Under The Angsana Tree: CPF: "The gift that keeps on giving"

CPF Board ad encouraging members to gift loved ones

The advertisement, called ‘Birthday Gift’, was launched earlier this month. In a 30-second long clip, a couple can be shown celebrating the wife’s birthdays after the first year of marriage, the fifth year of marriage and the tenth year of marriage. The husband gifts the wife a bouquet of roses on her birthday after their first year of marriage and expensive jewelry four years later.

On her tenth year of marriage, the husband gifts his wife “a gift for the years ahead”. The wife is extremely joyful to discover a statement from CPF Board, showing that her husband has topped up her Special Account under the Retirement Sum Topping-Up Scheme.

The wife exclaims “Wow,” before teasing her husband, “So how are you going to top this next year?” as the advertisement asserts, “The future is closer than you think – Be ready with CPF”.

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Bold T-shirt about CPF goes viral as PAP group calls for higher CPF contribution rates for seniors who “need to be even more self-reliant”

A picture of a man publicly wearing a bold T-shirt calling for the authorities to return his Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings has been going viral online. The picture first surfaced on Reddit before making its way to social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.

The picture of the bold T-shirt is circulating online as issues over CPF’s withdrawal age, payout mechanism and contribution rates have come to the forefront in recent weeks.

Just yesterday, the People’s Action Party Senior Group (PAP.SG) released a 21-page position paper calling for higher CPF contribution rates for senior citizens. The group is calling for the contribution rate for workers aged 55 and older to be raised to 37 per cent.

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CPF contribution rate for workers above 55 should be raised:

(From left) Members of the People's Action Party Seniors Group members Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Mr Henry Kwek, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Ms Joan Pereira, Dr Chiang Hai Ding at a press conference at the PAP headquarters on Jan 30, 2019. ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN

A group in the People's Action Party (PAP) that champions elderly causes is calling for a number of changes to how seniors work, retire & live.

Among other things, the PAP Seniors Group (PAP.SG) - led by chairman Tan Chuan-Jin - is proposing for the Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution rate for workers beyond the age of 55 to be increased “so that all members continue to enjoy the same level of (contributions) regardless of how old they are”.

The rate for those aged 55 and below is 37%, with employers contributing 17%.

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Totally illogical to suggest CPF payout term of 28 years where there is no one to receive balance payout

I was born in the year 1954. I am 65 years old this year and I empathise with all who had commented here on The Online Citizen. I would like to share my own ordeal with fellow CPF members

Like the others, I had received a letter from CPF informing me to either apply for a monthly retirement payout at 65 years old, or delay it to 70 years old for a better payout sum. This was nothing new as it had been reported in the news and critiqued by many SIngaporeans including an ex-PAP MP Mr Inderjit Singh. However, the one thing that shocked me was that I could only receive $482 monthly from June 2019 under the CPF Retirement Sum Scheme, and this payout would last about 28 years, when I would be 93 years old.

How can the Central Provident Fund Board decide on the terms of payment for my own money? I would like the Finance Minister to clear the air – does CPF savings belong to each individual member?

I then wrote in and requested for a 20-year payout so as to increase my monthly payout, the reason being Singapore’s life expectancy was 85.4 years (based on statistics reported in the media.) The CPF simply rejected it and cited “current policies” as the reason.

related: MPs oppose automatic CPF payouts at age 65

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CPF Board Accused of Barring Member from Full Withdrawal of Savings Before 93 Years Old

A CPF member has accused the CPF board of barring him from withdrawing the full amount from his Retirement Account before he hits the age of 93.

Writing to The Online Citizen, Zol claims that upon turning 65 years old this year, he was informed that he can “only receive S$482 monthly from June 2019 under the CPF Retirement Sum Scheme, and this payout would last about 28 years.”

By that time, he would be 93 years old. Zol said that he wrote to the CPF Board to request for a 20-year payout so as to increase the amount of payout he would receive every month. However, this request was turned down by the CPF Board.

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Lim Tean: “the CPF is a virtual confiscation of your money”

Abuse of Process Rally

“To me, the CPF is another grave abuse of process.” He explained how he sees the CPF. “I tell you this, and I don’t mince my words, (if it were up to me) I am going to totally scrap the CPF and revamp the system because it is broken.”

He closed his speech by emphasizing the need to rediscover the purpose in Singapore. “We need the creativity and innovation which is lacking in our society today.

I hope that our bicentennial will be an occasion when we will rediscover and we will restore our nation to the exceptionalism that all of us have come to expect.”

related: CPF members should not continue to live in denial

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Don't blame the people for CPF rumour

Netizens have raised concerns over a recently circulated letter from the CPF Board, which some have misunderstood as the Government raising the default payout age from 65 to 70.PHOTO: ST READER

The people should not be blamed for starting the rumour about Central Provident Fund (CPF) payout being delayed till the age of 70 (CPF Board refutes claims that payout age raised; Jan 20).

And it is true that if a person does not do anything, then the payout will indeed start at the age of 70.

If the payout is supposed to be at the age of 65, then that should be the default age, & anyone who wants a later payout should have to indicate to the CPF Board that they want it at a later age.

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2 MPs table parliamentary questions on mechanism for CPF payouts; others see no major issues

2 Members of Parliament (MPs) have tabled questions for the next Parliament sitting in February on the Central Provident Fund’s (CPF) retirement payout scheme.

This comes after a letter on the issue was posted online, sparking discussions on whether the monthly payouts under the Retirement Sum Scheme should be made automatic when CPF members turn 65.

Along with the letter was a claim that CPF had “quietly” shifted its payout age from 65 years old to 70 years old. This was later debunked by the CPF Board in a Facebook post.

related: Claims that CPF 'retirement payout age' shifted to 70 not true: CPF Board

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Netizens skeptical with CPF Board’s explanation on rumour that retirement payout has not been increased to 70

Since 15 January, you might have seen a post circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp that the Government had quietly shifted the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Retirement Payout age from 65 to 70.

However, the message circulating online is false and the payout eligibility age for the Retirement Sum Scheme is indeed 65 for those born from 1954 onwards, and this had not changed since it was announced in 2007, said CPF Board on Saturday (19 January).

The confusion happened due to a letter CPF sent to its members who are approaching their eligible payout age.

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Ex-PAP MP Inderjit Singh joins chorus of voices against CPF payout mechanism

Former ruling party parliamentarian, Inderjit Singh, has joined the voices of Singaporeans urging the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board to change its automatic withdrawal age from 70 to 65, which is the retirement age in Singapore.

Last week, a picture of a letter sent by CPF Board to a senior citizen went viral online. The letter informed the 65-year-old member that he can receive higher payouts if he delays the start of his payouts and even states that he would only start receiving payouts when he turns 70, automatically by default, if he does not do anything.

Some netizens responding to the picture believed that the authorities have shifted the “retirement payout age” to 70. Clarifying that this isn’t true, CPF Board said in a statement that the Payout Eligibility Age (PEA) is 65.

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