You will check that every CPF contribution shown on your payslips actually reached your CPF accounts.
Priya's payslips say CPF was deducted every month. Her CPF history says contributions arrived. Those are two different claims, made by two different records, and they usually describe the same money, but she can't be sure of that until she puts them side by side. When they don't, the person most likely to notice is the employee, because nobody else is comparing.
This exercise is that comparison. You'll take six months of payslips and six months of CPF history and match them line by line. Allow about 25 minutes. You need six recent payslips and your CPF transaction history for the same period plus one extra month, since contributions usually land the month after the wages they cover.
Make a table with one row per wage month. On the left, from each payslip, write the employee CPF and the employer CPF, and add them. On the right, from your CPF history, write the contribution amount for that wage month and the date it was credited, with a last column for notes.
Each row is a wage month, and the credit date only goes in its own column. As lesson 2.2 explained, the contribution for April's wages usually arrives in May, and the history shows which wage month each entry is for. If you have a bonus in the period, give it its own row, since it arrives as a separate entry.
For each row, compare the payslip total with the contribution. They should match, allowing for CPF's rounding, which can move a figure by a few cents or so.
Then check the timing. Employers must pay CPF contributions by a deadline set by the CPF Board, counted from the end of the wage month. The current rule is on the CPF website. Look it up once and write it at the top of your table, so you can judge each credit date against it.
A late payment has a recognisable look. One month shows nothing, and the next month shows two contributions arriving together. Each is right in amount, but one of them is late.
Here's part of Priya's table, for April to June. To show the method without quoting the current CPF rates, the figures use a made-up employee rate of 18% and employer rate of 15%.
April's payslip showed S$612 of employee CPF and S$510 of employer CPF, a total of S$1,122. Her history showed a contribution of S$1,122 for April wages, credited in May. The two sides agree.
That doesn't mean April was right. In lesson 1.5, Check three months of payslips against your contract, Priya found that her allowance had been left out and April's CPF worked out on S$3,400 instead of S$3,600. The reconciliation confirms that what the payslip said was paid, and nothing more. It can't catch a payslip that is wrong in the first place, which is why you do both checks. On the correct wage of S$3,600, the total should have been S$1,188, so S$66 across both shares never reached her CPF.
May's payslip showed a total of S$1,287 on wages of S$3,900, and June's showed about S$1,081 on wages of about S$3,276. In her history, the June credit she expected for May wages wasn't there, and in July two entries arrived together: S$1,287 for May wages and about S$1,081 for June wages. Both amounts matched, but the May contribution had come a month later than usual.
Priya marked April as "short, payslip error, already raised" and May as "arrived late". Everything else was clean.
Most gaps have a dull explanation: a payroll error, a delay in the month someone was on leave, a mistake during a change of payroll provider. So start with HR or payroll, in writing, with the wage month and the amount, as you did with payslip questions in module 1. Ask what happened and when the missing amount will be paid.
Pay particular attention to the months around a job change. A final month's contribution from an old employer and a first month's from a new one are where gaps hide most often.
If HR doesn't resolve it, or contributions keep going missing, the CPF Board has a channel for reporting unpaid contributions, and it follows up with employers. You'll find it on the CPF website. You don't have to prove anything before you use it. Your table, with dates and amounts, is the evidence it needs.
A single late month that's then paid isn't usually cause for alarm. A pattern of late or missing months is different, because it can mean an employer in difficulty, and you'd want to know that early.
You finish with six rows, each showing the payslip total, the CPF credit, the wage month and the credit date. Every row is either ticked or carries a short note: short, late, missing, or a question. Any row with a note has an action beside it, even if the action is only "asked HR on this date".
Priya's table took her 20 minutes. Yours will take a little longer the first time, while you learn your way around the history. Start with the most recent six months and work backwards.
Complete the reconciliation for the last six months and write down any month where the amount or date did not match.
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