Eligible Singaporeans will receive cost-of-living payouts of up to S$400 in June 2023

The 2023 COL Special Payment and 2023 COL Seniors’ Bonus will be disbursed together in June 2023, with eligible senior Singaporeans receiving up to $700 in total.

About 2.5mn Singaporeans will receive up to S$400 in cash under the 2023 Singapore Cost-of-Living (COL) Special Payment in June 2023. 

This follows Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong's announcement in Budget 2023, that the Government will enhance the Assurance Package (AP) by S$3bn to reach around S$9.6bn. This enhancement, he shared, aims to ensure that the AP will continue to offset additional GST expenses for the majority of Singaporean households for at least five years, with around ten years' offset for lower-income households.

The COL Special Payment under the enhanced AP provides additional one-off support to Singaporeans in 2023 to address immediate COL concerns. Adults with annual assessable Incomes of up to S$100,000 are eligible, regardless of the type of property they live in.

In addition to the above, about 850,000 senior Singaporeans will also receive up to S$300 in cash under the 2023 COL Seniors’ Bonus, to provide additional cost-of-living support for seniors.

Overall, both the 2023 COL Special Payment and 2023 COL Seniors’ Bonus will be disbursed together in June 2023, with eligible senior Singaporeans receiving up to S$700 in total.

How to receive the COL payments

Individuals may check their eligibility for the COL Special Payment and COL Seniors’ Bonus at the AP official website by logging in with their Singpass.

There are several modes of payment for these two payouts: 

Via PayNow

Since 2021, Singapore's Ministry of Finance has been using PayNow-NRIC as the default payment mode for citizens who have linked their NRIC to PayNow. PayNow-NRIC provides added convenience and privacy for citizens to receive the cash benefits in their bank account, without having to disclose their bank account details to the sender. 

MOF encourages citizens to link their NRIC to PayNow if they have accounts with the ten participating banks by 23 May. In doing so, they will be able to receive their 2023 COL Special Payment and 2023 COL Seniors’ Bonus as early as 7 June 2023. 

Those without PayNow-NRIC linked bank accounts can also update their bank account information (with DBS/POSB, OCBC, or UOB only) at the AP official website by 5 June 2023. They will then be able to receive the payment by 15 June 2023.

Via GovCash

From 2022, GovCash has replaced cheques as the mode of payment for citizens who have not linked their NRICs to PayNow or provided their bank account details.

Citizens on GovCash can withdraw their 2023 COL Special Payment and 2023 COL Seniors’ Bonus at OCBC ATMs islandwide by:

1. Entering their payment reference number (PRN) that will be sent to them from 20 June 2023, and
2. Entering their NRIC, after passing the facial verification.

They do not require an OCBC bank account to withdraw the payment at the OCBC ATMs. GovCash recipients can also use the LifeSG app to make payments to merchants by scanning their PayNow or NETS QR code or transfer payments to their bank accounts via PayNow if they subsequently register for PayNow-NRIC.

Upon successful payment, eligible recipients will be notified in June after the 2023 COL Special Payment and 2023 COL Seniors’ Bonus have been credited to them. The notification will either be via their Singpass app inbox, or SMS notifications for those who have registered their mobile numbers with Singpass, but have not downloaded or completed their one-time setup of the Singpass app.

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