PM’s account not overly rosy
- The Straits Times (21 August 2014): PM’s account not overly rosy
- The Straits Times (19 August 2014): CPF changes do not go far enough
PM’s account not overly rosy
- The Straits Times, 21 August 2014
- The piece, “CPF changes do not go far enough” (Straits Times, 19 Aug 2014), misunderstood PM Lee’s comments on retirement adequacy at Sunday’s National Day Rally.
- The worked example of the hypothetical Tan family was not meant to show that $2,000 per month will definitely be sufficient in retirement. $2,000 was the majority view of the audience, but for each individual, the actual figure would come down to a matter of personal needs. The conclusion that PM Lee drew was that the CPF Minimum Sum (MS) of $155,000 is not excessive. And if Mr Tan uses his flat for half the MS, then the income he will get from CPF LIFE is only $600 per month, much less than the $2,000 per month he would need.
- Far from painting too rosy a picture, PM Lee emphasised the need to recognise trade-offs in planning for retirement. For example, when explaining the option of increasing CPF LIFE payouts to keep up with the cost of living, PM Lee cautioned that this would come at the cost of lower payouts in the early years.
- As PM Lee pointed out, CPF and home ownership work hand-in-hand to provide for Singaporeans in retirement. The Government helps citizens to own their homes, and pay for them using their retirement savings in the CPF, so that the home can be a nest egg for them to draw upon in old age.
- This is why we have to see the property as both a home and an asset. Having reached the end of their working life and with their children having formed families of their own, our seniors’ needs will tilt away from housing towards retirement. At this point, options to unlock the value in their homes become valuable.
- By extending the Lease Buyback Scheme to 4-room flats, the Government seeks to provide an additional option to more Singaporeans. This effort should not be dismissed offhandedly based on current take-up rates.
- We do not expect all eligible Singaporeans to take up the Lease Buyback Scheme. Those who wish to bequeath their homes are free to do so, especially if their children support them or they have other sources of retirement income. The fact that most eligible homeowners have not taken up the Lease Buyback scheme may well be a positive sign that most seniors do in fact have other support, and are adequately provided for in retirement.
CPF changes do not go far enough
- The Straits Times, 19 August 2014
Those Singaporeans who have been anticipating announcements of significant changes to the Central Provident Fund system to improve retirement financing may be forgiven for feeling disappointed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally on Sunday.
While the Silver Support bonus payment for poor elderly is to be applauded, the other announced changes do not address the fundamental source of concerns about retirement adequacy.
The extension of the Lease Buyback Scheme to four-room Housing Board dwellings would increase the number of households which are eligible by another 363,000. This compares with the approximately 230,000 three- room and two-room HDB dwellings currently eligible for this scheme.
However, it is not clear if this will make any significant difference to the popularity of the scheme. The low take-up of the current Enhanced Lease Buyback Scheme already provides strong hints that the typical Singapore family would prefer to have the option of bequeathing their property to the next generation.
Under the Lease Buyback Scheme, they sell back to the Government the last decades of the flat's 99-year lease in return for a lump sum and monthly payment. They can continue to live in the flat but can't bequeath it to their children.
For four-room HDB families with a larger family size, such bequest intentions would be even stronger. The continuing high property price, which reduces the affordability of housing purchase of the next generation, would only further strengthen such bequest motives.
PM Lee also seemed to adopt an overly-optimistic view of current retirement adequacy.
Take the example he cited, of a Mr Tan, whose monthly pay is $4,500. Mr Tan's current working income would place him around the 25th to 30th percentile of the Singapore household income ladder. According to the Department of Statistics (DOS), in 2013, the average monthly household income among resident employed households for the lowest 10 per cent of resident households was $1,711.
The $2,000 retirement income projected for Mr Tan, if paid out today, would therefore put him in this group of households with an income considered to be enough for basic or subsistence living.
The prospect of such retired households being forced down to the lowest decile on retirement certainly does not paint a very optimistic view of adequate retirement living in Singapore. And with inflation, the real value of the $2,000 Mr Tan is due to get in 10 years' time would be even more paltry.
The announcements in the Rally also did not deal with the major issue of protecting CPF Life retirement income from inflation. CPF Life is a national annuity scheme available to CPF members when they turn 55, which promises a monthly payout of about $1,200 from age 65 for life, for those who meet the current Minimum Sum in cash.
Latest available DOS data indicate that the average household expenditure of the lowest 20 per cent of households in 2007/08 is around $2,130 in current dollars. This will certainly be much higher 10 years from now, at between $2,600 and $2,850 (if inflation rate is between 2 per cent and 3 per cent).
A monthly payment of $1,200 would be barely enough to offer households even subsistence level retirement living. Hence the urgent need to keep CPF Life income inflation-adjusted so that real purchasing power is maintained.
More fundamentally, the critical issue of Mr Tan not having enough retirement savings was also not addressed. In the case cited, Mr Tan did not have the Minimum Sum of $155,000 in his CPF account. Pledging his property in lieu of half the Minimum Sum would give Mr Tan a CPF Life income of $600 per month when he reaches 65 years of age.
The Lease Buyback arrangement would add an additional $900 a month, giving a total of $1,500 a month which will be below current subsistence living level.
The critical question really is: Why did Mr Tan not even have $155,000 in his account? Has he used up too much of his CPF savings for housing?
If the withdrawals for housing are too high, is it not prudent and necessary to institute policy measures to tackle the problem of insufficient savings comprehensively at its source? That makes more sense than dealing piecemeal with post- haste measures of trying to augment retirement income through unlocking the value of property.
What of the increased flexibility of allowing lump sum withdrawals of the Minimum Sum at age over 65 years? To my mind, that is merely a cosmetic change that seems to pander to popular demands. Allowing this may not be in the best interest of most CPF contributors as any lump sum withdrawn means correspondingly lower amounts of retirement income for the individual.
It does not address the fundamental issue of the retiree not having enough in CPF savings.
PM Lee announced that an advisory panel will be set up to study CPF changes. Its priority should be changes to ensure that savings are sufficient for retirement. Attention has to be put on the savings accumulation stage, not just the withdrawal stage.
Singaporeans want the assurance that they can retire in their existing homes without downgrading or being deprived of the ability to bequeath wealth to the next generation. The current younger generation of CPF contributors must also have greater confidence that CPF savings will be enough for retirement.
By Hui Weng Tat, For The Straits Times
The writer is an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.