In this article, we are going through the ropes of what happens to your Edusave in tertiary institutes, and after you have completed your tertiary education. There’s no fun way to deliver this information, so I’ll keep it short, to the point, concise, brief, succinct and nothing like this opening paragraph.
How do I get an Edusave account?
I will not be going into the details of how you get Edusave funds into your account. In summary, every Singaporean citizen student gets an Edusave account if he/she is studying in a recognised institute, up to secondary school. (And up to 2004, only the first to third child were eligible, another fantastic policy created by our government, but we’re not here to argue policy this time.
What happens to my Edusave after Secondary School?
The funds from your Edusave will be transferred into your PSEA (Post Secondary Education Account) account after you are finished with secondary school education. Understandably, you can only use the funds to pay school fees of higher education institutes, which costs more. Students can make use of their sibling’s PSEA accounts as well.
Approved institutes can be found by an easy search on Google, but since I know how lazy everyone of you are, I’ll just provide a summary of it.
| Approved Institutions | Approved Programmes |
Autonomous Universities
|
Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes |
| SIM University (UniSIM) | Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes |
| Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) | Undergraduate programmes |
Polytechnics
|
Diploma and Poly-FSI degree programmes |
| Institute Of Technical Education (ITE) | Nitec, Higher Nitec and ITE-FSI diploma programmes |
| LaSalle College of the ArtsNanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) | MOE-funded diploma and degree programmes |
| Singapore Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) Continuing Education and Training Centres(as at 23 January 2013) | Singapore Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) courses from July 2008 (include WSQ Statement of Attainments (SOAs) and full qualification programmes) |
| Government-supported Special Education Schools (SPED) | Students’ own fees and charges in SPED Schools from Jul 2008 |
PSEA accounts do not get topped-up by the government after a citizen reaches 21 years of age as these adults now will receive other forms of benefit packages from the government. Basically your GST-offset money. (Which I don’t completely agree with)
Your PSEA account receive the same interest entitlement as a CPF account, at 2.5% per annum, but the extra 1% CPF Ordinary accounts receive, up to a maximum of S$20,000, is not entitled. Parents can top-up the PSEA accounts of their children and enjoy this 2.5% interest, up to a cap of S$6,000 and S$12,000 for the first and second and third and fourth child respectively, and these contributions will be matched by the government.
What happens to my PSEA eventually?
Once a citizen reaches 30 years of age, his PSEA account gets transferred into his CPF account, as the government has deemed that he is very likely to have joined the workforce.
Congratulations, now your funds enjoy the additional 1% interest per annum.
Last words
In conclusion, I hope you have found some bits of information useful. And have gained greater insights into what you can use your Edusave accounts for and what happens to it through the years. It is still your money at the end of the day, and you should have some knowledge of what is being done with it. I encourage you to read up more as always, as putting in all the information here is not suited to everyone’s reading preference.
Royalty-free photo from Getty Images. Used with appreciation.
