18 February 2025
Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong made several CPF-related announcements during the FY2025 Budget Statement in Parliament on 18 February 2025, as stated below.
1. Increase in CPF contribution rates for senior workers and CPF Transition Offset
In line with the recommendations of the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers, the CPF contribution rates for senior workers will increase as planned to strengthen their retirement adequacy. The total contribution rates for employees aged above 55 to 65 will be raised by 1.5 percentage points in 2026.
The CPF Transition Offset equivalent to half of the 2026 increase in employer CPF contributions will be provided to employers to cushion the impact on business cost. This will be provided automatically and employers need not apply for the offset.
For more information, please refer to the FAQs.
2. Expansion of the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme to Singaporeans with disabilities of all ages
Today, the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme (MRSS) helps Singaporeans aged 55 and above with lower retirement savings to save more for their retirement, through dollar-to-dollar matching grants of up to $2,000 per year on voluntary cash top-ups received in their Retirement Account, with a lifetime limit of $20,000.
From 1 January 2026, the MRSS will be expanded to eligible Singaporeans with disabilities of all ages to help them save up for their retirement early. To qualify for the MRSS, Singaporeans with disabilities must be registered with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and meet other MRSS eligibility criteria, including CPF balances, monthly income, and Annual Value of their residential property. More details on how to register as a person with disability will be released in the second half of 2025.
For more information, please refer to the FAQs.
3. Matched MediSave Scheme
To further boost MediSave adequacy for seniors with lower balances, a five-year Matched MediSave Scheme (MMSS) will be introduced from 2026 to 2030.
Under the MMSS, the Government will match every dollar in voluntary cash top-ups to the MediSave Account (MA) of eligible CPF members aged 55 to 70, up to an annual cap of $1,000. Anyone, including eligible members themselves, their families, employers, and the community, can make the top-ups to eligible members’ MA. MMSS will help these lower-income individuals boost their healthcare savings and improve the affordability of their medical bills as they age.
The MMSS will complement the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme in enabling our seniors to save more for both their healthcare and retirement needs.
To be eligible for the MMSS, the CPF member whose account is being topped up must:
- Be a Singapore Citizen aged 55 to 70;
- Own no more than one property and have a residential AV of $21,000 or below;
- Have a personal monthly income not exceeding $4,000; and
- Have MA balances of less than half the prevailing Basic Healthcare Sum.
MMSS eligibility is automatically assessed every year, and CPF Board will notify eligible members at the beginning of each year, from January 2026. Matching grants by the Government will be disbursed to eligible members in the following year.
For more information, please refer to the FAQs.
Note: Cash top-ups that attract government matching grant will not qualify for tax relief. Members may continue to enjoy tax relief of up to $8,000 per year for eligible cash top-ups that do not attract matching grant to their own Special Account (SA), Retirement Account (RA) or MediSave Account (MA), and another $8,000 per year for such cash top-ups to their loved ones.
5 March 2025
Minister for National Development Desmond Lee made the following CPF-related announcement during the FY2025 Committee of Supply Debate in Parliament on 5 March 2025.
4. Enhancements to Silver Housing Bonus Scheme
Currently, the Government provides a Silver Housing Bonus (SHB) to support seniors who right-size to a 3-room or smaller flat to supplement their retirement income. Seniors who own HDB flats or private residential properties of an Annual Value (AV) of $21,000 or less can receive a cash bonus of up to $30,000 when they use part of their cash proceeds from right-sizing to top up their CPF Retirement Account (RA).
There will be three enhancements which will take effect from 1 December 2025:
1. The SHB eligibility criteria will be adjusted so that seniors qualify for the SHB when they commit to a net increase of up to $60,000 in their RA after right-sizing, with the sum going towards their retirement payouts. They can do so using their CPF housing refunds1 and may no longer need to make a cash top-up using their net sale proceeds2 to qualify for SHB. This means seniors can now qualify for SHB while retaining more of their net sale proceeds in cash.
2. Seniors who right-size to 2-room or smaller flats (including Community Care Apartments) will receive an additional $10,000 cash bonus, bringing the maximum SHB quantum to $40,000 (from $30,000).
3. The SHB will be extended to seniors who right-size from a private residential property with AV between $21,000 and $31,000. These seniors will receive a SHB bonus of up to $20,000 if they right-size to a 3-room or smaller flat. With this extension, SHB will now cover more than three in four residential properties.
These enhancements will provide greater support to seniors who wish to right-size to a 3-room or smaller HDB flat to supplement their retirement incomes.
For more information, please refer to MND and HDB’s joint press release.
1 For seniors (i.e. aged 55 and above), CPF housing refunds will be first refunded to the RA up to members’ cohort Full Retirement Sum (FRS). Any balance housing refund will remain in the Ordinary Account (OA).
2 ‘Proceeds’ is defined as the selling price of the current property minus the sum of any outstanding loan on the current property, purchase price of the next flat, resale levy payable, and subsidy recovery for Plus and Prime flats.
7 March 2025
The Ministry of Health made the following CPF-related announcements during the FY2025 Committee of Supply Debate in Parliament on 7 March 2025.
Enhancements to the MediSave and MediShield Life Schemes
The following enhancements will be made to the MediSave and MediShield Life schemes to improve affordability of outpatient treatment, and strengthen support for other areas:
1. To support patients to pay for their outpatient bills, the Flexi-MediSave annual withdrawal limit will be increased from $300 to $400 from 1 October 2025. The MediSave outpatient scans annual withdrawal limit will also be doubled from $300 to $600 from 1 January 2026.
2. To ensure that dental care remains affordable, Flexi-MediSave (withdrawal limit to be revised to $400 annually) will be extended to select restorative dental procedures, namely permanent crowns and root canal treatments (anterior, molar, pre-molar) at dental clinics under the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) and public healthcare institutions. The expansion of Flexi-MediSave will be implemented in mid-2026 and will benefit patients aged 60 and above.
3. To support patients undergoing medical treatments (such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy) which can cause irreversible infertility, MediSave and MediShield Life will be extended to the surgical costs of embryo freezing, egg freezing and ovarian tissue freezing. MediSave will also be extended to the pre- and post-procedure costs of embryo freezing and ovarian tissue freezing. The extension of MediSave and MediShield Life coverage to these procedures for this group of patients will be implemented in June 2026. More details will be released by MOH when ready.
For more information, please refer to MOH’s website.
Watch this video summarising the CPF-related changes.