One netizen took to social media commenting that they thought CPF life was a good scheme, except that it had one flaw: the payment is fixed by default despite inflation.
The netizen, who goes by the name of Wong Boon Hong on social media, wrote: “This means for those who live longer, they will start to notice that their allowance is shrinking every year due to inflation”.
“Even for those on the more realistic escalating plan of 2% per annual, it may not catch up when inflation is high”, Mr Wong added. He also said that the escalating plan puts those unable to live past 90 at a disadvantage, as their starting allowance is much lower than the fixed allowance. The allowance for those on the escalating plan only increases after they turn 85.
Mr Wong opined that “The root cause of our asset rich but cash poor situation is mainly due to our flawed unsustainable housing policies, where our retirement funds are compromised for our housing need, that has been turned upside down as an investment instead”. He shared that he thought high inflation did not impact young workers as much as older ones, as wages will catch up to them, and they would still have many years to save up.
He added: “But for the seniors, they no longer have sufficient years to catch up, while they see their years of saving and retirement fund shrinking every year.
Worse for those who have retired and no longer have any income to catch up”.
Along with his comments, Mr Wong shared an image of the following Straits Times article: ‘Rising food, energy prices drive S’pore core inflation to 13-year high’.
