PM NATIONAL DAY RALLY 2007

Working Longer – more savings for old age

PM LEE quotes,"the best way to be alright in old age and to have enough savings is to stay employed and to work longer because with longer life spans, you cannot retire at 55 and live until 80 or 85 or 90." As Singaporeans are living longer and better due to the prospering and blossoming economy. Life expectancy of the average Singaporean has gone up. I think PM Lee is right in encouraging old people to go back to the workforce to work because the ratio of young abled working population to non-income elderly is off the balance.

Although it may seem cruel to the elderly but it is the only way to survive in this society. They may find themselves incapable of doing a lot of works due to their poor health because of old age, but the government has come up with various counters to resolve the problems that may arise through the rise of retirement age.

EDUCATION
Changing the mindset of employers and employees.

By making both employers and employees understand the benefit of hiring old people and going back to the workforce, it can resolve a lot of misconceptions that both the employers and employees faced. Old people are hired back to be a form of mentor so that they can pass down their skills and experience to the younger ones. They may have to settle for lower pay and lower position, but this is for the vibrancy and progress for the society. If the old people remain at the senior positions, the younger ones could not rise up. It will not be beneficial for the progress of the society. Although they may have taken a backseat in their jobs, but their valuable experiences would bring a lot of great insights to our younger generation.

Legislation and incentives-
-To send a clear signal to employers and to the public and to the workers
-To encourage older people to work and to encourage employers to hire older people

PM Lee do not want to just pass a law to rise the retirement age, because he knows that it may not solve the problem and maybe made it worse. but he wanted to pass a Re-employment Act by 2012. he want to encourage the people to continue working after 62, year to year for as long as you can. Employers do not need to worry about having to stuck with a old employee and the old employee can work on a year to year basis contract. It is a win win situation for the employers and employees.

To buttress the legislation, incentives are also offered to both the employers and employees. this would thus increase the re-employment rate by a measurable amount. Work fare would be paid to employees to make them come back into the workforce. Maybe some of it would go into CPF, but the remainder would cause an insurmountable of increase in the hand held income. this would benefit the old citizens and also encourage them to be re-employed again. With legislation and incentive together, old people would be so encourage to come out of their comfort zone to work again and will do to the best that they can.

DONE BY ZHENG YONG LE