Unwed parents to get childcare, infant care leave benefits
CORRECTION: 15 March 2013 12:40pm. In an earlier version, in the fourth paragraph, we mentioned that single fathers will also get paternity leave. This is not correct. Single fathers -- and mothers -- will simply get childcare and infant care leave benefits in the changes announced.
Single unwed parents, once left out of childcare and infant care leave will now be entitled to the same benefits as their married counterparts.
Acting Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing announced the news on Thursday in Parliament.
Effective from May 1, single parents will receive six days of childcare leave a year for children below the age of seven, two days for those aged between seven and 12 and six days of unpaid infant care leave annually if they have a child below two years of age.
This comes as other MPs called for more assistance to be given to single mothers in Parliament on Wednesday, with Marine Parade MP Seah Kian Peng asking that unwed parents be treated as "mothers first and singles second".
Chan also said that his Ministry would be promoting adoption in health centres and would make sure that pregnant women who want an abortion have written consent.
Calling the decision to abort a "deeply personal issue" which should be respected, Chan said that he did not believe reducing abortions by increasing adoptions was a solution.
Pre-school care: places for 1 in 2 children
Chan also revealed that there will be enough full-day childcare places for at least one in two children by 2017, or some 20,000 more places made available over the next five years.
Currently, there are only enough places for one in three children.
This will be achieved by the building of 200 chilcare centres and kindergartens by 2018 - a target announced last year.
These new childcare spaces may be built into other facilities, as void deck spaces are fast running out, said Chan.
His Ministry will explore options such as converting condemned facilities like swimming pools and bus interchanges into childcare centres or even locating them within hawker centres.
He cited the example of a soon-to-be opened childcare centre operating from a hawker centre in Woodlands. Already, several centres in Seng Kang and Tanjong Pagar are located in carparks and there is one in Bukit Merah which was previously a swimming pool.
With additional reporting by Nurul Azliah Aripin in Parliament.
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