Singapore-based financial blog that aims to educate people on personal finance, investments, retirement and their Central Provident Fund (CPF) matters.

Monday 16 January 2017

Singapore Retirement Age, Re-Employment Age and CPF Withdrawal Age

As a follow up to our previous post on the Misconception Singaporeans have on the Re-Employment Age, we decided to go further and explain the difference between Singapore's Retirement Age, Re-Employment Age and CPF Withdrawal Age.

Singapore Retirement Age
Singapore's Retirement Age is set at 62.
This means that your employer cannot ask you to retire before you reach 62.
This does not mean that you can only retire at age 62.
YOU CAN RETIRE ANY TIME YOU WANT, you just have to say "I QUIT" to your boss.

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Singapore Re-Employment Age
Singapore's Re-Employment Age is currently set at 65 and will be raised to 67 in July 2017.
Once you reach the retirement age (62), your employer is required to continue to employ you if you wish to and am healthy to continue working.
It ensures that if you are 62 but would like to continue working, your employer is not allowed to fire you.
This is similar to raising the Retirement Age EXCEPT it looks better policy-wise because raising the retirement age is often badly received by the public - read our misconception post to know why.
The Re-Employment Age gives it a much better packaging of "you can retire if you want to at 62, or you can continue to work if you would like to" instead of "the retirement age is now 67" which gives people an impression that they can only retire at age 67.

Singapore CPF Withdrawal Age
Singapore's CPF Withdrawal Age is set at 55.
This is the age you can start withdrawing money out of your CPF account.
You can only withdraw money above the Full Retirement Sum (FRS) or $5,000 (whichever is higher).
Subsequently, at age 65, you can choose your CPF LIFE plan (CPF LIFE) and start receiving monthly payouts until you pass away.
You also have the option to start your CPF LIFE payouts later, up to age 70.
Example: you can choose to start receiving payouts anytime between age 65 and age 70 (eg when you reach age 67), but the latest age to start is 70. For each year deferred, your future CPF LIFE monthly payouts may increase by up to 7%.

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7 comments:

  1. As regard to the statement; "This means that your employer cannot ask you to retire before you reach 62.", I thought we have employment contract stating that both sides can terminate with agreed terms and without citing reasons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alex,

      Thank you for your comment.
      The catch there is in the "agreed terms".
      IF both the employer and employee agree to the terms, it is okay.
      But the employer cannot state "retire" as a term and dismiss the older employee - without the older employee agreeing.

      Thank you for your support

      Delete
    2. They can’t use retire as term but they can use any term to terminate the employment. The article is misleading. Retirement age should be when people get the CPF payout.

      Delete
    3. Hi Samuels,

      While it is true that they can use any other terms beside 'Retire' as the reason for termination. I guess it really depends on the way we define 'retirement'?
      I would think of it as when 'I am able to live comfortably for the rest of my life without working because I have accumulated enough money'.
      For some, it would be an age, say 60 years old, where they want to stop working and be able to enjoy the rest of their life.
      I would say the latter is arbitrary - why 60, or 65, or even 70, whereas I think the way I think is more practical?
      What do you think?

      Delete
    4. My point of view, retirement is when the social security system start paying old-age pensions. In Singapore, this is CPF Life payout. This is simple, straightforward, and applicable to most of the population.

      Delete
  2. My wife was born in 4th april 1957.When can she draw her retirement monthly payout.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,

      She can start withdrawing her monthly retirement payment when she reaches the age of 65 (if CPF does not shift the age again).
      So in year 2022, she will be able to start getting her monthly retirement payout.

      Thank you!

      Delete