Singaporeans can work until the age of 70 in the near future, making Singapore one of the countries with the oldest retirement age.
In its announcement on Thursday, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that the “statutory retirement and re-employment ages will be progressively raised to 65 and 70 by 2030.”
This is further to MOM’s announcement on Tuesday that the retirement ages will increase.
“The retirement and re-employment ages will be raised to 64 and 69 respectively on 1 July 2026.”
Speaking during the debate on the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) annual budget, Dr Tan See Leng said: “This will give our seniors more flexibility and assurance, while enabling employers to retain experienced workers.”
“These changes matter because they do more than set legal limits. They shape social norms around ageing and work, giving seniors confidence to stay on, and giving employers the clarity to plan for and retain experienced workers,” he added.
Dr Tan noted that more than 90 per cent of the employees who are eligible and wish to continue working are successfully offered re-employment.
Senior Employment Credit (SEC) will be extended until December 2027, with the highest SEC wage support tier of 7% applying to workers aged 69 and above.
“This will give our seniors more flexibility and assurance to continue working if they wish to, while enabling employers to retain workers with valuable experience,” MOM said in a statement on Tuesday.
Singapore’s new retirement age is in line with the retirement age among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries ranging from 62 to 67 years of age.
“The average effective age of labour market exit was 64.7 years for men and 63.6 years for women across OECD countries in 2024,” according to a report by OECD released in November last year.
The report noted that a steady increase in the average effective age of labour market exit by 2.7 years for men and 3.9 years for women on average across OECD countries.
Most countries in OECD do not have a legal re-employment age, although Japan and South Korea have encouraged re-employment which is not mandatory.
Singapore’s re-employment age to be raised to 69 in July and to 70 by 2030 effectively makes it the country with the highest legal working age.
Higher Retirement Savings
There have been a number of changes designed to help seniors build up their savings in recent months.
The Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution rates for senior workers will be raised from 2027.
For senior workers aged 55 to 60, the CPF contribution rates will be raised by 1.5 percentage point to 34 per cent.
Those aged from 60 to 65 will see their CPF contribution rates increase by 1 percentage to 25 per cent.
MOM also said the CPF Transition Offset will be extended by another year to December 2027, to cover 50 per cent of the increase in employer CPF contributions in 2027.
The government has also announced CPF top-ups under Budget 2026 for those who are 50 years (born in 1976) and above.
Seniors with retirement savings of less than $60,000 in their CPF will be eligible for a top-up of $1,500.
Those with retirement savings of more than $60,000 but less than $110,200 will have their accounts topped up by $1,000.
These seniors must not own more than one property and the Annual Value (AV) shall not exceed $21,000.
If the AV is less $31,000 and more than $21,000, their retirement savings shall be topped up by $500.
