Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said during his National Day Rally speech last night (20 August) that the government is introducing a “Majulah Package” for Singaporeans in their 50s and early 60s, whom he named the “Young Seniors”.
The Majulah Package is set to cost the government about S$7 billion, and will consist of three components, namely the “Earn & Save” bonus of $400 to $1,000 yearly, a one-time “Retirement Savings Bonus” of $1,000 to $1,500 and a one-time “MediSave Bonus” of $500 to $1,000.
Snippet of PM Lee’s speech
The Three components of the Majulah Package
We will introduce a package to help Young Seniors meet your retirement needs – let us name it the Majulah Package. This will be for Singaporeans who are 50 and above this year – born in 1973 or earlier. It will benefit those with lower incomes and less wealth. The support will be tiered, depending on your income and your CPF savings. The Majulah Package will comprise three components.
First, an “Earn and Save” Bonus, to help you build up your CPF savings while you work. Most Young Seniors are still working, and have some years to go before retirement. We encourage you to continue working as long as you can. Lower- and middle-income workers will get a CPF bonus of up to $1,000 a year, depending on your income. The Government will credit this into your CPF account, on top of the usual employer and employee contributions. You will receive this Earn and Save bonus yearly, as long as you are working, whether full-time or part-time. Take for example a lower-income 55 year-old who plans to retire at 65. Over 10 years, her Earn and Save bonus adds up to $12,000 in extra CPF savings if you include the CPF interest, which is not bad.
Second, a Retirement Savings Bonus (RSB). If your CPF balances have not reached the CPF Basic Retirement Sum, you will receive a one-time CPF bonus of up to $1,500. Those who are not working will get this bonus too. This includes homemakers, who have given up their careers and laboured to raise their families, and thus have very low CPF balances.
Third, a MediSave Bonus. Most Young Seniors have enough MediSave balances. Nevertheless, many still worry about healthcare costs, because you will soon be Not-So-Young Seniors. So the Majulah Package will include a modest one-time MediSave Bonus of up to $1,000. It will give you some extra buffer, to help pay your medical expenses and insurance premiums.
58th national day present
The Majulah Package will help Young Seniors, in their 50s and early 60s, to meet your retirement needs. But besides Young Seniors, we also want to encourage older seniors to continue working for as long as you can. Hence the Majulah Package also covers the Pioneer and Merdeka Generations.
I think quite a few here belong to the Pioneer and Merdeka Generation. Let me say to you, if you are PG and MG: If you are still working and meet the income criteria, you too will receive the Earn and Save Bonus as long as you are working. If you are not working, you can still get something from the one-time Retirement Savings Bonus and MediSave Bonus. This will be in addition to the PG or MG benefits that you are already receiving and will continue to receive. Think of this as a 58th National Day present!
The Majulah Package will cost the Government about $7 billion. MOF will create a new Fund to meet the full lifetime costs of the Package, using resources from this term of Government. We will honour this commitment without burdening future generations.
The Majulah Package will benefit some 1.4 million older people across several generations. We will also be enhancing existing schemes, like Silver Support, Workfare, and the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme and the details will be announced next year. Taken together, these improvements will help seniors to meet basic retirement needs, especially for lower- and middle-income Singaporeans so that you can have greater peace of mind in your golden years.