CENTRAL PROVIDENT FUND (Profile of ineligible members for top-up)

Mr S. Iswaran asked the Minister for Manpower what is the profile of Central Provident Fund (CPF) members who were ineligible for the recent top-up in CPF accounts from the Government and whether the grace period for eligibility can be extended, particularly for the elderly.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Lee Boon Yang): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Central Provident Fund Top-Up Scheme was announced by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong during his National Day Rally Speech on 20th August 2000. The top-up was given in appreciation of Singaporeans who have accepted the CPF cut to help Singapore overcome the challenges of the economic crisis. Singaporeans aged 21 years and above who have contributed at least a total of $100 to any of their CPF accounts between 1st January 1998 and 31st December 2000 are eligible for the top-up. Those who did not already meet this $100 minimum contribution requirement at the time of announcement had about 4 months to make voluntary contribution to qualify for the top-up. Of the 2.13 million Singaporeans eligible, 1.94 million (or 91%) qualified for the top-up.

Of the 200,000 (9%) Singaporeans who did not qualify for the top-up, 69% are aged below 55, 8% are between the ages of 55 and 65, and 23% are aged 65 and above. 33% of them stay in 1- to 3-room HDB flats, in homes or are on public assistance, 27% in 4-room HDB flats and 40% in 5-room HDB flats or private housing. 55% are females. The CPF Board will conduct a sample survey to find out why these citizens did not participate in the scheme.

The CPF Top-up Scheme has already taken into account the CPF contributions made over a generous 3-year period and 4 months was given for those who needed to make voluntary contributions to qualify to do so. There was thus sufficient time for Singaporeans to qualify for the CPF top-up. Nevertheless, the Government is prepared to consider allowing those who missed out on the first payment, a second chance to qualify for the full payment of the CPF top-up, nearer the date of the second payment.

Mr S. Iswaran (West Coast): Sir, I welcome the gesture from the Government. May I just ask whether there would be any specific message targeted at particularly the 1- to 3-room HDB flat residents who may perhaps have not met the criteria out of ignorance or lack of capacity?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, the CPF Board had actually conducted publicity targeted at encouraging all those who are eligible to participate in the scheme. In fact, since the scheme was announced, more than 600,000 direct mail packages were sent to those who had Singapore addresses to encourage them to make the co-contribution to qualify for the top-up. We have also put up advertisements in the newspapers in the four languages, radio trailers on the various radio channels, including those in Malay, Tamil, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew, to target at the older citizens to encourage them to come forward to participate. Of course, the CPF Newsline, a publication in the main newspapers, which informs CPF members of various changes, regularly carried details of the top-up scheme and encouraged them to come forward to participate.

There had also been a lot of other press publicity, including human interest stories about how senior citizens came forward to participate with the help of family members. If the senior citizen does not have the $100 to make the co-payment, then the children should come forward to help him. The children should be the ones to volunteer to contribute this $100 on behalf of their aged parents so that they would qualify for the top-up from the Government.

As I said earlier in my main answer, the CPF Board will conduct a study to find out why this group of 200,000-odd Singaporeans, despite all this publicity and encouragement, had not come forward to participate. With that information in hand, I think we will be in a better position to focus further publicity on this group to ensure that more of them will come forward in the next round.