Ministry Of Community Development, Youth And Sports: MCYS widens access to preschool subsidies - Enhancements to the centre-based financial assistance scheme for child care (CFAC) and kindergarten financial assistance scheme (KiFAS)

From April 2011, preschool education will be made more affordable to a larger group of families with young children. This is in line with the Government’s efforts to encourage all children to attend preschool and to support working mothers. MCYS strongly believes that all children should maximise early childhood opportunities regardless of the financial circumstances of their families.

MCYS will make the following revisions to the Centre-based Financial Assistance Scheme for Child Care (CFAC) and the Kindergarten Financial Assistance Scheme (KiFAS):-

(a) With effect from 1 April 2011, the eligible income criteria will be revised upwards from $1,800 to $3,500. This will allow more families to enjoy subsidies under the assistance schemes and lower the cost of preschool education for these families.   

(b) Currently, families with monthly income of less than $1,000 can receive up to $340 of childcare and up to $98 of kindergarten subsidies. This same level of subsidy will now be extended to families earning up to $1,500.   

(c) Families earning up to $3,500 who currently do not enjoy the subsidies will receive tiered subsidies based on their income levels. 

The CFAC and KiFAS enhancements will benefit a total of 24,000 children, a two fold increase from the current number of beneficiaries. This will cost an additional $10.3m per year, bringing the total budget to $35.6m for FY11. Details of the enhanced subsidies for CFAC and KiFAS are in Annex A and Annex B respectively.