Singapore - Ageing population, higher life expectancy and rising medical costs are forcing Singapore to re-think its employment policies and may raise the retirement age of workers from the current 62.
The move would ensure workers continue to draw salary beyond the age of 62 to help them cope with old age and address concerns about insufficient pension fund -- the Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings - to see them through the retirement.
Data from the Singapore Department of Statistics showed the life expectancy of Singaporeans rose dramatically by 14.1 years since 1970. It was 65.8 that year before raising to 75.3 years in 1990 and last year, it was 79.9 years.
Male life expectancy in 1970 was 64.1 years and females 67.8 years but last year it was 78 years and 81.8 for females, a fact that Singapore could cheer for as much as to be concerned about.
Singapore workers‘ retirement age was set at 60 in 1993 but it was raised to 62 in 1999.
Minister in the Prime Minister‘s Office Lim Boon Heng, who is in charge of ageing issues, is concerned over the long-term needs of elderly Singaporeans.
He painted stark pictures recently when he said there were about 25,000 Singaporeans aged 85 and above being cared and supported by their children who themselves are in their 60‘s.
As such, he said, measures will have to be introduced, including raising the retirement age, so that those aged 62 and above can continue working and support themselves.
The government was looking at various models, including a Japanese model, on re-employment, he said.
"What the Japanese have done is that the law requires an employer to offer re-employment, in the case of the Japanese, when the person reaches 60."
"The law doesn‘t specify how it has to be done (but it) provides the opportunity for employers and employees to sit down to discuss the different methods it could be done," Lim said in a report by Channel NewsAsia.
"For the employer, the concern would be possibly about cost; for employee, the wish, maybe, for lesser working hours in a week so that he has time for other things," he said.
Statistics showed in 2004, there were already 400,000 Singaporeans aged 60 and above. Of the total, about 72,000 were working. At the rate things are going, one out of five Singaporeans will be aged 65 years and above in 2030, from the current ratio of one in every 12.
Other social safety nets are also being considered to help the elderly cope, such as topping up their CPF savings or pay higher returns, and raising the CPF minimum sum draw-down age.
At the moment, workers can withdraw their CPF saving at the age of 55 but they will have to leave aside a minimum sum of S$99,600 from which they will receive a monthly payout over the next 20 years from the age 62, or until they exhaust the minimum sum.
The minimum sum would be raised progressively over the coming years to take into account inflations and other issues. It is set to reach a minimum amount of S$120,000 in 2013.
Raising the minimum sum draw-down age would make the savings last longer to see them through their expanding life span.
Other safety nets being considered include making it mandatory for the workers to buy annuity which although the monthly payout might be lower, it would last them throughout their lifetime.
For Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, retirement age will have to go up. "We have to have more of the over-60‘s at work," The Straits Times quoted him as saying.
The retirement age could go up from 62 to 65 and then to 67, said Lee, who at the age of 83 going 84 next month, was still an influential figure in Singapore.
"Eventually all those healthy and able to work should be able to work, regardless of age," he told his constituents at the Tanjong Pagar constituency‘s National Day dinner last night.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is expected to touch on ageing issues in his National Day Rally speech -- Singapore‘s most important political speech of the year -- tomorrow evening which he will deliver in Malay, Chinese and English.
Source: www.bernama.com (18 Agustus 2007)
