31st December 2012
Cash poor, CPF rich?
Why is it that at the end of the day, practically every scheme that
has been introduced to help lower-income Singaporeans retire, makes them
more cash poor, but “CPF rich”?
Refer to the article “Silver Housing Bonus and Lease Buyback schemes enhanced” (Channel NewsAsia, Dec 28).
Use your cash to top-up CPF to get cash bonus?
It states that “Two schemes aimed at enabling senior citizens to
monetise their flats have been made more attractive following public
feedback.
The Silver Housing Bonus, which provides an incentive for
lower-income households to move to a smaller flat, will have a lower
top-up requirement of S$60,000 per household. When first announced in
February this year, the requirement was for all net sale proceeds to be
used to top up the CPF Retirement Accounts to the prevailing minimum
sum. The S$20,000 bonus seniors get for topping up their Central
Provident Fund Retirement Accounts by S$60,000 will be paid in cash;
previously S$15,000 was in cash while S$5,000 went to top up the CPF
account.
Those whose CPF top-ups from downsizing their homes are less than
S$60,000 will receive less cash bonus – S$1 for every S$3 topped up.”
Although there are four examples on how the Silver Housing Bonus (SHB) works in the Ministry of National Development’s press release,
let me just for the sake of simplifying matters, use one of the four
examples to show the possible implications for lower-income elderly
Singaporeans who are being encouraged to opt for this scheme . . . . .
Continue reading this interesting analysis by Leong Sze Hian here
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