Thursday, March 26, 2009

ST Online: Don't break CPF piggy bank, but...

Editor
Straits Times

I REFER to the Ministry of Manpower's response last Saturday to readers' calls for earlier Central Provident Fund (CPF) withdrawal.

The response that it is not a good idea as breaking the piggy bank would lead to temptation to draw more and more from the CPF does not address the main point raised by readers.

What they ask for is not to break the piggy bank. But for members who already have funds above the Minimum Sum, why can't the CPF Board release the excess funds to those who are now struggling to live?

Why hold on to excess funds and make them wait till they reach 55, when they and their families are struggling now?

With the pain and stress these individuals and their families are going through, will they even make it to 80?

Tun Ah Heng

2 comments:

David said...

Actually if they allow for those with excess above minimum sum to draw some, these may open the floodgates! The CPF may not even have much left to be locked up!

Why? Although those with excess above minimum sum may be the minority in terms of number of people, the sums that they may withdraw can still add up to be very substantial.

Remember the 20-80 rule? 20 % of the people have 80 % of the wealth!
These may also apply to the CPF funds!

Civic Advocator said...

We have a rough proposal on how CPF, ie social security should be operated for the interests of the people, and not for the interests of the administrator (ie government).

Read here

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