TR EMERITUS

Rules are set to protect yourself as well as other people MP Hri Kumar The media reported that at a CPF dialogue session organised by MP Hri Kumar for his residents at Thompson Community Centre yesterday (14 Jun), many people were seeking more transparency on how the CPF Minimum Sum is derived. About 120 people, from the retired to those who have just started work, reportedly turned up for a spirited 3-hour session with Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar. Most of the questions were centred on the Minimum Sum, and the monthly payouts during retirement. Many asked why the Minimum Sum is rising. The Minimum Sum will increase to $155,000 from 1 July 2014. During small group discussions, Ms Lucy Sim, who is in her late 60s, reportedly said that she is currently getting a monthly payout of about $100 from CPF Life. She wanted to know how she could get a higher payout. Another resident, Mr Philip Lim, 64, said the $155,000 figure is a challenging sum to achieve for most people in the low- and middle-income groups. He said, "Inflation is higher now, so a lot of people cannot reach the Minimum Sum. If you give me a goal I can't reach, might as well don't give me a goal." Some wanted to know if they can decide for themselves at what age monthly payouts start, or draw out a larger sum from their CPF savings at the age of 55. Mr Joshua Lim, 41, suggested that CPF members be allowed to pledge their property beyond the current 50% of the Minimum Sum. At the dialogue, a 76-year-old lady even begged MP Hri Kumar to help her get all her CPF money back (‘Old lady begs Hri Kumar to get her CPF money back‘). “What I want is my money back and I want to arrange for my funeral and I want to arrange for my rice and I want to arrange for a nice settlement. Can I have it?” the old lady asked. “That’s all I want. Give me back my money. CPF, give me back my money. And make it as soon as possible. Because 76, I won’t be able to live,” she added. She was observed to be in tears. In response to the many questions and suggestions from the participants, MP Hri Kumar said that meeting the Minimum Sum is not a test to be passed or failed, but rather a need to help set aside an amount to tide a person through retirement. "We're not making people richer or poorer by increasing or lowering the Minimum Sum. It's not a test, it's not a pass or fail exam." He added, "Based on actuarial science, it is determined that if you have $155,000... you will have $1,200 per month for the rest of your life. And that is determined to be what a lower, middle-income person will spend in his lifetime." Mr Philip Lim then responded that complete freedom should be given to Singaporeans to manage their own money. If he spent it all before he died then "God help me" he said, which drew applause from the audience. MP Hri Kumar countered by likening the CPF scheme to driving. "If I'm a safe and responsible driver, the Government shouldn't tell me how fast I can drive. I can take care of myself," he said. "But sometimes, the rules are there not just to protect you but to protect other people as well." Meanwhile, prominent blogger Leong Sze Hian has helped to compile the following very "revealing" timeline of CPF changes, in the last few decades:  Read More →

[Letter sent to Competition Commission Singapore and copied to TRE.] 6 Jun 2014 I refer to the following article: "Cinemas raise prices for weekend screenings". All four cinema chains have raised their ticket prices in unison. Although the cinemas do not have a government agency to look after them, the cinemas behaved as if they were transport companies acting under the Public Transport Council's Fare Review Committee where prices go up together! The cinemas' have colluded together in price fixing which put consumers like us at a disadvantage. What is the point of having more players to compete in the market when all of them can gang up, increase prices and Singaporeans are unable to do anything about it? Let's recap some other instances where organizations acted together but Singaporeans have no choice but to quietly accepted  the changes: Education: "Tuition fee hike at four varsities; polys, ITE to follow". How come one Uni raises fees, the other Unis follow? Even sub-standard tertiaries such as SIM have no choice but to follow the rest. Competition Commission Singapore, are you doing your job? I think you are not. Why are you all wasting taxpayers' monies? Why not you all go sack yourself? Lin Yiping * Submitted by TRE reader.  Read More →

This is the message I got while watching the special programme on Parliament Reopens hosted by Sharon Tong. The panellists included Gerald Giam, Chan Chun Sing, Tan Su Shan and Zulkifli Baharuddin, the latter two, one an NMP and the other ex- NMP, more or less agreed that everything was improving. And at the rate they were improving, things would get better by the next GE. The first thing that was improving according to the panellists was property supply and prices. The supply problem has been taken care of after 77,000 units were offered by HDB in the last 2 or 3 years. So, from under-building to ramping up building more flats, the shortages immediately improved. What a clever piece of decision making. I never thought it could be solved so easily. How come they never think of it in the first place? They must have found a genius to think of such an ingenious solution. Layman or common people would have great difficulties even trying to think about it. And property prices are coming down by 0.6%! Very encouraging indeed. How much have property prices gone up in the last 10 years? 100%, 200% or 300%? Anyone got any idea? I think, without even looking at statistics, just gut feel, the prices of HDB flats bought direct from HDB and now available in the resale market are easily 2 or 3 times the original sales price. At 0.6% change, how many hundred years would be needed for the price to come down by 50% or 30%? What else is improving? I saw a figure on the issue of Employment Pass. It went down from 80,000 to 40,000 last year. And employment of locals gone up from 40,000 to 80,000. What a miracle. And rightly, logically, by not issuing more EPs, the locals would naturally be employed to fill up the positions. Wait a minute, how many of the locals are citizens? Somehow I got this uneasy feeling that when they lumped everything under ‘locals’ the number of citizens cannot be too many. Just my gut feel. So, things are improving. ho say leow. Another area of improvement is the number of stoppages of trains. This has gone down from its peak. Since when were there so many incidents of train stoppages? When was the time when train stoppages were a rarity? Is it really improving? What is the reference point? Zero stoppages or high stoppages? I think there was another point mentioned as improving. Oh, income gap is improving, I mean narrowing. Sure what, with the wages of cleaners increased from less than $1,000 to $1,000, the gap must have closed up a bit. One caveat for this to be true, the top earners must not be earning more, assuming that their income stagnates or not changing. Like that sure the income gap will be narrowing. I must agree that things are getting rosier when the major bugbears are improving. I can’t disagree with the panellists. No wonder they all looked so happy, and so was the minister. Chua Chin Leng aka redbean * The writer blogs at mysingaporenew.blogspot.com.  Read More →