Recognizing the need for retirement adequacy: The combined balance of all Central Provident Fund (CPF) members’ balances has surpassed half a trillion, increasing 9.4% from $462.1 billion in 2020. In particular, voluntary top-ups of Special and Retirement Accounts also hit record-high of $4.8 billion last year, up from $3 billion in 2020. 290,000 members contributed to the $4.8 billion. Of these 290,000, about half of them topped up their accounts for the very first time.
Recognizing the need for retirement adequacy
It’s a good sign that our seniors are recognizing the need for retirement adequacy and the benefits of placing their hard-earned savings with CPF instead of placing them in speculative and risky endeavours like cryptocurrencies.
Observers pointed out that the increase in contributions also meant that overall wages in Singapore were higher (which necessitates higher contributions). It is expected that this trend continues as Singapore gradually recovers in a post-Covid-19 world.
Did you know? 4.1 million Singapore residents are CPF members. About 416,000 (10%) of CPF members are seniors receiving their CPF retirement payouts which totaled $2.2 billion in 2021.
Matched Retirement Savings Scheme
The Matched Retirement Savings Scheme was launched in 2021 to help seniors who have not attained the Basic Retirement Sum to build their Retirement Accounts (RA) through a dollar-to-dollar grant matching grant.
Under the scheme, the government matches cash top-ups made to members’ RA of eligible Singaporeans aged 55 – 70, with a cap of $600 per calendar year. Since the start of the scheme, 117,000 members have benefitted from the dollar-to-dollar top-ups which totaled to $68 million in matching grants.
On the one hand, we see a group of individuals who wish to take out their CPF entirely to spend it. On the other, we’re seeing in this case — a record number of CPF members contributing to their RA willingly.
As a worker, is CPF important to you? Why or why not?
Let us know in the comments below!
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A young Singaporean concerned about issues workers face. As humans, we spend a third of our lives sleeping and recharging, and another third for our personal life, and the last third at work (based on a 24-hr distribution). That’s why we should pay attention to issues surrounding work.
