These Family Policies Will Help Parents. But Will They Persuade More Couples to Have Children?

Singapore’s latest family measures reduce the financial and practical strain of raising children. Yet for some couples, the real barrier is not affordability, but whether parenthood fits the life they want.

A friend (plus many others) recently forwarded me the news about the family measures announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during this year’s National Day Rally.

“This is a timely relief for you,” he said.

He was not wrong.

As a parent, I can see how my family might benefit. If I return to corporate employment, I would receive more childcare leave. When my husband and I eventually look for a bigger flat, the higher BTO income ceiling means we retain the option of applying for subsidised public housing. As a family with a child, we would also receive an additional ballot chance.

Our daughter is likely to benefit from the new Child Credits and some of the transitional financial support being introduced from April 2027.

These are not insignificant changes.

Under the proposed childcare leave system, each working parent will receive eight days a year if they have one child aged 12 or below, 10 days if they have two, and 12 days if they have three or more. The Government will also cover the cost of all statutory child-related leave, up to the reimbursement limit.

The new SG Child Support Package will provide a S$10,000 Baby Gift, annual Child Credits of $2,000 from ages one to 16, Child Development Account support and a S$10,000 Post-Secondary Education Account top-up at age 17. Together with existing MediSave and Edusave support, the Government estimates that each Singaporean child will receive almost S$70,000 in direct support while growing up.

Government-supported preschool fees are also intended to fall progressively to S$150 a month for full-day childcare and $300 for infant care. The BTO income ceiling will rise from S$14,000 to S$16,000, while first-timer families will receive one additional ballot chance for every child they have or are expecting.

I welcome these measures. They should make life easier for many parents.

Yet my reaction to them has remained surprisingly neutral.

Perhaps it is because I keep returning to a different question: will these measures persuade couples who do not currently want children to change their minds?

The reasons are not always financial

Among my married but childless friends, money is rarely the main obstacle.

One couple loves travelling. They value being able to leave during off-peak periods without worrying about school calendars, childcare arrangements or whether a destination is suitable for young children. They also want to enjoy married life as a couple before considering whether children belong in it.

Another friend has a family history of severe postpartum depression. Having worked hard to manage her own mental health, she is understandably worried about what pregnancy, childbirth and caring for an infant could do to her wellbeing. She also knows herself well enough to anticipate that she might become consumed by researching every detail of childcare and development.

One friend is an educator who sees teaching as his calling. He pours extraordinary effort into his lesson plans and his students’ development. He has considered having a child, but believes that he would redirect almost all his energy towards educating his own child. To him, that would mean short-changing the many students whose lives he can influence. Faced with that choice, he chooses his students.

Another couple simply does not feel a maternal or paternal desire. They do not see parenthood as an inevitable next step merely because they are married.

My friends are not representative of every childless couple in Singapore. Financial insecurity, housing costs, fertility difficulties and the challenge of balancing work with care remain real barriers for many people. The 2021 Marriage and Parenthood Survey found that managing the cost of raising children and handling work and family commitments were important considerations when people made decisions about parenthood.

But the experiences of my friends suggest that “children are expensive” can sometimes be shorthand for something much broader.

The cost may be the trips they will no longer take, the career opportunities they might turn down, the mental stability they have fought to regain or the freedom to devote themselves to work they find meaningful.

It is not simply the price of milk powder, preschool and enrichment classes. It is the life they believe they would have to give up.

Good family policy is not necessarily persuasive fertility policy

Singapore’s preliminary resident total fertility rate fell to 0.87 in 2025, its lowest recorded level. Yet surveys have repeatedly shown that many Singaporeans who want children ultimately have fewer than their preferred number.

That tells us there are at least two distinct groups.

The first consists of people who want children but are delaying parenthood, struggling to have them or stopping at one child because the practical burden feels overwhelming.

The second consists of people who do not see children as part of a fulfilling life in the first place.

The latest policies are well-designed for the first group. Affordable childcare, more caregiving leave, easier access to housing and sustained financial support can narrow the gap between wanting a child and feeling able to raise one.

They may also make a second or third child feel less daunting. The structure of the new leave and housing benefits—which become more generous as the number of children grows—appears particularly suited to supporting parents who are considering expanding their families.

But these measures are unlikely to transform the preferences of the second group.

A cash gift cannot remove a fear of postpartum depression. An additional BTO ballot chance will not create a parental instinct. Childcare subsidies cannot persuade someone that raising a child is more meaningful than the vocation to which they have already devoted their life.

This is not necessarily a failure of policy.

PM Wong himself acknowledged during the Rally that the decision to have children is deeply personal and that policies alone cannot make it happen. The Government’s role, he said, is to make it easier for Singaporeans who already want children to start and raise a family.

That may be the most realistic goal.

We cannot pay people into wanting parenthood

International experience gives us little reason to believe that any single package can reverse deeply entrenched fertility trends. OECD research suggests that childcare, parental leave and financial support can influence fertility decisions, but family policies are only one part of the puzzle. Even countries that spend heavily on families continue to struggle with low birth rates when workplace expectations, gender inequality and broader social conditions remain unchanged.

Rather than asking how to persuade people who firmly do not want children, we may need to ask how to prevent parenthood from becoming incompatible with everything else adults value.

That means creating workplaces where taking childcare leave does not quietly damage a person’s career. It means ensuring fathers are not merely entitled to caregiving leave, but feel able and expected to use it. Workplace support matters: government findings have shown that some fathers avoid fully using parental leave because they worry about their career prospects or burdening colleagues.

It also means treating perinatal mental health as a central part of family policy rather than a secondary healthcare concern. Someone with a heightened risk of postpartum depression may need access to counselling before pregnancy, specialist monitoring and practical support after birth—not simply another payout.

We should also examine the expectations placed on parents. Raising a child today can feel like an endless performance assessment: the right preschool, the correct food, sufficient enrichment, carefully managed screen time and constant emotional presence. When good parenting is presented as a project requiring near-perfect execution, it is unsurprising that conscientious adults fear they will not have enough time, energy or knowledge to do it properly.

Some of that pressure comes from parents themselves. Some comes from social media, schools, employers and a culture in which a child’s achievements are easily interpreted as evidence of parental effort.

Reducing the cost of childcare will help. Reducing the perceived requirement to optimise every aspect of childhood may matter too.

Supporting parents is worthwhile even if fertility does not surge

There is also a danger in evaluating every family policy solely by whether it produces more babies.

A policy does not fail simply because the total fertility rate does not rise immediately. Giving parents more time with their children, reducing preschool fees and supporting children throughout their growing years are worthwhile social outcomes in their own right.

Existing parents should not have to prove that supporting them will generate another child before receiving help.

Neither should childless couples be treated as problems to be corrected. Parenthood should be entered into willingly. Children deserve to be wanted, not produced because their parents were sufficiently incentivised or socially pressured.

The latest measures may not persuade a happily childfree couple to reconsider. They may, however, help a couple who wants a child but fears the financial strain to take that first step. They may convince tired parents that a second child is possible. They may allow someone to remain in the workforce without feeling that every childhood illness puts her job at risk.

That may be where family policy has the greatest influence—not by manufacturing the desire for children, but by ensuring that people who already feel that desire do not abandon it because parenthood appears too punishing.

The Government cannot make people want children.

It can make sure that wanting them does not require giving up everything else.

Images: Envato