A 54-year-old veteran named Khris Ang recently took his Facebook page to vent his dissatisfaction over Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board after it had been changing the retirement payout age multiple times over the years.
In his post, the former senior engineer said that when he started working, he had no option but to put in his monthly contribution into his CPF account. However, he mentioned that it’s a bad habit that CPF Board has acquired as it keep deferring the payouts.
He revealed that when he first started working, the deal was everyone can get a complete withdrawal when they reach the age of 55. This according to Ang is “an absolute peach sweet and juicy” deal for CPF Board.
“Even the worst local bank would offer me more than 2.5% for a crappy structural deposit on a 10 year term, capital guaranteed. If I use them, I would be able to do an early withdrawal of my funds before maturity, albeit with a penalty charge. You could certainly do better than 2.5% for a complete lock in for no withdrawal option for 3 decades,” he wrote.
He went on further to express his disappointment when CPF Board thought it had the right to dictate his retirement age and how he should live his life.
“We agreed on a complete withdrawal at 55 years old at the beginning of our contract. You revised it, because you told me you cared for me. So you suggested 60, then 63 and you urged me to stretch my non-withdrawal to 65 years old, by giving me a bonus of $1,200 for a 2 year extension. That would amount to a total of more than 40 years of keeping my money with you. Oh, is that how things work around here? I would have offered you $12,000, to withdraw my money 20 years earlier. I would if I could, if you HAVE THE MONEY to return me in the first place,” he vented.
“And eventually, it became 65 unknowingly, now again, you cunningly postponed it to 70 and do whatever mean to stretch it to 93,” he added.
Recently, there were rumour circulating that the Government had quietly shifted the CPF Retirement Payout age from 65 to 70. However, this has been said to be false and the payout eligibility age for the Retirement Sum Scheme is indeed 65 for those born from 1965, and this had not changed since it was announced in 2007. However, the default age if one does not submit one’s application for withdrawal, has become 70 years old since Jan 2018.
Feeling extremely unhappy, Ang asked, “Over the last 20 years, you have dropped too many hints to suggest things are not the way you thought to be, so when can get it right then?”
He ended his post by saying that if things continue to change constantly like now, he can’t imagine what the changes will be like a decade from now, when he reaches 64 years old.
Upon reading his post, netizens also agree that CPF Board is not doing the right thing by deferring the payout constantly.
