Ass Loon: MANY SGs ARE "QUIETLY HAPPY" WITH THE CPF SYSTEM
[h=1]PM LEE: MANY SINGAPOREANS ARE "QUIETLY HAPPY" WITH THE CPF SYSTEM[/h]
Post date:
5 Feb 2015 - 9:55pm
The CPF Advisory Panel has recently submitted its recommendations to the government on how it thinks the CPF system should be tweaked.
(See:
CPF Advisory Panel Suggests Raising the CPF Minimum Sum More in Future;
CPF Advisory Panel Suggests that People should Lock Up even more Money in CPF)
Some of the suggestions included three tiers of ‘minimum sum’ as well as allowing 20% withdrawal at age 65 and also allowing people to put in more money into CPF if they want.
Responding to media queries about the recommendations, PM Lee Hsien Loong said that he felt they were “good”. He also noted that they were the same as the things he had announced during the last National Day Rally, “These are just fulfilment and definition of what I had sketched out last year at the Rally.”
It seems that the whole job of the CPF advisory panel was unnecessary and their exercise in conducting dialogues with 400 Singaporeans was just a wayang as they already knew what they wanted to change anyway.
PM Lee also noted that many Singaporeans are actually “quietly happy” with the CPF scheme as they know that they are getting a good deal.
He said that there are already people who choose to leave extra money in their CPF savings even after the drawdown age.
“They don’t get a lot of publicity, they don’t jump around at Hong Lim Green, but they quietly know this is a good deal. And what the committee is recommending, makes it an even better deal,” PM Lee said.
Speaking on the suggested basic sum and enhanced sums, he said that the basic sum would probably only apply to the lowest 25% of income earners and they are going to be getting 4% interest on the money they put in.
He also praised the suggested enhanced sum saying “If you’re an executive and earning generous pay, you know how to look after yourself. But if you’re an average Singaporean, you have a bit more money, to say ‘go and set up your own retirement scheme’, I think that’s not possible,” he said.
“So I think it’s right that… beyond the Full Retirement Sum ($161,000), if people want to put more in, do that. (But) there has to be a limit, otherwise if you have a lot of money, you just dump it in the CPF, it becomes the Government’s duty,” he added.
Basically, PM Lee is saying that the recommendations, which are really just a rehash of his own suggestions during the National Day Rally, are good and have achieved the right balance.
He also noted that many Singaporeans are happy with the CPF system.
Since the recommendations have the approval of PM Lee, it looks like the suggestions will become a policy in no time as the PAP has an absolute majority in parliament.
Even if some opposition members raise concerns that there is not enough changes being made, their voices will just be heard in a parliamentary “debate” before the policy is pushed through on PAP’s terms.
What do you think? Are you part of the group of people who are ‘quietly happy’ with the CPF system?
