It looks like a worker 62 this year who can't wait for retirement has to wait - and work - 6 more years before he can officially retire and enjoy CPF pensions.
Minister in the Primer Minister's Office Mr Lim Boon Heng yesterday released a press statement considering the idea of raising retirement age up to 68 from the current age of 62, "in view of the social benefits of doing so".
Current legislations such as the re-employment policy which will only be released in January 2012 have been pinpointed as "too slow", and as such there must be "more (examination on) how (the government) can further raise the retirement age" .
This idea was precipitated by the Finland system where retirement age is 68, but life expectancy is lower than an average Singapore senior citizen. Mr Lim Boon Heng quipped that "this gives us am indication about where we should be heading".
While many citizens - especially senior citizens - complained about the adverse social effects it could bring, it is understandable where the government is coming from.
This is a controversial issue because of the fact that there is unhappiness raised amongst the citizens. Comments such as "When are we going to rest?", "It seems that we would work forever", "The government would keep pushing the age up" easily gives us a clear horizon of one social viewpoint amongst the citizen.
And it is true - raising the retirement age is not just a matter of "following Finland's system", but actually a number that the government has been constantly changing for the past decade - from 50 to 68 is indeed a big change that will be especially frustrating for senior citizens stuck in the ever-changing and never-stabilizing system.
The government no doubt gives lame excuses - from telling us that "other countries like U.S., Germany and Britain are also doing it", to assuring us that "people are living longer" and "they wouldn't have enough savings to last for 15 years if they retire when they are just 62 or 65".
Indeed, who can predict fate? With increasing carbon emission and pollution rates, coupled with decreasing food quality, I, for one, would consider myself lucky if I can live until the idealistic age of 80 the government estimated. Although it is true that global life expectancy has increased with better healthcare and technology, who can really know if he or she would not die tomorrow? Furthermore, why would one like to work for close to 70 years, only having about 10 years to enjoy the fruit of his labour?
Being stuck in this valid social viewpoint, the government still nonetheless plays the bad guy because they are really left with no choice. Singapore, just like any other developed country (e.g. Britain and Japan) is slowly facing the problem of population aging, one of the most pertinent but inevitable global problems today. With supposedly better healthcare, people are living longer on the average. This, coupled with the fact that there is decreasing birth rates, make it such that if the old does not work, there would be an inbalance of workforce : non-working population ratio which will lead to an unhealthy society. In layman terms, in the future there would be inevitably too small a working group to support too large a group of non-working population.
And really, this problem only has two solutions: one to make the old work, and the other to attract foreign talent to supplement our current workforce, and at the same time raise our brithrates. The latter sounds attractive?
However, the government, when implementing this solution, had been (if you can recall) faced with strong resistance and complaints from citizen with arguments such as "too many will cause loss in national identity!", "They are taking away our job positions!". And when these immature comments get ignored when the government really has no choice left but to attract foreign talent, another set of complaints about the "lack of democracy", and "citizen rights" attack the government.
These arguments may seem logical, but if we consider the bigger picture from the government's point of view, then, really what can they do to solve the population problem?
As such, let us accept the increase in retirement age as the only way out to measure to balance the workforce : non-workforce.
And let us be generally more understanding and empathizing to the government.
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