Acting Minister for Manpower, Mr Gan Kim Yong spoke in Parliament on 16 September 2008 on encouraging voluntary savings and refinements to the CPF Education Scheme. Please see below for more details:
ENCOURAGING VOLUNTARY SAVINGS – CHANGES TO THE MINIMUM SUM TOPPING-UP SCHEME
The CPF Minimum Sum (MS) Topping-Up Scheme allows members to voluntarily top up their own and family members’ CPF Accounts to build up the Minimum Sum, using either cash or CPF funds. To encourage greater participation, the rules for cash top-ups will be simplified with effect from 1 November 2008.
The 3 main changes to the rules for cash top-ups are, to:
a.	Remove the existing annual cap on cash top-ups to recipients below age 55. Under current rules, the cash top-ups combined with other CPF contribution cannot exceed $26,393 per year. The annual cap on the amount of top-ups one can receive will now be removed.
b.	Expand the list of recipients by removing restrictions on recipient’s age and relationship with givers. This will allow anyone, including extended family members and employers to top up any CPF member’s MS using cash.
c.	Additional tax relief. Currently, the total tax relief for cash top-ups is capped at $7,000 per Year of Assessment (YA). From YA2009, a member can receive 2 separate tax reliefs -
	i. up to $7,000 for MS cash top-ups by the member or his employer to his own MS, and ii. up to $7,000 for cash top-ups to the MS of family members.
	Both reliefs will apply regardless of the age of the recipient when the top-ups are made. Employers who make the top-ups will receive tax deduction for the top-ups made.
Click here for more details on the specific changes taking effect from 1 November 2008.
Click here to see further details of the Minimum Sum Topping-Up Scheme.
REFINEMENTS TO THE CPF EDUCATION SCHEME
The CPF Education Scheme was introduced in 1989 as a concession to allow members to use their Ordinary Account savings to pay for their children’s or their own basic full-time education.
As part of the Government’s effort to widen the opportunities for Singaporeans to upgrade themselves, there are now Government subsidised degree and diploma courses offered by local institutions where the qualification is conferred by a reputable foreign institution. These include degree courses under the Polytechnic-Foreign Specialised Institution (Poly-FSI) framework and ITE’s Technical Engineering Diploma (TED) courses. CPF savings may be used for such courses as they are similar to those offered by the approved local tertiary institutions except that the qualifications are conferred by foreign institutions.
Click here for more details on the changes.
Click here to see further details of the CPF Education Scheme.