Model ID: f7c9e525-f884-40c9-bbea-90d2714c843b
Sitecore Context Id: f7c9e525-f884-40c9-bbea-90d2714c843b;
by George Soriano
To help workers save more for retirement and meet healthcare expenditures, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Secretary-General Lim Swee Say called on behalf of the Labour Movement for
Central Provident Fund (CPF) rates to be enhanced on 10 February 2014.
In a media briefing held on 12 February 2014, hosted by NTUC President Diana Chia and NTUC Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) Heng Chee How, the Labour Movement urged the Government to look into increasing employer contribution to workers’ Medisave Account; strengthening Special Account savings for older workers who are aged 55 and above, and working towards alignment in the total CPF contribution rates of those who are in the age group of >50 to 55 years old, with those who are aged 50 and below.
In 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam made a public commitment to equalise the CPF contribution rates for workers who are aged above 50 to 55, with younger workers over the long term.
A 2.5 percentage point enhancement took effect that year, but “there is a gap of 3.5 percentage points between this group of above 50 to 55 years old, with those below 50 years old; and we hope that in the Budget this year, the Government can consider on a total contribution basis an improvement that is perhaps half of the gap,” DSG Heng said.
The Labour Movement also calls for fairness in CPF contribution practices by ensuring that employer CPF contribution increase is more than employee contribution, in the event that enhancements are made to the total CPF contribution.
Further, the LM also urged the Government to ensure that any prospective increase in employees’ CPF contributions is channelled to their Ordinary Accounts. This is so that workers can use the money in their CPF Ordinary Accounts and their private savings to service housing mortgages and help fund their children’s tertiary education.
