Retirement

Ageing well in a super-aged society

With increasing life expectancy, Singapore is expected to reach super-aged status by 2026, where over one in five Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above. This proportion is expected to rise to nearly one in four by 2030.

During the Forward Singapore engagements, many Singaporeans expressed concern about supporting themselves and their elderly family members. At the same time, our silver workforce presents new opportunities for seniors who are in good health and want to continue working.

Read more: Health and Wellness | Spirit of Forward Singapore

Building a vibrant and productive silver workforce

The employment rate of seniors generally increased in recent years, bolstered by efforts to increase employability and employment opportunities for them.

From July 2022, the retirement and re-employment ages were raised to 63 and 68 respectively, providing the avenue for seniors to continue working if they wish to.

• In 2023, over nine in 10 eligible senior workers were offered re-employment.

• In 2023, 400,000 senior workers were supported by the Senior Employment Credit, which provided wage offsets to 90,000 employers to help them adjust to higher retirement and re-employment ages.

• As at December 2022, more than 5,000 companies have committed to increasing their company-specific retirement and re-employment ages above the minimum statutory requirements under the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant [PDF, 240 KB]. This will enable more than 35,000 senior workers to work longer if they are able and wish to.

• As at September 2024, under the Part-Time Re-employment Grant, more than 5,000 employers employing 40,000 seniors have committed to providing part-time re-employment opportunities.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices prohibits workplace discrimination based on age. To further address age discrimination and challenges that may arise at work:

• We encourage employers to adopt the Tripartite Standard on Age-Friendly Workplace Practices. As at August 2024, more than 11,321 companies had adopted the Tripartite Standard, up from 7,000 in September 2022.

• We will strengthen protection of employees and send a strong signal that there is no place for workplace discrimination in Singapore through the upcoming Workplace Fairness Legislation.

Read more: Education | Quality Jobs | Economy and Labour Market

Strengthening retirement adequacy

With rising labour force participation and income [PDF, 8.4 MB], Singaporeans have been able to earn and save more. Through the Central Provident Fund (CPF) system, we continue to support Singaporeans in saving for their needs, including for retirement. In 2023, about seven in 10 active CPF members turning 55 were able to meet their Basic Retirement Sum. This helps to ensure that they will have a baseline level of financial security during their retirement to cover basic living costs.

To improve financial literacy and encourage good financial behaviours across the population, we have in place a series of MoneySense initiatives. Based on the MoneySense National Financial Capability Survey 2023, Singaporeans generally have a good level of financial literacy. We have seen encouraging trends among Singaporeans in strengthening their retirement adequacy:

• In 2023, 317,000 Singaporeans (up from 308,000 in 2022) made voluntary top-ups to their own or their loved ones’ CPF retirement savings amounting to $4.2 billion.

• In 2023, 110,000 eligible CPF members received dollar-for-dollar matching grants from the Government for their CPF cash top-ups totalling $65 million under the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme. Nine in 10 received the maximum matching grant of $600, boosting their monthly payouts in retirement.

To enable seniors to improve their financial security:

• We are progressively increasing the CPF contribution rates for seniors aged above 55 to 70, in line with recommendations from the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers in 2019. The increase has been implemented in stages annually since 2022 with full implementation by around 2030.

• We introduced the Majulah Package in 2024 which provides CPF bonuses to our seniors born in 1973 or earlier.

For vulnerable groups who need more help for their retirement:

• We enhanced the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme in 2023 to support lower-income workers, including seniors, in building up their CPF savings. This included expanding the eligibility criteria of WIS and providing higher payouts. In 2023, 388,000 lower-income employees were supported under WIS, with disbursements amounting to around $914 million.

• We continued to support seniors who had lower incomes during their working years and have little or no family support through the Silver Support Scheme. In 2023, 260,000 seniors benefitted from payouts amounting to around $595 million.

Collectively, these moves provided greater assurance of meeting basic retirement needs for seniors.

Read more: Quality Jobs | Social Safety Nets

Supporting seniors in ageing well

Our seniors will continue to be supported in ageing actively and independently in the community through Age Well SG, introduced in November 2023.

Encouraging active ageing

As at October 2024, 214 Active Ageing Centres (AACs) have been launched islandwide to support seniors in ageing actively and healthily within the community, with a wide range of programmes and activities to cater to their interests and needs. With continued expansion, eight in 10 seniors will have access to an AAC near their home, to participate in programmes such as group exercises, recreational activities, community events, and workshops to help seniors achieve overall wellness.

Social isolation among seniors remains a concern. In 2023, there were about 76,000 citizens aged 65 and above who lived alone. This number is projected to increase to about 122,000 by 2030.

To encourage seniors to stay active through volunteerism, the Silver Guardian programme [PDF, 276 KB] enables seniors to volunteer at AACs, where they can befriend other seniors at risk of social isolation. We are on track to recruit, train, and place at least 2,400 volunteers at AACs by 2028, with over 800 volunteers recruited and deployed as at October 2024.

To promote social connectedness, seniors are empowered to access essential services and communicate with loved ones digitally. As at August 2024:

• Under the Seniors Go Digital programme, more than 340,000 seniors were trained in basic digital skills, such as how to use smartphones to communicate and transact online.

• Under the Mobile Access for Seniors scheme, more than 13,000 lower-income seniors have benefitted from subsidised smartphones and mobile plans.

Strengthening support for seniors with care needs

Some seniors may be concerned about being adequately cared for in their homes and community. We have strengthened support and developed more options for frailer seniors to receive timely and appropriate care.

• Since February 2021, seniors have been able to access more housing-plus-care options through Community Care Apartments (CCA), which pair senior-friendly housing with on-site social activities and care services that can be customised to individual needs. As at October 2024, four CCA projects had been launched in Bukit Batok, Queenstown, Bedok, and Geylang (MacPherson). Residents of the first CCA project in Bukit Batok will be able to move in by end-2024.

• In 2023, we rolled out the enhanced Home Personal Care (HPC+) pilot, so that seniors living in the community can receive tailored and immediate response services when in need. This included a 24/7 technology-enabled monitoring and response feature to detect falls and incidents. As at July 2024, over 400 seniors have benefitted from this pilot. HPC+ will be rolled out islandwide by end-2025 to benefit more seniors.
  

Read more: Health and Wellness | Housing and Amenities | Spirit of Forward Singapore

Making our physical living environment senior-friendly

We continued to make homes and our neighbourhoods safer for seniors.

• Since 1 April 2024, seniors have been able to opt for a wider range of fittings under the Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) 2.0 programme, such as lowered bathroom entrance kerbs and foldable shower seats. As at June 2024, more than 293,000 households had senior-friendly fittings installed in their flats through the EASE programme, up from about 283,900 in April 2023.

• We incorporated more senior-friendly enhancements as part of our upgrading programmes in public and private residential estates. For example, under the Silver Upgrading Programme, seniors can look forward to new active ageing amenities like therapeutic gardens, more rest points along linkways and dementia-friendly features to improve wayfinding. This was launched in four HDB precincts within Ang Mo Kio, and will be expanded to 22 other precincts in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Queenstown, and Toa Payoh over the next five years.

Read more: Housing and Amenities

Embracing longevity as an asset

Seniors are an asset to society and the workforce given their deep experience. As a society, we must continue to reshape attitudes about ageing. Together with tripartite partners and Singaporeans, we will continue to support seniors in ageing well and engaging meaningfully in society.

🡸 Previous Chapter: Health and Wellness | Next Chapter: Social Safety Nets 🡺