Some people are already a few hundreds dollar rich.

Totally not jealous as I wait for mine.

Some Has Already Received 

To the delight of Singaporeans, the government revealed just last month that citizens will be receiving cash payouts of up to S$700, in an effort to buffer against the impending GST increase.

It now appears that some lucky OCBC customers have received the payouts through their NRIC-linked PayNow accounts, although it was initially announced that the amount would be deposited by 5 December if people linked their NRIC to their Paynow account before 20 November.

As the clock hits 12 am on 1 December, the government tooth fairy must have sneaked in and placed the payouts under some citizen’s pillows; according to a post in the GrabFood Delivery Rider Singapore Facebook group.

It seems to be that for now, most of the recipients were OCBC customers who have already linked their NRIC to their PayNow accounts.

One recipient had shared proof of the transaction with MS News.

Unfortunately, the rest, including OCBC customers who chose bank transfer and those of other banks, will have to wait for a little longer to receive their money.

In the case of DBS customers, the iBanking app screen showed that the platform briefly went offline owing to the heavy traffic.

For the rest of us who have yet to receive our payouts, I guess we’ll just have to stay broke and eat grass until pay comes in.

Quick Recap

The Ministry of Finance announced last month that it will roll out the Assurance Package (AP) Cash and Cost-of-Living (COL) special payment from December onwards.

The monetary packages were financial buffers in response to the increase in GST rates.

The AP will be a payout of up to S$200 and will run from December 2022 to February 2023, with 2.9 million Singaporeans eligible for the package.

The COL will be entitled to a special cash payout of up to S$500, for Singaporeans who are 21 years old and above, with an assessable income of no more than S$100,000 in the Year of Assessment 2022, and own no more than one property.

If you are not sure whether you’re eligible or not, you can do a quick check at the AP official website by logging in with your SingPass.

Besides both the AP and COL, there are also other financial aids including GSTV-Cash (Senior’s Bonus), where lower-income senior citizens will be able to receive $300 cash.

With so many monetary bonuses coming your way, just make sure you don’t end up being broke again until your next paycheck.