Under The Angsana Tree: Singapore’s Elderly Working Poor

Update 9 Oct 2021: S$2,906 a ‘reasonable’ starting point for a living wage in Singapore

The “reasonable starting point” for a living wage in Singapore is S$2,906 a month, according to a study by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. This figure is based on the average budget for a couple with two children, assuming both parents are employed full-time. The figure is also adjusted for taxes and all universal and major means-tested benefits.

“The median work income among all workers in 2020 exceeded this amount by 50 per cent, but the current PWM (Progressive Wage Model) wages fall significantly below,” said the school in a media release on Friday (Oct 8). The Progressive Wage Model aims to lift the salaries of workers by various sectors through upgrading their skills and improving productivity.

The study found that the costs of education and care “dominated” the budgets for children’s needs. “While some costs associated with children decline with age, others increase sharply. As current measures supporting education and care taper off for older children, parents are likely to face greater financial strain as their children grow up.” Researchers also found that current public housing policies "effectively double” housing costs for single parents who have never married, compared to partnered, widowed or divorced parents.

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Elderly Singaporean shuffling along as he clears tables at hawker centre

Video of elderly Singaporean

A video of an elderly Singaporean, who appears to have difficulty walking, clearing tables at a food court is going viral online. The video, which was published on social media last week by Facebook user Melvin Tan, has already accumulated over 270,000 views.

In the video, an elderly man can be seen moving slowly and shuffling forward while he pushes a tray that holds dirty dishes. In the crowded food court, he can be seen approaching a table and clearing a coconut drink that a patron left behind. Sharing that the video shows “the elderly in Singapore working hard,” Mr Tan indicated that he felt emotional at seeing the senior citizen doing such work in his twilight years.

Netizens responding to the post were also heartbroken and said that it is devastating to see older Singaporeans having to work so hard instead of being able to rest and retire.

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Ploughing on: The faces and insecurities

An elderly worker in Singapore. (File photo: TODAY)

The poverty rate has been rising among the working elderly, one study shows. Why do seniors here feel the need to work for long hours and low pay, despite the help schemes available for the needy?

As Singapore ages, the number of seniors who work into their silver years is growing too – especially among the lower-income group, for whom retirement is an alien concept. In recent years they have become more visible as food court cleaners, servers, security guards, tissue-sellers and scrap collectors.

Given Singapore’s plethora of help schemes for the needy – such as the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP) and Silver Support Scheme for the old – why do the elderly poor feel the need to work for long hours and often low pay? Do the jobs that the elderly poor do, as well as society’s safety nets, offer them adequate sense of security and quality of life in their old age?

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KindnessSG

A Day in the Life of a Hawker Cleaner

Who cleans your Singapore?

Hawker cleaners in Singapore are mostly elderly folks, who come from underprivileged backgrounds, while working long and hard hours. There can also be a lack of consideration shown by patrons who do not help keep the hawker centres clean.

Follow 67-year-old Mdm Tan Huan Ah, as she shares her personal stories, feelings and interactions with others, in her daily job as a hawker cleaner.

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Seniors at work: The new norm for ageing in Singapore

More elderly Singaporeans are working through their twilight years. Is this reflective of a healthier, more inclusive society – or a dearth in state welfare support?

With one of the highest life expectancies and lowest fertility rates in the world, Singapore is on the cusp of an extreme demographic shift. Among the ASEAN member states, the Republic is already the oldest society. Its workforce is also getting older. Employment rate for older residents has surged over the last decade.

In Singapore today, one in four seniors are still working. The employment rate for those aged 65 and older jumped from 13.8% in 2006 to 26.8% in 2018. For seniors aged 65 to 69, employment rate has hit 40% by 2015.

Based on projections from the United Nations (UN), 47% of Singapore’s total population will be aged 65 years or older in 2050. This demographic shift will put immense pressure on Singaporean society as a shrinking workforce struggles to support an ageing population. Additionally, an ageing population comes with a unique set of challenges, from reduced economic growth to increased healthcare and social services costs.

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Aging Singapore: City-state helps firms retain workers past retirement age

Soliano Paulina, 75, makes a call at the counter at Smaland, a play area for children at Ikea, in Singapore December 14, 2018. Picture taken December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Mohsin Khan is still at his job repairing aircraft hydraulics parts although the Singaporean turns 75 in a couple of months. His technical skills are prized by his employer, and as his eyesight deteriorated slightly, the company invested about two years ago in a S$11,000 ($8,140) laser-marker machine that uses a large screen to help emboss numbers in tiny font on metal plates.

About 80 percent of the money was subsidized by Singapore’s ‘job-redesign’ grant, one of several government schemes to help companies with older staff. For his employer, Aerospace Component Engineering Services (ACE Services), the grant helps retain workers like Khan whose skills are difficult to replace.

Khan says he remains employed and paid a salary long after his contemporaries had retired. “I didn’t want to be idling at home - doing nothing and spending money,” he said.

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Aging, but Still Working, in Singapore

The food courts in the basements of shopping malls and the ubiquitous “hawker centers,” covered markets where scores of stall-holders sell cooked food, are a mainstay of eating out in Singapore. At one of my regular lunch spots, I watch the cleaners diligently tidy away the trays. They scrape leftovers into bins and wipe the tables and floors with disinfectant.

They perform these unskilled, repetitive tasks with often surprising enthusiasm. What is striking is, first, that the workers are local Singaporeans, not the foreign-born recent immigrants one might otherwise expect to do such work in a wealthy country like Singapore. More important, they are frequently of, or even beyond, retirement age. The cleaning staffs have names, of course, but whenever I speak to them, I address them as “Auntie” or “Uncle” — the honorific terms used here when one is speaking to someone of an older generation.

I chat with them about health and happiness in old age, and I hear their varied reasons for wanting to keep working in jobs that others might consider demeaning. Some do so because they see it as a way to continue to contribute to society, and they’re reluctant to become a burden on their families. Others among them wish to escape the loneliness of an increasingly sedentary retirement. Many need the extra income that even such modest work provides (typically less than the equivalent in Singapore dollars of about $1,100 a month).

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Senior citizens’ return to workforce becoming “a norm” in Singapore’s ageing population: Reuters

71-year-old cleaner Mary Lim. Source: Reuters TV

In order to cope with rising living costs, an increasing number of elderly Singaporeans have resorted to making a return to the workforce at an age when many would like to retire comfortably.

Reuters reported on Monday (4 Feb) that “the employment rate for people over 65 have jumped over 15 percent in the past decade. Some of them say they have to continue to work in order to survive”.

“Almost a third of Singaporeans over 65 work”, according to Reuters, adding that “the employment rate for the elderly has jumped over 15 percent”.
“Since 2016, the country has launched several schemes to help companies with older staff, such as redesign grants that subsidise pay.
“The government is hoping to help older workers remain in the workforce longer and stay productive members of society,” Reuters added.

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Elderly lady who can barely walk wipes tables at a hawker centre and works as a cleaner

It is almost a weekly affair where Singaporeans point out frail and old men and women doing meanial, labour-intensive tasks, when at their ages, they should be resting and under care. Yesterday, another photo of an old lady, whose back was very hunched, circulated on social media and whatsapp messenger.

The photo was shared by netizen Carl Nunes, and it received 623 reactions and almost 120 comments. In his caption he wrote, “It really angers me to see such pain and suffering inflicted upon our poor, needy and elderly citizens ignored”.

He added, “There is NO country on this Earth where the elderly citizens who can barely walk and breathe well having to WORK just so that THEY can be alive FOR ANOTHER DAY. SINGAPORE …only”.

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Age of golden workers: Many seniors working into 80s and 90s to stay active

Madam Lim Swee Ee (above), 90, is happy keeping busy serving customers at a trading store at Albert Centre.ST PHOTOS: BENSON ANG, KUA CHEE SIONG

Mr Henry Lim, 81, hangs out by the swimming pool and tennis courts four to five days a week, but instead of lounging around, he is working.

A facilities assistant at Mandarin Gardens condominium in Siglap, he registers residents who want to use facilities such as the gym, swimming pool and tennis and squash courts.

“I like my job because it lets me meet people. I treat my colleagues and the residents like my friends and I like to make friends,” he says.

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Why do elderly persons work as cleaners in Singapore?

I personally have a strong inclination to old people and enjoy to old folks since I was brought up by my grandparents from a young age. I can share the encounters I have had with elderly workers at hawker centres.

I went to a nearby hawker center for lunch in the late afternoon and realised there were many dishes left around the tables. There was only one elderly cleaner Aunty in charge of ~15 tables, so I decided to clean up together with her. To my surprise, the lady scolded me after I had cleaned up about 2–3 tables. I thought I was helping her, but it turns out I was not. She felt that this was her responsibility and she needed to do this right, having others clean on her behalf was seen as a threat to her job. The lady had children but they did not take care of her, so she had to find a job to feed herself. I was literally taking her rice bowl away from her.

When a cleaner lady took a plate left by the previous table occupants, I answered with a quick “thank you”. This lady saw that I was sitting alone and so she decided to sit down and talk to me. She was telling me about her life and how she was very lonely at home without much entertainment or friends she could talk to. It was because of this that she decided to find a job that could pass her time. I guess cleaning is a rather lonesome job as well, as many do not appreciate their effort. Honestly I think it is not a totally brainless job (there is a difference between a well thought out cleaning plan vs one that is haphazard !). I would say it is a mix of both. To understand what is going through your neighbourhood cleaners’ minds, I’d say the best way to find out is just to talk to them.

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Why Are There So Many Poor Elderly In Singapore?

I was pretty disappointed to read Tan Chuan Jin’s latest Facebook post on the poor elderly in Singapore who work as cardboard collectors. Quoting him:

THE NORMAL PERCEPTION THAT ALL CARDBOARD COLLECTORS ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE UNABLE TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES FINANCIALLY IS NOT REALLY TRUE. THERE WILL BE SOME WHO DO THIS AS THEIR MAIN SOURCE OF INCOME. SOME DO SO TO SUPPLEMENT WHAT THEY HAVE. SOME PREFER TO EARN EXTRA MONIES, TREAT IT AS A FORM OF EXERCISE AND ACTIVITY RATHER THAN BEING COOPED UP AT HOME.

The word that irked me the most in his status update was “some”. The reality is that MOST cardboard collectors do it for the money not “some”. The usage of the word “some” made it seem like he was trivializing the circumstances of the poor elderly.

It is indisputable fact that a large proportion of elderly Singaporeans here are poor. In a 2015 paper on elderly poverty in Singapore, Assistant Professor Ng Kok Hoe of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy showed that the poverty rate among the working elderly jumped from 13 per cent in 1995, to 28 per cent in 2005 – to 41 per cent in 2011.

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Why are there so many old people working in hawker centers in Singapore?

The various answers given here by other contributors brilliantly summarized the gist of the issue. But not all is damned and doomed. The government does realize this societal issue and hence, governmental aids are being dished out in the form of various monetary handouts and subsidies to ease the situation. For such lower income folks, young and old alike based on certain criteria, they qualify for quarterly monetary handouts credited directly to their bank accounts, such as the Silver Support Scheme, etc. As for subsidies, for rental and small HDB flats, they get subsidies in rents, purchase prices and even utility bills. Very worth mentioning is the medical subsidies whereby consultation fess are heavily subsidized together with cheap medications [sometimes just for a few cents/dollars instead of tens].

So, back to the topic of old people working at hawker centres, it is either they are in need of more money for various reasons [that can include survival, hand-to-mouth situations or simply wanting a better life-style or for mon-monetary reasons [such as maintaining their humanistic ego and pride of being ‘useful’ or ‘usefully employed’, keeping health at bay, from deteriorating by staying at home or simply the boredom of staring at 4 walls or the TV for the rest of their lives.

So yeah, I believe given a choice, such old cleaners who ‘are having a hard time walking’ would rather not work if they are certain they are in no financial need for the rest of their lives. Money still No Enough Mah! [Singlish here]

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Ageing Singapore: Country helps firms retain workers past retirement age

WORKING TO SURVIVE Martin Seah works at the cashier at a McDonald's restaurant outlet in Singapore. Photo: Reuters

The employment rate for permanent residents and Singaporeans 65 and over — the so-called pioneers who lived through the end of British rule and the island's break with Malaysia in the 1960s — reached 27 per cent last year from about 16 per cent a decade ago.

Besides the government schemes and employers looking to retain workers, many older people look for jobs after retirement because Singapore is often ranked as the world's most expensive country and life expectancy is close to 83 — the third highest in the world. Many residents complain the government's retirement savings scheme does not provide enough money.

"If I don't work, where will my income come from?" said 71 year-old Ms Mary Lim, one of many elderly cleaners earning a meagre wage clearing up to 400 plates a day at a foodstall in Singapore's Chinatown. "If I stop my work, how will I survive?"

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CLEANERS BASIC PAY TO GO UP - BUT IT ACTUALLY DROPPED 30% IN 15 YEARS

Over 40,000 cleaners’ basic pay will go up by $200 over next 3 years

I refer to the article “Over 40,000 cleaners will see basic pay go up by $200 over next three years” (Straits Times, Dec 12).

Some cleaners have to wait until July 2017? It states that “Cleaning businesses with new service contracts that take effect from July 1 next year must adopt the new recommendations for 2017. Some cleaners have to wait until July 2018?

Meanwhile, those with existing service contracts that take effect before then will have until July 1, 2018 to pay their cleaners wages according to the recommendations.

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Elderly in Singapore need S$1,379 a month for basic needs: Study

An older person above 65 years old needs S$1,379 a month to meet his or her basic needs, according to a team of researchers from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYPP).

This precise figure came from a study by the team led by Assistant Professor Ng Kok Hoe from LKYPP, National University of Singapore (NUS). They revealed their findings in a media release on Wednesday (May 22).

The household budgets necessary to meet basic needs were S$1,379 per month for single elderly households, S$2,351 per month for elderly couples, and S$1,721 per month for a person aged 55 to 64 years old, the study said.

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