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Government-Paid Shared-Parental Leave (SPL)

To give families more flexibility to decide how best to use their leave provisions to care for their newborns, working fathers will be allowed to take up to four weeks of shared parental leave, subject to consent given by their spouse to share. This will apply for parents of citizen children born from 1 July 2017.

The Government will fund the four weeks of shared parental leave, capped at $2,500 per week including CPF contributions.


​The enhancement to Shared Parental Leave requires changes to legislation, as well as significant system enhancements to ensure all the claims will be reimbursed accurately. These will take time. Employers will also need time to make adjustments to their infrastructure and HR processes. We have announced the enhancement earlier to give employers time to adjust.

Working fathers (including self-employed fathers) will be eligible for the four weeks of shared parental leave if they meet the existing eligibility criteria, as follows:

  1. Child is born on or after 1 July 2017 (for legally adopted children: child is below 12 months of age, and is adopted on or after 1 July 2017)
  2. Child is a Singapore Citizen;
  3. The child's mother qualifies for Government-paid maternity leave (or Adoption Leave); and
Father is lawfully married to the child's mother (for legally adopted children, adoptive father is lawfully married to the adoptive mother and an applicant to the adoption)
 
Working fathers whose children are born before 1 July 2017 are eligible to share 1 week of their wives' 16 weeks of maternity leave, as long as the latter agree.


Yes, the father will be eligible for the enhanced Shared-Parental Leave if he can provide a medical memo from the doctor indicating that the child’s EDD was on or after 1 July 2017.

​No, shared parental leave is allocated in a 1-week, 2-week, 3-week or 4-week blocks only.

However, once allocated, you can choose to take the leave in a continuous block or flexibly (i.e. taking a few days at a time), as long as there is mutual agreement with your employer. Please note that any unconsumed shared parental leave will be forfeited by the end of the consumption period (i.e. before the child turns 1).


​No. SPL must be consumed only after the SPLAS declaration has been made. 


Last Updated on: Saturday, Jun 18, 2016 at 3:55 PM