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Manpower Minister defends CPF system

In an attempt to alleviate widespread concerns about the local Central Provident Fund (CPF) system, Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister Manpower, Singapore, issued a blog post on Sunday, days after allegations that the government is misusing CPF money.

The post, titled “The Truth About Our CPF and the Minimum Sum”, began with Chuan-Jin voicing out popular issues against the CPF system, which included several contentions such as “CPF is my money. Why can’t I use it as I please?” and “the CPF is a scam. It is how the government cheats you of your money.”

Chuan-Jin said it is imperative that the local public understand more about the CPF system before engaging in such talks and conversations.

“In many dialogues and conversations, I have asked if people actually read about what CPF is really about. Most admit that they don’t,” he wrote.

Chuan-Jin then expanded into addressing several specific elements of the CPF systems, dividing his post into three reasons why he felt the CPF system “is a good system and a fair one”.

These reasons included, “CPF helps us retire”, “CPF is your money. You are already using it! Everyone has received their CPF monies plus top-ups and interest”, and “the minimum sum is increasing because we are living longer so we need to spread out our payouts.”

The second part of the blog post was devoted exclusively to addressing misconceptions about the minimum sum which included the need to top up a potential shortfall in the minimum sum at age 55 and maintaining all of the minimum sum in cash.

He concluded the blog post by saying how the CPF system is a “more sustainable system than most other retirement schemes” and alleviated concerns about the safety of the public’s CPF funds.

“We will continually strengthen our CPF system to improve the assurance we can provide our seniors for their retirement, healthcare and housing needs,” he wrote.

Read the full blog post here.

Image: Shutterstock

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