SINGAPORE – Central Provident Fund (CPF) members received a total of $2.8 billion in retirement payouts in 2022, according to the latest annual report from the CPF Board.
The amount was up 27 per cent from the $2.2 billion disbursed in 2021.
With 439,000 CPF members getting retirement payouts in 2022, each received an average payout of around $530 every month, compared with the average monthly payout of about $440 that 416,000 eligible members received in 2021.
Of the 439,000 CPF members, more than 98,000, or 22 per cent, were on CPF Life. The remaining 341,000 members were on the Retirement Sum Scheme.
CPF Life and the Retirement Sum Scheme are two retirement schemes administered by the CPF Board.
CPF Life, introduced in 2009, gives CPF members a monthly payout from their payout eligibility age, which can be anytime between 65 and 70 years old, for as long as they live. Members are automatically included in CPF Life if they are a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, born in 1958 or after, and have at least $60,000 in retirement savings when they start their monthly payouts.
The Retirement Sum Scheme gives CPF members monthly payouts until the savings in their Retirement Account run out.
Ms Yong Ying-I, chairman of the CPF Board, said in the report that since March 2022, seniors on the Retirement Sum Scheme who have fully drawn down the savings in their Retirement Account will automatically receive monthly payouts from their Ordinary or Special Account.
This ensures seniors will be able to “fulfil their life’s aspirations and meet their daily living needs”, Ms Yong said.
She added that from October 2023, the CPF Board will automatically annuitise any savings in the Ordinary and Special Accounts of the CPF members who have not met the Full Retirement Sum, so the money can be used to provide them with higher monthly payouts for life.
In 2022, about seven in 10 CPF members were able to set aside their Full Retirement Sum – in cash, or in cash and property – the CPF report said.
This was up from 65 per cent in 2021, and 64 per cent in 2020.
That still meant three in 10 were not able to set aside the Full Retirement Sum for their retirement.
For senior CPF members who have not met the bare minimum of their Basic Retirement Sum – which is half the Full Retirement Sum – the Government introduced the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme in 2021.
Under the scheme, it matches every dollar of voluntary cash top-ups made to the Retirement Account of these CPF members, up to $600 a year, for five years.
In 2022, 111,000 CPF members received $65.9 million from the Government in one-to-one cash top-ups.
Some nine in 10 of them received the maximum matching grant of $600.
Aside from the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, 308,000 CPF members also made cash top-ups or transferred some of their CPF monies to their loved ones, who included spouse, parents, grandparents and in-laws, to help them grow their retirement savings.
The top-ups amounted to $4.6 billion in 2022, the CPF report stated.
In all, CPF members saw their balances grow by 7.7 per cent to $544.8 billion in 2022, from $505.7 billion in 2021. A record $19.8 billion in interest was paid to members in 2022, up 8 per cent from the $18.3 billion paid in 2021.
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