Larger Households To Get Double Their GST Vouchers In Oct, Must Have 5 Or More Members

Larger Households To Get Twice The Usual Amount Of GST Vouchers For FY2020

The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard for many families. Not only may they have lost incomes, their utility bills would have increased due to the longer period spent at home during ‘Circuit Breaker’.

Thus, the Government will be issuing twice the usual amount of Goods & Services Tax (GST) vouchers this financial year to help ease their utility bills.

The latest payment will arrive in Oct, and because larger families inevitably have higher household expenditure, they’ll get double the amount normally received this month.

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Larger households get more support

In a press release published on Sunday (4 Oct), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) revealed that Oct will see larger Singaporean households get more GST Voucher — U-Save rebates than usual.

This depends on the type of HDB flat they live in.

Those living in 1-room and 2-room flats will get the highest amount of rebate, with their regular payment of $100 doubled to $200.

Those in executive/multi-generation flats will get their regular payment of $60 doubled to $120.

Must have 5 or more members under same roof

To qualify as a larger household, they must meet these requirements:

1. 5 of more members must live under the same roof.
2. This must be reflected in the official address listed on their ICs.
3. These family members must be related by blood, marriage or legal adoption.
4. Domestic helpers, tenants, god-relatives and friends aren’t considered household members.

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Larger households to get 2.5 times regular sum in FY2020

Taken together with the special payments earlier this year, larger households will get a total of $1,000 in GST Voucher — U-Save rebates for FY2020.

That’s 2.5 times the regular amount of $400.

Smaller households will get a total of $800 for FY2020 — that’s double the regular amount.

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Here’s a chart that summarises how much households in each type of flat will get for FY2020:

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155,000 larger households to benefit

According to the MOF, 155,000 larger families will benefit from the additional GST Voucher — U-Save rebates.

They are part of the 940,000 HDB households that will get their rebates in Oct.

Eligible households in 1-room and 2-room flats will get 6 to 8 months of utility rebates this financial year — that’s double the 3 to 4 months of rebates they receive regularly.

Eligible households in 3-room and 4-room flat will get 2 to 4 months of utility bills offset. That’s double the 1 to 2 months received normally.

In total, the total sum the Government is releasing this financial year in the form of GST Voucher — U-Save rebates is $630 million.

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Easing the burden on S’porean households

The increased rebates will no doubt go some way to help families cope with their utility bills amid tough economic times.

This, combined with the one-off $100 utilties credit disbursed to all Singaporean households, will hopefully ease the burden on citizens somewhat.

Let’s hope these dire economic times won’t last forever, and Singapore be prosperous again once this nasty virus goes away.

Featured image adapted from Xavier L. @ Unsplash.