Multi-purpose CPF system is broken, needs urgent fixing

Our CPF is basically our retirement savings. Without transparency, it can only be assumed there is a huge shortfall and the government has desperately attempted to plug this by tweaking CPF policy to prevent members’ withdrawal. The CPF system is already broken and in need of an immediate fix.

Stop and think for once:
– Why are our retirement savings being used for housing?
– Why are our retirement savings being used for healthcare?

As to be expected, the CPF system has not been able to meet its intended objective to provide for our retirement.

Fact: CPF system has been tweaked to mask our high cost of living.

Take for example housing where every new homeowner requires the maximum use of CPF retirement savings for mortgage installments. What this means is we are using our savings to pay for present consumption ie housing. The government argues that in the long run, real estate prices can only increase. The government wants us to believe we can have our cake and eat it ie. use for housing (consumption) and investment simultaneously. Are all other governments in the world stupid?

The government must move away from allowing maximum CPF use for housing installments because this artificially inflates property prices by channeling billions of CPF savings into the real estate market. This has proven to be detrimental to ordinary Singaporeans who only have one roof over our head. It only benefits the wealthy who have multiple properties.

The government has tried to fix the broken CPF system by ‘helping’ HDB citizens to downgrade with all sorts of schemes. But why should anyone need to downgrade, be forced to move away from friends and neighbours, after working a lifetime? .

The fundamental problem lies with our broken CPF system, NOT citizens. Why does the PAP make CPF members pay the price of its failure?

The CPF Minimum Sum for Medisave will be $43,500 in July. If we include government subsidies, the minimum sum required for healthcare is actually much higher. Why is the government using our CPF to address the issue of high healthcare costs? Why are CPF members again made to pay for the PAP’s failure to address high healthcare costs in Singapore?

At only a fraction of our healthcare costs, Malaysia’s confirm Singaporeans have been overcharged for decades.

Across the causeway, the daily ward charges are RM $160 for a 1 bedded and RM$80 for a 4 bedded for non-citizens. For locals, the cost is half. How can a foreign country be charging Singaporeans a fraction of what our Singapore government charges us? The PAP has abdicated its responsibility by putting a high price tag to a necessity such as healthcare.? For a supposedly first world country, it has made itself a laughing stock and a national disgrace.

Housing and healthcare needs urgent fixing so that it will not ‘consume’ so much of our CPF. But we don’t seem to have any politicians intelligent to even understand such issues exist. All of them seemed lost and could only think of tweaks when a revamp is sorely needed.

CPF Board’s vision is to have “A world-class social security organisation enabling Singaporeans to have a secure retirement”. Our multi-purpose CPF system is broken and will never be able to achieve this vision; it needs to be fixed. Now.