Speech at Active Agers Awards Presentation Ceremony

Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister , Marina Barrage

2.   Staying active and engaged as one gets older is a national issue as well as a personal one. Singapore's population is ageing and so is our workforce. It is estimated that one in five residents will be aged 65 and older by 2030¹. The average life expectancy at birth of a Singaporean has also increased from 75 in 1990 to 81² in 2008. As our population matures, we must ensure that our older residents continue to remain active and stay in touch with society.

3.   One way is to continue to work. For the individual, working not only provides a sense of purpose, it also enhances their financial security in old age. For the economy and society, older workers are a critical source of manpower and experience to sustain our economic growth. While the employment rate of residents aged 55 to 64 has been increasing steadily over the past 5 years from 45% in 2003 to 57% in 2008, this is still lower than countries such as USA (62%), Japan (66%), and Sweden (70%).

Encouraging Employers To Employ Older Workers

4.   The Government has a two-pronged approach to helping Singaporeans to work longer. The first is to encourage and facilitate employers to hire older workers. The Government will introduce re-employment legislation by January 2012 to enable more people to continue working beyond the current statutory retirement age of 62. This legislation will require firms to offer re-employment to their staff to continue working in their current jobs or in new roles.

5.   Re-employment is a flexible and effective way to help workers work for as long as they are able to. Re-employment need not be on exactly the same terms; it allows both the employer and the worker to make changes to the existing job arrangements. For instance, the worker may wish to work part-time or to take on less responsibility. The company may, on the other hand, need to re-deploy the worker to another job to facilitate leadership renewal or make necessary adjustments to his wages to reflect the value of his job. This flexibility will allow the worker to stay employed while keeping the company competitive.

6.   Re-employment is still a new concept for many and it will take time for employers to understand and implement it. In preparation for the legislation, the tripartite partners released the Tripartite Advisory for Re-employment of Older Workers in April 2008 to provide employers with practical suggestions on formulating and implementing re-employment practices. Response and feedback from employers and unions to the Advisory have been positive and an increasing number of companies have implemented some form of re-employment practices in their companies. According to a survey³ done by MOM in 2008, the majority (94%) of the companies without a retirement age allow their employees to continue working without having to retire. For companies with a retirement age, about 65% would offer re-employment or allow employees to continue working beyond the retirement age.

7.   The Government introduced the ADVANTAGE! Scheme in 2006 to support companies in their efforts to employ older workers. The scheme offers a financial grant of up to $400,000 to fund company's initiatives that facilitate the recruitment, retention and re-employment of older workers. As of end Aug 2009, more than 1,200 companies have benefited from this scheme. These companies have committed to recruit over 5,300 mature workers, retain 19,300 older workers and re-employ 8,800 older workers.

Helping Workers To Stay Employed

8.   The second prong of the Government's approach is to encourage and enable older workers to stay employed. Government initiatives to encourage employers to hire older workers would come to naught if workers themselves are not keen to continue working beyond the retirement age, or to be willing to be flexible. Our tripartite partners have been reinforcing the message to workers to be open to working beyond retirement, and be adaptable and willing to take on different jobs if necessary.

9.   I also encourage workers to stay healthy and continue to update and upgrade their skills through training so that they will remain employable. Government support is available to help mature workers upgrade their skills through our CET system. The Health Promotion Board (HPB) also offers the Workplace Health Promotion Grant, which provides financial support of up to $10,000 to help organisations start and sustain their workplace health programmes.

Improving Public Perceptions Of Ageing

10.   Initiatives such as the Active Agers Awards go a long way to improving public perceptions on ageing and older people. The winners and their stories serve as an inspiration to others, and a reminder that older people are valuable assets as they can contribute positively to our workforce as well as the community.

11.   Take Mr Sam Liu for instance. Mr Liu is 73 years old and a retired telecommunications consultant. He volunteers his time to teach IT skills and develop senior-friendly computer lessons at the Retired & Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP) Singapore. Another example is Mdm Rajam, who had to stop schooling when she was young so that she could work to support her family. Now at 62, with her children grown up, she is pursuing her aspiration of obtaining higher education. She recently enrolled for a Psychology programme in a private university.

12.   I would like to offer my heartiest congratulations to all six award winners. They are inspiring role models for other seniors in Singapore. I would like to also thank the Council for Third Age (C3A) for organising the annual Active Agers Awards. They will go a long way to recognise and honour senior Singaporeans who continue to lead passionate and purposeful lives regardless of age.

13.   I wish you all a pleasant evening. Thank you.

¹Statistics obtained from the “Report on the Ageing Population” compiled by the Committee on Ageing Issues.

²Prelim figure released by DOS (http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/keyind.html)

³This is the ad hoc survey on Employment of Older Workers conducted by MOM which covered about 2,900 establishments.