Forum: Do more for women who find it hard to save for retirement

The Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) welcomes the introduction of the Majulah Package by the Government to help Singaporeans achieve retirement adequacy. As Singapore’s ageing population continues to grow rapidly, the Majulah Package is targeted at Singaporeans in their 50s and early 60s, including those who are either about to retire or who may have recently retired.  

This group of Singaporeans – in particular, women – are ones whom SCWO has been focused on engaging in the past year. Dubbed “Tomorrow’s New Old” (TNO), they are the future cohort of the ageing population and we wanted to understand their needs and concerns in retirement preparation. We surveyed and conducted focus group discussions with TNOs in 2022 and 2023.

While TNOs tend to have higher educational qualifications, better employment opportunities and longer life expectancies, they also tend to be struggling with providing care to both the young and the old in their families. Because women tend to take on the primary caregiver roles in the family, female TNOs find it even harder to secure an adequate amount of funds for retirement as they spend less time in the workforce compared with their male counterparts.  

We are pleased that the Majulah Package will greatly accommodate the financial needs of TNOs, but we hope that more attention can be paid to helping women attain sufficient retirement funds.

To help women fully reap the benefits of the Earn and Save Bonus in the Majulah Package, targeted measures to retain women and support them in returning to the workforce are needed. Although the Retirement Savings Bonus will be given to the unemployed including housewives, the lack of regular income over long periods of time will make achieving the CPF Basic Retirement Sum a huge challenge.

We look forward to working together with our member organisations and all stakeholders to close the gender gaps in retirement adequacy and make retirement a healthy and seamless transition for TNOs in every aspect. 

Koh Yan Ping
Chief Executive Officer
Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations