Baby Package 2008

We have so much trouble with the cutoff date for the Baby Package. The first cutoff date of 1 January 2009 brought a lot of protest from expecting mothers with babies due to be delivered this year. The revised cutoff date of 17 August produced another group of unhappy parents whose babies arrived earlier this year.

We faced this problem with cutoff date on many occasions during the past 25 years. Each time that new incentives were introduced, many parents felt disadvantaged by being on the wrong side of the cutoff date.

We never learned the lesson. Our birth-rate continued to decline over the years, in spite of the repeated efforts.

I met a Singaporean couple who worked in Perth and had their baby delivered there. The incentives given to parents in Australia are:

> AUD 5,000 on delivery of the baby
> 5 months of paid maternity leave
> An allowance to the mother who stopped work to look after the baby during the first two years
The incentive is simple, compared to our Baby Package introduced in Singapore.

Singapore has the unique system of incentives that differ according to the tax bracket of the parents, the working status of the mother, the birth order of the baby, the date of birth and other factors. We need to read a detailed booklet and to ask for explanation to understand the incentives.