Last Updated on June 26, 2023 by Parentology

About Government-Paid Maternity Benefits

While most Singaporean Citizen mothers can benefit under the Government-Paid Maternity Leave (GPML) scheme, there are certain cases in which some mothers are unable to make use of the scheme. The MOM Government-Paid Maternity Benefits (GPMB) scheme is a safety net for that and can be used by some of the mothers not eligible for GPPL.

This can often be used by mothers who have specific employment arrangements – for instance, those on short contracts or whose contracts have expired.

Fathers also have a comparable parallel scheme called the Government-Paid Paternity Benefits (GPPB) scheme, which can be found here. Additionally, this scheme can be used in conjunction with the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme – details for that can be found here.

 

A comparison summary table is as follows:

	Government-Paid Maternity Leave (GPML)		Government-Paid Maternity Benefits (GPMB)
Eligibility	– Infants are SC either at birth or within 12 months of birth (GPML can only be used once they become SC)   – Have worked for your employer (or working in your profession, for the self-employed) for at least 3 continuous months   – Applicable for stillbirths		– Infants are SC either at birth or within 12 months of birth – Have worked for employer(s), been engaged in trade or business, or been self-employed for at least 90 days in the past 12 months before childbirth – Do not qualify for GPML – Applicable for stillbirths
Benefits	1st and 2nd children	– 8 weeks of leave started before child’s date of birth, to be taken in 1 continuous block. Reimbursed by the government at the mother’s gross rate of pay.   – Additional 8 weeks of leave to be taken no later than 12 months from the child’s date of birth either in one continuous block or non-continuously. Reimbursed by the government at up to 10K for every 4 weeks or up to 20K per child.	1st and 2nd children	– 8 weeks of leave – Government will reimburse 56 days’ worth of your income up to $10,000 for each 28-day period.
	3rd and subsequent children	– 8 weeks of leave started before the child’s date of birth, to be taken in 1 continuous block.   – Additional 8 weeks of leave to be taken no later than 12 months from the child’s date of birth either in one continuous block or non-continuously.   – Reimbursed by the government at up to 10K for every 4 weeks or up to 40K per child for all 16 weeks.	3rd and subsequent children	– 16 weeks of leave – Government will reimburse 112 days’ worth of your income up to $10,000 for each 28-day period.
Applying for scheme	Employees to submit GPML1 form to employers.		NA
Claims	Employers to submit claims on Government-Paid Leave Portal.		Mothers to submit maternity leave claims here.

 

Eligibility

There are aspects of this similar to the GPML scheme. For live births, your child must be born on or after 1 January 2017, and must be a Singaporean Citizen or must become one within 12 months from their date of birth.

At the same time, you should have fulfilled 90 days of work within the past twelve months, whether with one or more employers in or outside of Singapore, or whether you were self-employed. Additionally, mothers who use GPML are not allowed to claim GPMB – that is to say, to qualify for GPMB you must not qualify for GPML. The maternity benefits in Singapore for these two programmes are mutually exclusive to ensure that all mothers get what they need when they can.

In the cases of stillbirths, they must be dated on or after 1 November 2021. Those who would like to use GPMB here must either be a Singaporean Citizen, or the child’s father must be a Singaporean Citizen. As above, you must fulfil 90 days of employment in the prior twelve months, and must not qualify for the GPML scheme.

Unfortunately, the GPMB does not qualify for adoption-related necessary leave. For that, mothers should look under the GPML or Adoption Leave for Mothers (AL) schemes.

 

Benefits

The benefits under GPMB are roughly the same as GPML, with eligible mothers being able to take 8 weeks of reimbursed leave each for the 1st and 2nd child, and up to 16 weeks for the third child onwards (to help families planning to have more children).

For the first two children, 56 days’ worth of your income (per child) will be reimbursed up to $10,000 for 28 working days. For the third child onwards, 112 days’ worth of your income (per child) is reimbursed, also up to $10,000 for every 28 days (roughly 4 periods).

Unlike GPML, there are no specific rules on when to start maternity leave in Singapore for the GPMB scheme.

These benefits are pro-rated based on your past contributions to CPF and reported income, so do expect varying amounts based on prior reports!

 

How do the payments work?

Unlike with GPML, the reimbursement is not sent to your employers but rather directly to you. That is to say that you will be filing directly with the government on the relevant portal, submitting all relevant information yourself, and if your claims are approved, you will be provided instructions on receiving this reimbursement as well. There is no maternity leave claim for employers.

Information on how to calculate maternity benefits can be found here.

 

Application, Claims, and Reimbursement

There is no application for the GPMB programme. What you should do, however, is to record all start and end dates of all your employment, self-employment, trading, or business activities for the last 12 months immediately before your child’s date of birth.

Once your child has been birthed, you may take and complete the leave, recording all dates as necessary. When the leave is completed, you will submit a form online to file for the reimbursement application here. As the GPMB programme is different from the GPML programme, you will be contacted directly by an official to work with you on the case. This may take around 14 weeks of processing time (around 3 – 4 months), so do expect to wait and make concessions for the expenses you may need during your period of leave.

If approved, as above, you will then receive instructions from the government official in terms of what to do to receive the reimbursement. As before, you will be able to work with your case official directly on this, and they are generally able to answer all of your questions and help guide you through as well.

 

Additional Resources

To help plan and to calculate how much you are eligible for, check out the Maternity Leave Singapore Calculation page.

Check out Leaves and Entitlements for more information on other leaves and entitlements you may be eligible for.

 

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