Tag Archives: Straits Times 31 May 2014

In 2003, the minimum sum was increased from $80,000 then, to $120,000 in 2003 dollars. This was intended to enable CPF monthly payouts in retirement to be increased to improve retirement adequacy. The target of $120,000 (in 2003 dollars) was to be reached over a period of 10 years so as to give each successive cohort time to adjust. Adjustments to the minimum sum were based on two components - the scheduled $4,000 stepped increase in real terms, and the headline Consumer Price Index that is used to account for inflation.

At 65, Madam Tan still works to boost her Central Provident Fund (CPF) payouts. But the part-time bus attendant is happier spending time with her grandchildren. Admin clerk Celestine Chong, 53, has been working since she was 16 but worries she will not have enough to meet her CPF Minimum Sum requirement in two years' time. Madam Margaret Chng, 66, is not on the CPF Life scheme and withdrew her CPF savings at 55. Now the money has run out and she relies on her family. These MacPherson residents are some of the many faces of the CPF system now under the spotlight.

NO CENTRAL Provident Fund (CPF) monies go towards Government spending as this is prohibited by law, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said last night. In a response to queries by The Straits Times, it also reiterated that there is no link between CPF interest rates and GIC returns, even though the latter manages the Government's assets. MOF was clarifying what the Government does with the money that goes into the CPF and how it determines CPF interest rates, topics hotly debated following online speculation that CPF cash is invested by Temasek Holdings and GIC, and comparisons between their returns and CPF returns.