Can people afford to retire?

This article explains the need for governments in the West to raise the retirement age, where the state pensions scheme is funded on a "pay as you go" method which requires young workers to contribute towards the pensions of the retirees.

The Singapore government does not face this problem because it operates a provident fund scheme, where each contributor takes back his or her personal savings in the fund. However, the retirees in Singapore face the same problem of rising life expectancy and high cost of living - there is inadequate savings in the fund for their retirement. So, people in Singapore will have to continue working longer anyway as they cannot afford to retire.

But the elderly in Singapore face another big challenge - the elderly find it difficult to get jobs that pay a decent wage. They have to accept extremely low wage and even so, it is difficult to find these jobs. These challenge has to be addressed by the government, not just in words, but in concrete actions.

Tan Kin Lian