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Written Answer by Mr Lim Swee Say Minister for Manpower to Parliamentary Question on expanding CPF education scheme

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 639 OF 2017 FOR THE SITTING ON 8 MAY 2017

QUESTION NO. 1125 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Mr Patrick Tay

To ask the Minister for Manpower whether the CPF Education Scheme can be expanded to all programmes at approved educational institutions and not limited to only full-time subsidised diploma/degree courses.

Answer

  1. The primary purpose of CPF is to support retirement, healthcare, and housing needs. When the CPF was expanded to support education in 1989, it was designed as a loan scheme and confined to only firstly, full-time, secondly subsidised, and thirdly diploma and degree programmes offered by local approved educational institutions. Students have to repay in cash, the amount withdrawn plus interest into the CPF member’s Ordinary Account so as to restore members’ CPF savings for their retirement needs. This cautious approach is to safeguard the fundamental objectives of the CPF.
  2. With increasing life expectancy, we are doing more to safeguard the retirement adequacy of CPF members. We need to be careful about expanding the use of CPF, including the proposal by the member to include all programmes beyond full-time subsidised diplomas and degrees.