Government-paid paternity leave (GPPL): How can businesses claim it?

One of the biggest and most important events in a person’s life is when they welcome a baby to their family.

So if you have an employee who’s recently had a baby — congratulations! That’s certainly cause for celebration. It’s always nice to see employees starting or expanding their families.

As a business owner, you’ll be glad to know that because of governmental efforts to support parents in having and raising children, paternity leave is fully subsidised. It’s all aimed at fostering a pro-family environment in Singapore, amidst decades of declining birth rates.

What is the government-paid paternity leave (GPPL) scheme?

The government-paid paternity leave (GPPL) scheme essentially supports eligible working fathers (including those who are self-employed) in caring for their newborn baby. It also aims to encourage shared parental responsibility. This ensures that the burden of taking care of a newborn doesn’t sit solely with the mother, especially after she’s just given birth and needs time to recover and heal.

The government will reimburse employers for 2 weeks of GPPL taken by eligible employees — capped at $2,500 per week, or a total of $5,000. Employers can use this handy Government-Paid Leave (GPL) Calculator to estimate the amount of reimbursement they will receive from the government for their application.

How long does government-paid paternity leave go for?

Update: With the recent Budget 2023 announcements, for eligible working fathers of Singaporean children born from 1st January 2024, they’ll be able to enjoy 4 weeks of government-paid paternity leave, up from the previous 2 weeks.

Currently, eligible working fathers can enjoy up to 2 weeks of government-paid paternity leave.

It can be taken no earlier than the child’s date of birth for natural fathers, or the Formal Intent to Adopt (FIA) date for adoptive fathers. It must also be taken within 12 months of the child’s date of birth, inclusive of the date of birth.

Working fathers can choose whether they want to take their two weeks of GPPL in one continuous block (within 16 weeks from the child’s date of birth), or take it non-continuously — as long as it is mutually agreed between them and their employer.

Which employees are eligible for the Singaporean GPPL scheme?

The eligibility criteria is:

1. Your child is a Singapore citizen, or becomes a Singapore citizen within 12 months from their date of birth (inclusive of date of birth).
2. You are/were legally married to the child’s mother before your child’s birth or within 12 months from your child’s date of birth (inclusive of date of birth).
3. You have served your employer for a continuous period of at least 3 months before your child’s date of birth.
4. Alternatively, if you have not served your employer for a continuous period of at least 3 months before your child’s date of birth, but your employer is willing to grant GPPL to you, the Government may reimburse your employer for your GPPL. Provided that you have served your current employer at the point of your child’s date of birth, and you have not claimed any government-paid paternity benefit (GPPB) for the same child.

For self-employed fathers, you must be engaged in a particular trade, business, profession or vocation for a continuous period of at least 3 months before your child’s date of birth, and have lost income from not working during your paternity leave period.

Fathers who do not meet the GPPL eligibility criteria can check out the government-paid paternity benefit (GPPB) scheme to see if they qualify for that instead.

For fathers with a stillborn child, the eligibility criteria is:

Same as the list of criteria mentioned above, but with the addition of a ‘Notification of a Stillbirth’ certified by a medical practitioner or registered midwife; or a stillbirth certificate issued by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.

For adoptive fathers, the eligibility criteria is:

1. You are not the biological father of the child.
2. If your child is not a Singapore citizen, either you or your wife (if she is a joint applicant to the adoption) has been a Singapore citizen since the date on which the dependent pass (DP) is issued.
3. You have served your employer for a continuous period of at least 3 months before your Formal Intent to Adopt (FIA) date.
4. Alternatively, if you have not served your employer for a continuous period of at least 3 months before your FIA date, but your employer is willing to grant GPPL to you, the Government may reimburse your employer for your GPPL. Provided that you have served your current employer at the point of your FIA date, and you have not claimed any government-paid paternity benefit (GPPB) for the same child.

For self-employed fathers, you must be engaged in a particular trade, business, profession or vocation for a continuous period of at least 3 months before your FIA date, and have lost income from not working during your GPPL period.

Do employers have to pay for an employee’s GPPL?

Technically, employers are not paying for an employee’s GPPL as it is fully funded by the government.

However, employees have to continue paying an employee their usual salary first — even though the employee is on GPPL. Once the employee has completed their GPPL however, employers can then submit a claim for reimbursement by the Singapore government.

How can businesses claim GPPL?

For employers:

1. You have to obtain the declaration form (GPPL1) and other supporting documents from your employee, and verify their eligibility for GPPL. You can choose to use your own form or system to capture your employee’s declaration, but the information requested should be similar to those mentioned in the declaration form. (These forms or records must be kept for 5 years from the last leave date for audit purposes.)
2. Submit your reimbursement claim online via the Government-Paid Leave (GPL) Portal. This has to be done no later than 3 months after the last date of the employee’s GPPL.
3. Check on the application status on the GPL Portal. A notification will be sent to you and your employee once the application has been processed.

Tips to support Singaporean working parents after a child’s birth

Even with government-paid maternity leave and paternity leave, it’s a real struggle for working parents to cope with childcare duties and other responsibilities, especially after returning to work.

For working dads, with more women in the workforce (and some even surpassing their husbands in terms of salary), there has been an increasing need for their involvement in childcare duties. Working fathers do want to get involved. However, social and societal support is still trailing behind in terms of paternity benefits.

Even with the provision of shared parental leave, many fathers feel social pressures to continue working and not take on the role of primary caregiver, or may face a lack of workplace support. In fact, while an increasing number of dads are using the GPPL they are entitled to, almost half do not — the take-up rate of paternity leave was only 55 per cent in 2019.

In view of all this, how can you as an employer better support them so they feel a good sense of work-life balance, especially when it comes to their family? We’ve already covered ways you can help and support pregnant working mothers, so we’ll be focusing more on what you can do for dads in the workplace below.

Make flexible working arrangements available

Working dads are growing louder in their call for flexibility at work — in a study by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP), 63% of working fathers in Singapore would consider leaving a company if there was a lack of work-life programs. 95% of all men surveyed also said that they would be more productive at work if their company provided them the flexibility to manage work and family.

Employers need to be continually improving and innovating their work-life strategies, in order to meet the changing needs of employees. After all, the future of work is flexible — and this is echoed by our Remote Work Report 2022, which showed that the top priority for Singaporeans is work-life balance, and hybrid working was seen as the best model for achieving that.

With so many technological tools available that enable flexible working like never before, it’s much easier for employees to manage work responsibilities alongside their family needs today.

Encourage employees to speak up during 1:1 meetings if they require flexible work arrangements, and be supportive in accepting their requests as long as it’s within reasonable confines. WFH arrangements for dads in dual-income families allow men to take on increased responsibilities for childcare, and help lighten the load on mothers too.

When you create an environment of trust and respect, employees will be able to feel comfortable and be transparent about the support they need. This enables them to manage their responsibilities more effectively and be more productive at work — which only stands to benefit the rest of the team and the company too.

Extend paid paternity leave in your company policy

Although the statutory provision for paternity leave in Singapore is 2 weeks, there’s nothing stopping you from providing more. Take it from these firms with the most generous paternal leave entitlements in Singapore — some have paid parental leave policies which allow new parents to benefit from 26 weeks of paid leave, while others such as Netflix Asia provide unlimited paid parental leave to all employees.

It’s certainly a generous employee benefit that working dads will want, and definitely makes a world of difference. Because of the inequality in paid paternity leave and maternity leave provisions (2 weeks vs 12 to 16 weeks), the burden of raising the baby ends up falling more on the mother than the father — especially in the first few months after childbirth.

Providing fathers with a longer paternity leave enables them to be present with their partners for a longer period of time after childbirth, allowing them to not only spend precious time bonding with their baby, but also creating a routine that both parents can settle in.

Make sure paternity policies and benefits are clear and easily accessible

New dads in particular can be completely lost or oblivious to what their rights are when it comes to paternity leave and benefits, which is why it will be incredibly helpful for them to be aware of the organisation’s paternity leave policy.

Make sure your company policies clearly state the protections and obligations of both the employer and employee with regards to paternity leave, so that both parties are aware of the relevant legislation. Creating a page with instructions on how to apply for paternity leave would also take some stress off their shoulders, especially if they’re doing it for the first time.

Apart from paternity leave and shared parental leave, it would also be good to direct them to other helpful resources and inform them of additional benefits that they or their partners are entitled to, such as paid childcare leave, grandparent caregiver relief (for working mothers only), working mother’s child relief, parenthood tax rebates and more.

Celebrate parenthood in the workplace

The focus should be on building a culture where employees are encouraged, not discriminated against, to care for their families. Employees aren’t just leaders at the workplace — they are leaders of their own families too, and their family members are essential in keeping them happy and fulfilled. After all, who do employees work hard for? It’s not just for themselves, but their families as well.

Ultimately, work-life balance is key, and companies that support employees in putting family first will reap the returns in having an engaged and productive workforce. Consider organising corporate family day events annually, so your employees are encouraged to spend time having fun with their families!

It’s also important to celebrate family milestones in your team, whether that’s pregnancies, a baby’s arrival, or a child’s birthday. Talk openly about parenthood and encourage your team to share pictures and news about their children.

Celebrating parenting makes a huge difference to the spirit of your team. To those who have children, it sends a clear message that they are supported and valued. To those who are considering having children, it shows that they won’t face barriers in the workplace. To the whole team, you show you’re a modern workplace that values the life experiences of all staff.

Manage parental leave easier with Employment Hero

If you’ve got an employee who’s a soon-to-be dad, check out our guide to find out how you can better support working parents after the child is born.

Balancing work and parenting responsibilities isn’t easy at all, and there are plenty of things that businesses and HR leaders can do to help. Using an all-in-one HR and payroll software like Employment Hero makes leave management incredibly easy and fuss-free.

Employers can make leave policies easily accessible to all employees via the platform and approve leave requests instantly, whilst employees can apply for leave as and when needed via self-service functionality wherever they are located, through the mobile app. Keen to find out more? Speak to one of our experts today.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is current as at 25th Oct 2022, and has been prepared by Employment Hero Pty Ltd (ABN 11 160 047 709) and its related bodies corporate (Employment Hero). The views expressed in this article are general information only, are provided in good faith to assist employers and their employees, and should not be relied on as professional advice. The information is based on data supplied by third parties. While such data is believed to be accurate, it has not been independently verified and no warranties are given that it is complete, accurate, up to date or fit for the purpose for which it is required. Employment Hero does not accept responsibility for any inaccuracy in such data and is not liable for any loss or damages arising either directly or indirectly as a result of reliance on, use of or inability to use any information provided in this article. You should undertake your own research and seek professional advice before making any decisions or relying on the information in this article.