NTUC's Heng Chee How calls for raising of retirement and re-employment ages to proceed as planned

Raising the Statutory Retirement and Re-employment Ages, as well as help for employers on the enhanced CPF contributions, were among the points raised by NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How, in his latest blog post. 

In the post on Friday, he called for the planned raising of the Statutory Retirement and Re-employment Ages come July 2022, as well as with the agreed deferred improvements to the CPF contributions due in January 2022, to proceed without further delay. 

Heng also urged the Government to help employers defray part of the cost of their enhanced CPF contributions, as was the plan prior to the deferment.

He noted that while COVID-19 has disrupted the economy, forcing the planned CPF enhancements to be deferred by a year - to 1 January 2022 - the Government should be careful to keep pace with its original intent and purpose of helping older workers enhance their retirement adequacy, given the longer lifespans.

Back in 2018, the Labour Movement called for tripartite discussions on raising the retirement and re-employment ages.

In response, the Government set up the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers, who reached consensus to raise the Statutory Retirement Age from 62 to 65, and the re-employment age ceiling from 67 to 70 progressively over the coming decade, starting with a new retirement age of 63 and a new re-employment age of 68 from July 2022.

To help workers enhance their retirement adequacy, it also called for sustainable increases in CPF contributions for older workers over the years.

Many companies and organisations have already started raising their organisational retirement age and re-employment age ceiling.

For instance, NTUC as an employer has raised the organisational retirement age and re-employment age ceiling from 1 January 2021. NTUC’s social enterprises will also do so from 1 July 2021. The Public Service Division also said in 2019 that it will raise the retirement and re-employment ages of its officers by one year to 63 and 68 respectively in July 2021.

Additionally, in the unionised sector, about 100 employers have raised either the retirement age or re-employment age, or both - double the number in 2019.

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