Employees in Singapore are eligible for Government-Paid Childcare Leave (GPCL) and, in certain circumstances, Extended Childcare Leave (ECL) in terms of either the Child Development Co-Savings Act or the Employment Act.
An employee is entitled to benefits provided by only 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. They will also qualify for paid extended childcare leave of two days per year 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 provided by the Ministry of Manpower.
First Year of Employment
For new employees, childcare leave must be pro-rated based on their Completed months of service, as shown below:
| Completed months of service | Eligible days of childcare leave (where the child is a Singapore citizen) | Eligible days of childcare leave (where the child is NOT a Singapore citizen) |
| 0 | Not eligible | Not eligible |
| 1 | Not eligible | Not eligible |
| 2 | Not eligible | Not eligible |
| 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 3 | 2 |
| 7 | 4 | 2 |
| 8 | 4 | 2 |
| 9 | 5 | 2 |
| 10 | 5 | 2 |
| 11 | 6 | 2 |
| 12 | 6 | 2 |
Please note: ECL is not pro-rated in the first year of employment (upon completion of the first 3 months) or in the last year of employment.
Periods Between the First and Last Years of Employment
The full GPCL entitlement of 6 days will be granted up front at the beginning of the year to a qualifying employee where the child is a Singapore citizen, on the condition that it is not their first or last year of employment with that employer. The entitlement would be only 2 days up front where the child is not a Singapore citizen.
Last Year of Employment
Childcare leave will also be pro-rated based on Completed months of service in the employee’s last year of employment (once the employee’s service has been terminated), as shown below:
| Completed months of service in the year of resignation or termination | Eligible days of childcare leave (Singapore Citizen) |
| 0 to 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 4 |
| 9 | 5 |
| 10 | 5 |
| 11 | 6 |
| 12 | 6 |
Please note: The first 2 days of the childcare leave entitlement will not be pro-rated in the last year of employment, assuming the employee had worked for the employer for at least 3 months before the termination of their employment.
Note that ‘Completed months of service’ indicates the total months worked, while ‘Last year of employment’ represents the employee’s final year of employment due to termination such as dismissal, resignation, contract expiry, and other factors.
SimplePay will automatically pro-rate an eligible employee’s childcare leave entitlement based on their completed months of service in both their first and last year of employment, based on the requirements provided by the Ministry of Manpower.
Setup
SimplePay has a built-in system policy for childcare leave that is set up in accordance with the aforementioned Acts. Eligibility and entitlement for childcare leave are determined by the age and citizenship of an employee’s youngest child. 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.
- Check the Leave used in birth year? box if the employee took childcare leave in the year that the child was born (i.e., before they turned 1 year 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.
- Click Save.
- Repeat the above steps for every employee who is a parent.
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 under 7 years old who is NOT a Singapore Citizen
An employee who is a parent will be entitled to 2 days of childcare leave per year, 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 not a Singapore citizen, as captured on the Family Info page; and
- The parent has served the employer for a continuous period of at least three months, as determined by the Appointment Date captured 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.
Please note: This leave is not pro-rated.
Scenario 2: The employee has a child under 7 years old who is a Singapore Citizen
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 at least three months, as determined by the Appointment Date captured 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.
Pro-rata will apply in this scenario in the employee’s first year and last year of employment, as detailed in the pro-rata tables above.
Scenario 3: The employee has a child aged between 7 and 12 years who is a Singapore Citizen
An employee who is a parent can qualify for 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 at least three months, as determined by the Appointment Date captured on the Basic Info page.
The leave days concerned will be paid for by the Government, capped at $500 per day including CPF.
Please note: This leave is not pro-rated.
Note that since childcare leave and extended childcare leave are both based on the age of an employee’s youngest child only, an employee cannot be eligible for both types of leave even where they have multiple children, i.e., an employee can qualify for either childcare leave OR extended childcare leave at a particular point in time.
Treatment of Childcare Leave on Termination of Employment
What happens when an employee is terminated but has already taken more than their pro-rated leave entitlement?
Where there is upfront accrual of the full entitlement, and it is found that an employee has used more leave than the pro-rated allocation upon termination of employment, the excess leave days must be treated as unpaid leave taken by the employee. This can be accomplished on SimplePay by making use of a custom “negative income” item to claim back the cost of the leave, which would also ensure that CPF is computed correctly and that the correct income is reported on the IR8A.
How to create a custom “negative income” item:
You can create a Custom Item by going to Settings > Custom Items > Add and following the steps below:
- For the custom item type, select Income.
- Input your custom item name in the Name field.
- For Input Type, select “Once-off for specified payslips” from the dropdown menu, since it is a once-off item.
- For the IR8A Category, select “Gross Salary etc.” from the dropdown menu.
- For the CPF Type, select “Ordinary Wage (OW)” from the dropdown menu.
You can thereafter add this item to an employee’s payslip by navigating to the employee’s payroll page, clicking on the Add button on the Payslip Inputs card, and selecting your custom item.
Please note: Ensure that the amount you enter into the Amount field is expressed as a negative amount by adding a minus sign (-) before the amount. For example: -1000.
For more information on creating custom items on SimplePay, please visit our Custom Items help page here.
What happens when an employee is terminated and has not made use of any remaining childcare leave days once the balance has been pro-rated?
Unused childcare leave will not be carried over to a new year (or alternate 12-month period), carried over to a new employment, or encashed upon termination of employment.