Veteran opposition politician: CPF should only be used to finance retirement and at most healthcare expenditure

In an exclusive with TISG, secretary-general of the People’s Power Party Goh Meng Seng says CPF should only be used to finance retirement and at most healthcare expenditure.

He made these remarks when asked for his thoughts on the Central Provident Fund (CPF) withdrawals and the current age limit for withdrawing of savings.

He adds, “The compulsory portion of savings for both retirement and healthcare financing should only be capped at 20% of working salary”.

Read related: Daughter’s education left hanging after CPF Board allegedly disallows father to withdraw and pay for fees 

Mr Goh says any excess of the compulsory contribution should be voluntary and people should be able to use this money for other things including housing or even education.

“Basically, the excess of 17% should be viewed as a voluntary contribution which Singaporeans could take out any time for any expenditure”.

Mr Goh’s comments come after a 60-year-old father’s attempt to use S$15,000 of the S$70,000 in his CPF for his daughter’s education.

However, the CPF Board did not allow him to make such a withdrawal saying, “As Mr Lim did not have sufficient CPF savings for a basic retirement, allowing him to use his CPF for his daughter’s education is not appropriate”.

In their statement, the CPF Board also says, “The better approach is to find other ways to finance his daughter’s school fees”.

When asked about the age cap for the withdrawal of the full amount from the CPF, Mr Goh says, “Singaporeans should decide the draw out age for CPF or CPF life with the minimum draw out age set at 60”.

In talking about the father whose application to make a withdrawal from his CPF for his daughter’s education being rejected, Mr Goh said, “he should make better consideration on his retirement financial needs”.

“He might have $70k in CPF now but that may not be enough for his future retirement. He should take this opportunity to give due consideration on his retirement adequacy”.

Mr Goh also says the incumbents have “done a bad job in telling Singaporeans that they can use their CPF money for housing and education without giving due consideration on the retirement financial needs for Singaporeans at large.

This results in giving excess liquidity to the property market, particularly HDB which jacks up the prices. This will hurt future generations while putting future retirement plans for Singaporeans in jeopardy”. /TISG

Read related: CPF responds, says father with insufficient cash for daughter’s education cannot make a withdrawal