The GST Voucher is a permanent scheme that puts cash, MediSave top-ups, and utility rebates into the hands of lower- and middle-income Singaporeans to offset the 9% GST. In 2026, an eligible adult can get up to $850 in cash in August, seniors aged 65 and above get a MediSave top-up of up to $450, and HDB households get U-Save rebates of up to $570 spread across the year. Whether you qualify, and how much, comes down to two numbers: your assessable income and the Annual Value of the home you live in. This guide breaks down each component, the exact limits, the 2026 dates, and why the GST Voucher is not the same thing as CDC vouchers.
The GST Voucher (GSTV) is a permanent scheme the government introduced in Budget 2012 to help lower- and middle-income Singaporean households with the GST they pay. It has four parts: Cash, MediSave, U-Save, and the Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) Rebate. You do not get all four. Which ones apply depends on your age, your income, the Annual Value of your home, and whether you live in an HDB flat. It is run through the government's benefits portal at govbenefits.gov.sg, and most components reach you automatically once you have signed up once.
Singapore's GST has been 9% since 1 January 2024. It rose in two steps: from 7% to 8% on 1 January 2023, then from 8% to 9% on 1 January 2024, per IRAS. The GST Voucher exists to soften that for households that spend a larger share of their income on essentials. It is targeted help, not a universal handout, so the limits below decide everything.
Each component serves a different need and runs on its own schedule. Here is how they line up.
| Component | Who it helps | Paid as | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Lower-income adults aged 21 and above | Cash to bank or GovCash | Once a year in August |
| MediSave | Seniors aged 65 and above | Top-up to CPF MediSave Account | Once a year in August |
| U-Save | Eligible HDB households | Rebate on the utilities bill | Quarterly (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) |
| S&CC Rebate | Eligible HDB households | Rebate on the S&CC bill | Quarterly (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) |
Cash is the headline. Under the criteria for the most recent payout, you qualify if you are a Singapore citizen living in Singapore, you are aged 21 or above in the year, your assessable income does not exceed $39,000, the Annual Value of your home does not exceed $31,000, and you do not own more than one property. The exact assessable-income limit and the Year of Assessment used for the August 2026 payout are confirmed on the official govbenefits eligibility page below, so check it before you rely on a number.
Assessable income is your income as assessed by IRAS for the relevant Year of Assessment (the August 2025 payout used the YA2024 assessment, that is income earned in 2023). If you have never filed a return because your income was low, you may need to make sure IRAS has your details so the scheme can assess you. The Annual Value is the estimated yearly rent your home could fetch, set by IRAS, and you can find it on your property tax notice or by logging in to IRAS with Singpass.
The amount is tiered by Annual Value. Live in a lower-AV home and you get the full amount; a higher-AV home within the limit gets a smaller payout.
| Annual Value of home | Cash payout |
|---|---|
| Up to $21,000 | $850 |
| More than $21,000 and up to $31,000 | $450 |
From 1 January 2025 the government raised the upper Annual Value tier from $25,000 to $31,000. That single change pulled more homes into the scheme, including some lower-value private properties. The Ministry of Finance said the revised limit means more than three in four residential properties can now qualify for the social support schemes that use Annual Value as a yardstick. The figures above are the August 2025 rates. The 2026 amounts are confirmed at Budget time each year, so check the official page below before you bank on a number.
MediSave is a top-up to your CPF MediSave Account, paid in August alongside the Cash component. You qualify if you are a Singapore citizen aged 65 or above in the year, your home's Annual Value does not exceed $31,000, and you own no more than one property. There is no income test for this one because it targets seniors regardless of current earnings.
The top-up rises with age and falls as Annual Value rises, on the logic that older seniors and those in lower-value homes need more help with healthcare costs. It lands in MediSave, so it is earmarked for medical use, not cash you can spend freely.
| Age in the year | AV up to $21,000 | AV $21,001 to $31,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 65 to 74 | $250 | $150 |
| 75 to 84 | $350 | $250 |
| 85 and above | $450 | $350 |
These two go to the household, not the individual, and only to HDB flats. You do not apply. They are credited automatically against your utilities and your S&CC bills.
U-Save offsets your utilities. A household qualifies if at least one owner, occupier, or tenant is a Singapore citizen, and all of them own no more than one property. The rebate is larger for smaller flats, since smaller flats tend to house lower-income families. Regular U-Save is credited quarterly in April, July, and October 2026 and January 2027. For Financial Year 2026, the government is topping this up so that households receive 1.5 times the regular amount in total, with the additional U-Save paid alongside the regular rebates in April 2026 and July 2026, per MOF.
| HDB flat type | Total U-Save for FY2026 |
|---|---|
| 1- and 2-room | $570 |
| 3-room | $510 |
| 4-room | $450 |
| 5-room | $390 |
| Executive / Multi-generation | $330 |
The S&CC Rebate offsets your monthly service and conservancy charges. A household qualifies if at least one owner or occupier is a Singapore citizen, none of the owners or occupiers owns private property, and the entire flat is not rented out. It is paid as a number of months of S&CC waived, spread across January, April, July, and October.
People mix these up because both are government payouts and both arrive in similar windows. They are separate schemes with different rules.
The GST Voucher is means-tested. Your income, your home's Annual Value, and your property ownership decide whether you qualify and how much you get. The Cash component is real money in your bank account; MediSave goes to CPF; U-Save and S&CC are bill rebates.
CDC vouchers, by contrast, go to every Singaporean household regardless of income. They are digital vouchers you spend at participating heartland merchants and supermarkets, claimed through the RedeemSG platform, and they expire if you do not use them. So the GST Voucher targets lower- and middle-income households with cash and rebates, while CDC vouchers are a universal spending credit. You can receive both. For the full breakdown of how to claim and spend the digital ones, read our guide to CDC vouchers.
On top of the permanent GST Voucher, the government ran a temporary Assurance Package (AP) to cushion the move to 9% GST. The AP is a separate, time-limited set of payouts that stacks on the GST Voucher rather than replacing it.
AP Cash ran as five yearly tranches from December 2022 to December 2026, with the total over those years ranging from $700 to $2,250 depending on your income and how many properties you own. The December 2026 tranche is the last one and the smallest. Several other AP components have already closed: the AP MediSave top-up and the AP Seniors' Bonus made their final payouts in February 2025, per MOF. Because the AP is temporary and its tranches are set Budget by Budget, treat any AP figure as point-in-time and confirm it on the official Assurance Package page.
The amount you got each December turned on the same yardstick as the Cash component: assessable income and property ownership. The table below shows the December 2026 final tranche by tier.
| Assessable income (YA2026) | Own 0 or 1 property | AP Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $39,000 | Yes | $250 |
| More than $39,000 and up to $100,000 | Yes | $150 |
| More than $100,000, or own more than one property | — | $100 |
U-Save and the S&CC Rebate need no action; they are credited to your household's bills automatically. Cash and MediSave need a one-time sign-up, after which you do not have to re-apply each year.
Log in to govbenefits.gov.sg with Singpass and sign up for Cash and MediSave. To get the Cash component fastest, link your NRIC to PayNow at a participating bank so the money lands directly in your account. If you do not link PayNow, you will be paid by bank credit or GovCash a bit later in the schedule.
The 2025 cycle shows the sequence the August payout follows, and 2026 should mirror it. The earlier you are in the queue, the earlier the money lands. PayNow-NRIC sits at the front, GovCash at the back.
If you have no bank account, the Cash component is paid through GovCash, so you are not left out. GovCash lets you collect the money in cash from any of the more than 500 OCBC ATMs across Singapore, and you do not need to be an OCBC customer. After the payout, you get a unique 8-digit Payment Reference Number by letter, SMS, or your Singpass app. At the ATM you key in that number and your NRIC, then pass a facial check, and the cash comes out.
GovCash also works inside the LifeSG app, where you can scan and pay or send money by PayNow to merchants that show the PayNow or NETS QR logo. Either way the money is yours to spend like any other cash, with no expiry and no merchant restrictions, which is the opposite of how CDC vouchers work.
Sometimes the system assesses you wrongly, usually because IRAS has no income record for you or the Annual Value on file is out of date. The fix is to get your details right at the source rather than waiting and hoping.
If your income is low enough that you have never filed a tax return, IRAS may have nothing to assess, which can stall a Cash payout. Make sure IRAS has a current record for you, and check your Notice of Assessment and the Annual Value of your home through Singpass so both numbers match reality. If you have done all that and still believe you were wrongly left out, the scheme lets you ask for a review through govbenefits.gov.sg or the GST Voucher hotline, and your case is checked against the eligibility rules for that year.
Treat the GST Voucher as a buffer, not income you can plan around. The Cash component is once a year and modest, so it works best topping up an emergency fund or covering a quarter's essentials rather than funding lifestyle.
Two habits make the difference. First, keep your Singpass and IRAS details current so the scheme can assess you correctly, especially if your income is low enough that you do not normally file. Second, link PayNow-NRIC once and you will get every future Cash payout at the front of the queue with no further admin. Beyond the voucher, the bigger levers on a young adult's finances are tax reliefs and CPF, which move far more money than any annual payout. To see how reliefs change your bill, run the numbers in our income tax calculator.
You need to be a Singapore citizen aged 21 or above in the year, with assessable income not exceeding $39,000 (the limit applied to the latest payout), a home Annual Value of $31,000 or less, and ownership of no more than one property. Meet all four and you qualify for the Cash component. Confirm the exact income limit and Year of Assessment for the 2026 payout on the official govbenefits eligibility page.
It is tiered by your home's Annual Value. At the August 2025 rates, homes with an Annual Value up to $21,000 received $850, and those above $21,000 up to $31,000 received $450. The 2026 amounts are set at Budget time, so check the official govbenefits page for the confirmed figure.
Cash and MediSave are paid once a year in August. U-Save and the S&CC Rebate are paid quarterly (April, July, October 2026 and January 2027), with the extra FY2026 U-Save top-up added in April and July 2026. Sign up for Cash and MediSave by the published deadline to be paid on time; confirm the exact date on the official govbenefits page.
The GST Voucher is means-tested by income and Annual Value, and pays out as cash, MediSave top-ups, and bill rebates. CDC vouchers go to every household regardless of income and are digital vouchers you spend at participating merchants. You can receive both.
No. Sign up for Cash and MediSave once via govbenefits.gov.sg with Singpass and you stay enrolled for future years. U-Save and the S&CC Rebate are credited to your HDB household automatically with no sign-up needed.
Annual Value is IRAS's estimate of the yearly rent your home could fetch, used as a proxy for wealth. You can find it on your property tax notice or by logging in to IRAS with Singpass. It is the figure that decides which payout tier you fall into.
For Cash and MediSave, eligibility is based on the Annual Value of the home you live in and your income, not on ownership, though you must not own more than one property. For U-Save, a household with at least one Singapore citizen tenant in an HDB flat can qualify if everyone in it owns no more than one property.
You receive it through GovCash. You can collect the money in cash at any of the more than 500 OCBC ATMs across Singapore, and you do not need an OCBC account. After payout you get an 8-digit Payment Reference Number by letter, SMS, or your Singpass app; key that and your NRIC into the ATM, pass a facial check, and withdraw. GovCash also lets you scan and pay or send PayNow through the LifeSG app.
Usually this happens because IRAS has no income record for you or your home's Annual Value on file is out of date. Make sure IRAS has a current record, check your Notice of Assessment and Annual Value through Singpass, and confirm you have signed up at least once for Cash and MediSave. If you still believe you were wrongly left out, request a review through govbenefits.gov.sg or the GST Voucher hotline.
The December 2026 AP Cash tranche is the final one, ranging from $100 to $250 depending on your income and property ownership. AP MediSave and the AP Seniors' Bonus already made their last payouts in February 2025. After December 2026 the Assurance Package is fully wound down, but the GST Voucher itself is permanent and continues.
If your income is low enough that you have never filed, IRAS may have nothing to assess, which can hold up a Cash payout. Make sure IRAS has a current record for you so the scheme can assess your assessable income against the limit. Once your details are in order and you have signed up with Singpass, future payouts run automatically.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.