SAF officers to receive more cash bonuses, full CPF contributions from July 2025
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The enhanced benefits are part of changes to the savings and retirement scheme for SAF officers.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
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SINGAPORE – Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) officers can look forward to enhanced monetary benefits from July 1, 2025, following changes to the organisation’s savings and retirement scheme.
With these changes, new SAF officers will see a 40 per cent average increase in benefits compared with the current scheme, and they can accumulate about three years’ worth of their last-drawn annual salaries at retirement.
In a statement on Sept 6, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) listed three key changes that will be introduced to the Savings and Employee Retirement (Saver) Plan.
First, bonus cash payments will be given to officers aged between 25 and 34 for every three years of service. Known as the Saver Bonus payment, this is aimed at better supporting officers’ needs, such as in marriage and housing.
The Saver Bonus will replace the current arrangement, where contributions are deposited into officers’ Saver Plan Savings Accounts during their first 10 years of service, and can be withdrawn from their seventh year of service at increasing percentages.
Second, officers will be given their full Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions earlier in their careers, helping them accumulate more CPF to better support their housing and healthcare needs.
Currently, officers are on a reduced CPF contribution arrangement, where Mindef deposits the difference between the full and reduced employer CPF contributions into the officers’ Saver Plan CPF Top-Up Accounts. The monies in these accounts are transferred to the officers via their CPF accounts when they leave the SAF.
Third, increased contributions to officers’ Saver Plan Retirement Accounts will begin from their first year of service instead of the seventh. The existing Retirement Account will be renamed the Saver Account.
The enhanced benefits will apply to all new officers who join the SAF from July 1, 2025, as well as to in-service officers who opt to transition to the enhanced Saver Plan.
“Together, these changes will better meet the life-cycle needs of SAF officers and provide them with greater financial assurance for career transition upon their retirement from the SAF,” Mindef said.
The Saver Plan, introduced in 1998, aims to encourage officers to remain in service until their retirement from the SAF, and to help them accumulate sufficient finances for their transition to their next career.
