Adoption Leave In Singapore

Eligible adoptive mothers, including those who are self-employed, are entitled to 12 weeks of paid adoption leave to bond with and care for their adopted infants.

Eligibility

As the mother of an adopted child, you are entitled to adoption leave if you meet the following criteria:

Your adopted child is below the age of 12 months at the point of your formal intent to adopt. The “formal intent to adopt” happens:
- For a local child: when you file the court application to adopt.
- For a foreign child: when in-principle approval is granted for a Dependant’s Pass.
The adopted child is a Singapore citizen.
If the child is a foreigner:
- One of the adoptive parents must be a Singapore citizen.
- The child must become a Singapore citizen within 6 months of the adoption.
You must have served your employer or been self-employed for a continuous period of at least 3 months immediately before your formal intent to adopt.
The adoption order must be passed within 1 year from the formal intent to adopt.

Entitlement

If your formal intent to adopt is on or after 1 July 2017, you are entitled to 12 weeksof adoption leave for mothers, capped at $10,000 per every 4-week leave taken, including CPF.

If your formal intent to adopt is before 1 July 2017, you are entitled to 4 weeks of adoption leave, capped at $10,000, including CPF.

You can start your adoption leave from your formal intent to adopt.

You must consume your adoption leave before the child’s first birthday.

Your employer will pay your usual monthly salary during the leave period. They can then claim reimbursement from the Government accordingly:

Births	Paid by employer	Reimbursed by government
First and second	First 4 weeks	Last 8 weeks
Third and subsequent	–	All 12 weeks

Reimbursement is subject to a maximum of $20,000 for the first and second children, and $30,000 for the third and subsequent children, including CPF.

You can take your leave as follows:

Arrangement	12 weeks
Default, without any mutual agreement	Taken as a continuous stretch, from the date of formal intent to adopt.
Flexibly, by mutual agreement	The first 8 weeks must be taken in one continuous stretch starting any time between the date of formal intent to adopt and the date when the Adoption Order is granted, including both dates. The last 4 weeks can be taken flexibly in days before the child’s first birthday.
Calculating working days	4 weeks X number of working days in the week. Capped at 6 working days per week.

Cash benefits in lieu of adoption leave to parents without adoption leave in Singapore

Some parents presently do not qualify for the benefits, as they may be on multiple short-term contracts or their employment contracts may have expired before the birth or adoption of their child.

These cash benefits under the new law are similar to the current government-paid maternity benefit for working mothers, but with cash given in lieu of the government-paid share of leave.

This is if their employment circumstances do not qualify them for leave.
Natural or adoptive fathers can receive cash benefits equivalent to two weeks of paternity leave under the new law.
Reimbursement is capped at $2,500 per week, inclusive of Central Provident Fund contributions.
Adoptive mothers can receive cash benefits equivalent to eight or 12 weeks of maternity leave, with reimbursement capped at $20,000 or $30,000, depending on how many children they have. The amount also depends on their average income.

Similar benefits were previously given only to natural mothers who are working, via the existing government-paid maternity benefit.

It provides them with up to $40,000 for each child, depending on their birth order as well as the mother’s income.

The new law applies to parents whose formal intent to adopt or whose child’s date of birth or estimated date of delivery is on or after 01-January-2021.
To qualify, parents must have worked for at least 90 days in the 12 months before their child’s birth or formal intent to adopt. Eligible parents may apply from 01-December-2021.
Parents who have been retrenched, but who have unconsumed parental leave, will also be granted cash benefits.

How to apply or claim

For instructions on applying for leave or claiming reimbursement, you can use any of the following:

Visit the www.profamilyleave.gov.sg
Call 1800 253 4757
Email contactus@profamilyleave.gov.sg

Find out more

To find out more about pro-family leave measures, you can:

Visit the Hey Baby website at www.heybaby.sg for more on other enhancements to the Marriage and Parenthood Package.
Read the guides for employees and employers on the Marriage and Parenthood leave measures.

Source of Information for Employment, all Work Passes & their related matters is from the Ministry Of Manpower & TAFEP.

You may wish to visit Ministry Of Manpower (MOM) online for detailed information and current updates.

Adoption Leave