NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say clarifies a Channel NewsAsia
report which quoted him on Sunday (June 22).
SINGAPORE: The Secretary-General of the National Trades Union
Congress (NTUC), Mr Lim Swee Say, has clarified a Channel NewsAsia
report which quoted him on Sunday (June 22).
He has penned the following letter in response:
I refer to the article, "Prepare for retirement 'by using less
CPF money when young'" (23 June).
The article para-phrased my comments and wrote, "The best way
for Singaporeans to prepare for retirement is to use less of their
Central Provident Fund (CPF) money when they are young." It gave
the impression that I have urged Singaporeans not to use their CPF
monies before retirement for any purpose including housing,
healthcare and education for our children.
This is incorrect.
For the record, I made three points about CPF:
Firstly, CPF is your money. Nobody can take away that money from
you.
Secondly, your money with CPF is 100% safe and continues to earn
risk free interest, even during challenging times like the global
financial crisis in 2009.
As the third point was reported out of context, I reproduce the
relevant text of my interview here:
"Thirdly, the money is mainly for your retirement purpose.
Besides housing, healthcare and education for your children, a very
important part of CPF is to cater for retirement. So, for every
dollar, if you can defer the use of the dollar, it is better to
defer the use of the dollar when you are still young. For example,
instead of thinking of whether you can spend your CPF savings at
the age of 55, I think we should think about how we should help our
Singaporeans remain employed, to continue to earn a good living, a
good job and at the same time, to continue to contribute to the
CPF. Because the more money you have in your CPF and the longer you
defer the use of the CPF, the more you will have for retirement, as
all of us are living longer and longer. So, these are the three
basic points: firstly, the CPF is your money, no one can take away
from you. Secondly, your money is 100% safe. Thirdly, the less you
make use of your money when you are young, the more money you will
have for retirement."
It is clear in this context that 'young' refers to those who are
aged 55 and "less use" of the CPF money refers to the CPF cash
withdrawal for purposes other than housing, healthcare and
education for the children.
Lim Swee Say
Secretary-General
National Trades Union Congress
- CNA/ly
