Dear TRS,
I feel that a lot of people are unhappy about the current CPF system and I wanted to make some suggestions on how the government could improve it slightly to help more Singaporeans.
Honestly speaking, I think that most people don't actually care where our CPF is invested. Why do I say this? Because this is what happens when you put your money into a bank or any other savings accounts with interest. The banks invest the money in lots of places that you will never really know about and they give you interest for it.
As long as the government ensures that the interest and the money in our CPF is GUARANTEED and it won't go down if they make bad investments, i think it's ok.
However, the reason why people are annoyed and protesting is because with the CPF system, we have no choice but to leave our money in there and we can practically never use it even if it's an emergency.
40% of Singaporeans earn below $2.5k and we are forced to pay 20% of that into our CPF account. The 20% we put in plus the 16% of employers is then divided into 3 portions. The Ordinary, Special and Medisave accounts.
But, what is the point of splitting it up into a medisave account if we can't even use the money there for medical bills? When I'm admitted into hospital, I can only use medisave on part of the bill. The rest i need to pay cash or credit. Doesn't that seem to defeat the whole purpose of the medisave account?
The government keeps insisting that the CPF is for our savings, but don't we usually save up for rainy days?
If the money was in an ordinary bank account or even a fixed deposit for higher interest rates, I would bet that many people would rather take their money out and foreit the interest to withdraw the money if they are faced with a real emergency. With our money in the CPF, there's no such option. We have NO money for emergencies, even if its to save our loved one's lives or to pay our own medical bills.
Medisave can only pay part of the bill and if medisave is empty, we cant even use OA or SA to pay. I thought these were supposed to be OUR Savings!
My suggestion .. Let us have the flexibility to choose how to use our CPF amount. At least .. In terms of critical illness, let us choose if we want to use our cpf (include OA n sa) for shelter or to save our love's life.
Second. . If govt insist on the minimum sum.. pls do allow. . In term of illnesses. . Those old folk are able to use their cpf to pay for whatever the medical bill even aft subsidiaries. . So that this will be fair to everyone. . At least 90% of the singaporean! !
Kelvin
TRS Contributor