CENTRAL PROVIDENT FUND ACT (Amendment to disburse portion of money to spouse as part of divorce settlement)

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Labour if he will consider introducing legislation to amend the Central Provident Fund Act so that it is in line with the recent Appeal Court's ruling that a portion of a person's CPF money can be ordered to be held for disbursement to the other spouse as part of a divorce settlement.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, the Appeal Court's Judgement was made in connection with the appeal by CPF Board on a divorce petition. The Appeal Court ruled that the CPF Act does not prevent a spouse, upon dissolution of marriage, to have a proprietary interest in such portion of the other spouse's CPF savings as the Court may order. It also ruled that the proprietary interest does not constitute a form of attachment, sequestration or levy on the CPF savings prohibited by section 25 of the CPF Act.

The Appeal Court also affirmed that it can partition a portion of the CPF savings of a member and order a charge on that portion for the purpose of payment to the ex-spouse when the CPF member reaches the CPF withdrawal age.

In addition, the Court of Appeal ruled that the current CPF Act does not prevent the ex-spouse from receiving that part of the CPF member's savings when the latter reaches the withdrawal age.

Sir, the Court of Appeal's ruling takes effect automatically without any need to amend the CPF Act. However, the Government needs to amend the Act if it wants to protect CPF savings from being used for divorce settlement even when the Court decides that one spouse has proprietary interest in the other spouse's CPF savings. This is a question of policy rather than legal interpretation. My Ministry is presently studying the implications of the Court of Appeal's Judgement before deciding whether to do so.