Taking Care of Older Singaporeans and Mature Workers
When Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong announced their desire to quit Cabinet on 14 May, one week after the watershed general elections, they issued a 148-word joint statement.
It is a very short statement but the impact and implication to our political scene are tremendous. To the older generation Singaporeans which I am going to elaborate later, the most touching para in their statement is this:
"But the younger team must always have in mind the interests of the older generation. This generation who has contributed to Singapore must be well-looked after."
In short, the two former Prime Ministers are reminding the Government formed with the younger team of ministers that they must not forget the older generation and must look after them well.
The older generation of Singaporeans the two Ex-PMs referred to are now 60 and above. They were 14 years or older when Singapore became independent in 1965.
According to the Census of Population 2010, in 2010, there were 508,850 Singapore citizens aged 60 years and over. This is 16% out of total Singapore citizens of 3,230,700.
These are the people who went through the thick and thin and survive the many crisis and hardship. They are now reaching retirement or have retired.
3 categories of older Singaporeans:
1) Living old comfortably
Not just active ageing but also giving peace of mind on bread and butter issues
2) Living longer work longer mature workers
A decent job with decent pay. Currently:
3) The lower income
Not just through government policies but also real initiatives to uplift - like finding jobs, better use of Comcare and cheaper medical through free clinics
The common concern among the aged is the high medical cost as uttered by many MPs in this House.
While there are various schemes, be it Comcare or other welfare schemes to help the poor and the needy, I propose that MCYS review all these schemes and come out a simple medical scheme to cover all aged to address their concern and not use the word affordable. As many told me, many ministries stress that the fee is affordable. When many affordables add up, it becomes unaffordable.
