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Pioneer, Merdeka, Majulah: Help welcome, but don’t start waiting for such packages
If successive generations need boosts to retirement funds, it’s better to fix these at source than to use ad hoc packages every five years to top them up.
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The Majulah package is expected to benefit about 1.4 million older Singaporeans.
ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN
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When the Merdeka package was announced during the National Day Rally speech in 2018 for those born in the 1950s, I wrote a commentary that remarked: “Already, younger Singaporeans like my generation born in the 1960s are asking if there will be a package – a Majulah package, perhaps – for us, when our turn comes.”
My concern then was the financial sustainability of these multibillion-dollar packages of assistance. And my worry now is that when Singaporeans enter old age, they will start expecting such packages as a matter of course to tide them over. The Pioneer package was announced in 2013, for those born in 1949 or earlier. In 2018, the Merdeka package was rolled out for those born in the 1950s.
