Good news, the beloved CDC vouchers tradition is carrying into 2024.
This benevolent measure, born in 2020 during the throes of the pandemic, aimed to stimulate local and hawker businesses by distributing $100 worth of CDC vouchers (Community Development Council vouchers) to specific households. Over time, recognising the positive impact, the government extended this support to encompass all Singaporean households.
Imagine it as a ‘free lunch’ for all Singaporeans, where these vouchers essentially translate into spendable cash at participating hawker stalls and supermarkets.
So, how do you get your hands on CDC vouchers in the coming year and where can you use them?
What are CDC vouchers?
The Community Development Council (CDC) Voucher Scheme was launched in 2020 to help households cope with the cost of living, while at the same time helping local businesses.
CDC Vouchers can be used at participating local merchants and hawkers. To use your vouchers, you simply hand them to the participating merchant, who will then exchange them for cash from the government. You can use more than one CDC voucher in a single transaction.
CDC vouchers are likely to be in $2, $5 and $10 denominations to make it easier to use them for small purchases.
Who is eligible for CDC vouchers in January 2024?
In 2024, all households will receive a total of $500 in CDC vouchers–that’s $200 worth of additional CDC vouchers compared to 2023.
As it is, Singaporean households were already expecting to receive $300 worth of CDC vouchers in 2024. Then the government announced an additional $200 worth would be doled out. The $200 worth of additional CDC vouchers will be split into two categories, with $100 of them allocated to spending at participating heartland merchants and hawkers, and the remaining $100 meant to be spent at participating supermarkets.
So long as there is at least 1 Singapore citizen in your household, you should qualify for the vouchers.
How to collect your CDC vouchers in 2024
In 2023, you could choose to claim your CDC vouchers in person or online via SingPass at this link. Information on how to claim the 2024 CDC vouchers has yet to be released.
Which merchants accept CDC vouchers?
A wide range of participating local businesses will be accepting CDC vouchers, including the following:
- Food and beverage businesses including hawker and food court stalls
- Bakeries
- Wet market stalls
- Provision shops and minimarts
- Hair salons and barber shops
- Pet shops
- Optical shops
- Photo shops
- Electronic shops
- Clinics and medical halls
- Florists
This list isn’t exhaustive. It depends on which local businesses in your area have decided to sign up as CDC merchants and have been accepted for the scheme.
To find the list of participating merchants in your neighbourhood, visit the CDC Go Where website and key in your postal code to check what’s available.
Honestly, if you’re looking for your favourite economical cai fan stall on the list, it will be a challenge. You’ll find yourself with a list of hawker stall unit numbers such as #01-45, #01-46, #01-47, and so on. If you’re in a hawker centre or kopitiam, it’s easier to walk up to the hawker stall and check for the CDC Voucher decal stuck to the front of their stall.
If you’re looking for cool shops to use your CDC vouchers at, search “merchants” and plonk in keywords such as “ice cream”.
CDC Voucher Merchants: Ice Cream & Waffle Shops
Some neighbourhood ice cream and waffle shops that accept CDC vouchers include:
- Ice Cream Chefs: Upper Thomson
- FIC (Fried Ice Cream & Viet Bites): Ang Mo Kio
- Yocha Ice Cream: Upper Serangoon, Tampines
- Udders Ice Cream: Kovan, Upper Thomson
- Smitten Ice Cream Bar: Bedok
- Denzy Ice Cream: Bedok
CDC Voucher Merchants: Korean BBQ & Thai Mookata
Some Korean BBQ and Thai Mookata restaurants in the heartlands that accept CDC vouchers are:
- SSak3 Korean BBQ: Bras Basah
- Sixty BBQ Seafood & Satay: East Coast Park
- Thai Hao Chi Mookata: Upper Thomson, Bedok
- Siam Square Mookata: Bukit Batok, Jurong West
- Jub Jub Mookata: Choa Chu Kang
- PremiumThai Mookata: Tampines
CDC Voucher Merchants: Lok Lok
There’s a total of nine Lok Lok hawker stalls that accept CDC vouchers:
- 39 Lok Lok Curry Rice: 73A Ayer Rajah Crescent
- 4896 Lok Lok: 500 Clemenceau Avenue North
- 85 Lok Lok: 85 Bedok North St 4
- A.K Zai Lok Lok: Outram Road
- Affinity Lok Lok: 335 Smith Street
- Fei Zhu Lok Lok: 267A Toh Guan Road
- Hey Lok Lok: Jurong West Ave 5
- Lok Lok 1991’s by Daniel & Meng: 340 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1
- Maxwell Lok Lok – 1 Kadayanallur Street
How to use CDC vouchers?
The easiest, most foolproof and fastest way to use the CDC vouchers is to print your CDC voucher QR codes out. To print the entire webpage of vouchers, you need to visit your Community Centre/ a CDC voucher site to get them to help you with it. Then, cut them up into individual “vouchers” and carry them with you. The hawkers tend to happily accept these since they won’t have to scan them in a hurry (and can scan them after work at night).
The other convenient (but slow and sometimes frustrating) way is to use your mobile phone. Click on the voucher you want to use, load the QR code, and wait for the hawker aunty to take off her gloves and put on her long-sighted glasses before scanning the QR code. Also, if you’re redeeming a $10 meal with 5x $2 vouchers, you have to repeat this process 5 times.
This is a surefire way to get yelled at by the hawker aunties. Sometimes they will reject mobile CDC vouchers during peak lunch hours.
How to join as a CDC merchant
If you are a local business owner, you can sign up to be a merchant for the CDC Voucher Scheme here. Note that you cannot accept CDC vouchers for the sale of lottery products, petrol or diesel, alcohol or cigarettes.
The more CDC merchants are on the scheme, the more beneficial CDC vouchers will be—so if you know of any local businesses who are not yet on the scheme, do encourage them to sign up.
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