Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Boon Heng mentioned that Singapore may need to raise its retirement age to 68.
Reasons cited included Singaporeans living longer and needing to accumulate more for their old age.
This is probably one of those sensitive issues and the government is probably trying to test the ground first by using “may need to raise”. Depending on the response from the ground, they can then modify their policies accordingly. So make sure you voice out your comments if you feel strongly about this.
I always felt that the idea of a retirement age is something personal. No matter what the official retirement age is, if you have no money at that point in time, you will still have to continue working.
Nowadays, I am seeing more and more elderly people selling tissues; not just in hawker centers but also in the streets! Some of them are even collecting used metal tin cans from dust bins. I don’t think any one of them would be doing it if they had a choice. The official retirement age probably wouldn’t mean anything to them.
For another group of people, they enjoy their work so much that they will just continue working. The concept of retirement does not even exist.
Nevertheless, the official retirement age does have an important implication. It might reflect the age when your CPF minimum sum or CPF life payout starts. By increasing the retirement age from 62 to 65, we already saw the payouts being delayed to 65.
If the official retirement age is increased further to 68, does that mean our CPF minimum sum or CPF life payouts will only start at 68?