SINGAPORE: On Thursday afternoon (February 12), Prime Minister Lawrence Wong rolled out a $154.7 billion Funds meant to safe the long run amid current uncertainties.
PM Wong spoke on quite a lot of points pertinent to the Nationwide Funds, together with AI, the workforce, and Singapore’s financial technique.
Nonetheless, what Singaporeans on-line reacted to essentially the most had been bulletins regarding goodies and help, a abstract of which might be seen under.
This can be as a result of final yr’s finances had been a beneficiant one, with PM Wong asserting extra help “so long as it’s wanted” as a result of Singaporeans dealing with larger prices of dwelling.
For instance, final yr, S$800 in CDC vouchers got per family, in distinction to the S$500 voucher introduced for 2026. Additionally, in 2025, there have been as much as S$760 in U-Save rebates for eligible HDB households, which is considerably larger utility rebate help than the S$570 in 2026. There have been additionally one-off SG60 vouchers of as much as S$800 for seniors and S$600 for different adults final yr.
However, the federal government remains to be extending important help to Singaporeans, comparable to S$500 in ChildLife SG credit and CPF Prime-ups, and plenty of netizens expressed gratitude for these goodies.
Some, nonetheless, had been lower than thrilled, with one netizen commenting, “So little.”
A number of requested why there gave the impression to be nothing for them in Might, June, and November.
“December is low,” remarked one other.
A Fb person known as it a “very disappointing Funds 2026,” whereas others opined that it was “not an election finances.”
“Your voucher is so massive, is it?? A couple of days end liao, obtained 5 mouths to feed in a household horr,” one other wrote.
Others appeared disenchanted that the CDC voucher wouldn’t be given out till January of subsequent yr.
“Aiyoh, is there a typing error. Jan 2027 is a couple of yr from now. Undecided whether or not we’re round or not!” wrote one.
“Subsequent yr Jan 2027…. Very far far far-off,” one other chimed in, whereas one remarked, ” January 2027! That’s an extended lengthy wait. Why!”
Forward of the Funds rollout, some analysts already guessed that this might be the case, that this yr’s help measures can be lower than what was given in 2025.
A February 6 piece from Reuters titled “Singapore finances could also be much less beneficiant amid resilient progress” appeared to warn folks to not count on an excessive amount of.
It stated that after the extra help given to Singaporeans in 2025, this yr the finances is predicted to be extra restrained, with a give attention to “balancing strong progress with longer-term fiscal self-discipline.” /TISG
Learn additionally: Funds 2026: Analysts count on much less help for households amid constructive financial outlook
