Bill passed to change statutory limits for prescribed minimum retirement age and re-employment age under Retirement and Re-employment Act

29 November 2021

On 2 November 2021, the Retirement and Re-employment (Amendment) Bill (“Bill”) was read a second time and passed in Parliament. It is not yet in force.

To enable older Singaporeans who are able and wish to continue working to do so, the Retirement and Re-employment Act will be amended to set the maximum possible statutory retirement and re-employment ages at 65 and 70 respectively.

Currently, the retirement and re-employment ages are 62 and 67 respectively. In 2019, the Singapore Government accepted the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers’ recommendations to raise the retirement and re-employment ages to 65 and 70 respectively by 2030. This will support older workers to continue working for longer if they wish to do so and improve their retirement adequacy.

It is explained in the second reading speech that, to give effect to the Workgroup’s recommendations, the Bill stipulates that the Minister for Manpower may prescribe a retirement age and re-employment age of up to 65 and 70 respectively. In line with the consensus of the tripartite partners, the Government will prescribe the statutory retirement age and re-employment age to be 63 and 68 respectively, effective from 1 July 2022.

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the Parliament website www.parliament.gov.sg and the Ministry of Manpower website www.mom.gov.sg: