Government-Paid Paternity Leave

If you are a working father, you can take two weeks of Government-Paid Paternity Leave to spend time caring for your newborn and wife at home as she recovers from childbirth.

The Government-Paid Paternity Leave should be taken in a two-week block within 16 weeks from your child’s date of birth. If there is a mutual agreement between you and your employer, you can take the paternity leave flexibly, but should do so within 12 months from your child’s date of birth.

You are eligible for Government-Paid Paternity Leave if you meet all the following criteria:

1. Your child is a Singapore Citizen at birth, or in the case of a stillborn child, would have been a Singapore Citizen at birth.

2. You are lawfully married to the child's mother sometime between conception and birth.

• If not, you can be eligible for the Government-Paid Paternity Leave if you are legally married to your child’s mother within 12 months from your child’s date of birth. 
• Note: The Government-Paid Paternity Leave can only be taken after you are married and within 12 months from your child’s date of birth.

3. a. Employees: You have worked for your employer for a continuous period of at least three months before your child is born.
    b. Self-employed: You have been engaged in a particular business, trade, profession or vocation for a continuous period of at least three months before your child is born, and have lost income because you did not engage in your business, trade or profession during the leave period.

If you are an adoptive father, you are eligible for Government-Paid Paternity Leave if you meet all the following criteria:

1. The child you are adopting is a Singapore citizen and you have made an application to the Court to adopt him or her.

• If your child is not a Singapore Citizen, a Dependant’s Pass has been issued by the Ministry of Social and Family Development in respect of the child; and either you or your spouse (if she is a joint applicant to the adoption) has been a Singapore Citizen since the date when the pass was issued.

2. a. Employees: You have worked for your employer for at least three continuous months preceding the Formal Intent to Adopt date*.

    b. Self-employed: You have been engaged in a particular business, trade, profession or vocation for a continuous period of at least three continuous months preceding the Formal Intent to Adopt date, and have lost income as a result of not engaging in your business, trade or profession during the leave period.

3. You are not the biological father of the child.

If you are an adoptive father, the Government/employer may recover the whole or any part of the payment for Government-Paid Paternity Leave reimbursed/granted if:

a. Adoption Order for the child is not granted within 12 months from the Formal Intent to Adopt (FIA) date (inclusive of FIA date); or
b. Your child is not a Singapore Citizen by birth and does not become one within six months from the Adoption Order date (inclusive of Adoption Order date).

*Formal Intent to Adopt:

• For a Singapore Citizen child: the date on which an application to adopt is made to the Court; or

• For a child who is not a Singapore Citizen: the date on which a Dependant’s Pass was issued by the Ministry of Social and Family Development in respect of the child, or a document indicating the application for the pass has been approved.

Paternity Leave is paid by the Government. Reimbursement is capped at $2,500 per week i.e., total of $5,000 for two weeks. The caps are inclusive of CPF contributions.

Click the Pro-Family Leave page for more details on the application process.