is a Singapore citizen, as captured on the Family Info page; and
- The parent has served the employer for a continuous period of three months, as captured in the Appointment Date field on the Basic Info page.
An employee under this scenario is entitled to 6 days of childcare leave per year until the child turns seven years old, regardless of how many children they have. A working parent can, therefore, benefit from a maximum of 42 days of childcare leave over a seven year period.
In accordance with the Act, the first three days are employer-paid and the last three days are Government-paid, capped at $500 per day including CPF.
During the first year of service, an employee’s leave entitlement is pro-rated depending on how many months they have worked:
| Completed months of service | Eligible days of childcare leave |
| 0 – 2 | Not eligible |
| 3 – 4 | 2 |
| 5 – 6 | 3 |
| 7 – 8 | 4 |
| 9 – 10 | 5 |
| 11 – 12 | 6 |
Scenario 2: The employee has an eligible child who is NOT a Singaporean Citizen
An employee, who is a parent, will be entitled to 2 days of childcare leave per year, under the following circumstances:
- The employee’s youngest child (this includes legally adopted children and stepchildren) is younger than 7 years old, as captured on the Family Info page;
- The employee’s youngest child is not a Singapore citizen, as captured on the Family Info page; and
- The parent has served the employer for a continuous period of three months, as captured in the Appointment Date field on the Basic Info page.
An employee under this scenario is entitled to 2 days of childcare leave per year until the child turns seven years old, regardless of how many children they have. A working parent can, therefore, benefit from a maximum of 14 days of childcare leave over a seven year period.
In accordance with the Act, both leave days are employer-paid.
No pro-rata applies in this scenario.
Scenario 3: The employee has a child who is a Singaporean Citizen aged between 7 and 12 years
An employee, who is a parent, can qualify for an extended childcare leave, of 2 days per year, when all of the following three criteria are met:
- The employee’s youngest child (this includes legally adopted children and stepchildren) is aged between 7 and 12 years old (inclusive), as captured on the Family Info page;
- The employee’s youngest child is a Singapore citizen, as captured on the Family Info page; and
- The parent has served the employer for a continuous period of three months, as captured in the Appointment Date field on the Basic Info page.
The leave days concerned will be paid for by the Government, capped at $500 per day, including CPF contributions.
This leave is not pro-rated.
Note: Since childcare and extended childcare are both based on the age of an employee’s youngest child only, an employee cannot be eligible for both entitlements even where they have multiple children i.e. an employee can only qualify for either childcare leave OR extended childcare leave a particular point in time.