Release CPF savings for hardship needs
Release CPF savings for hardship needs
?? í?±?μ? By Peter Ong ????I believe more and more people today are crying out "money no enough." Having "not enough money" to spend is but a small matter. What is more troubling is having no money to meet daily expenses. Imagine a family that is short on food and the basic necessities, and the breadwinner is compelled to turn to loan sharks for money. Could this happen in Singapore?????I am afraid the answer is yes. And as the number of jobless increases, more and more families are likely to meetthis fate.???? Not long ago, Mr Lim Swee Say, NTUC Deputy Secretary-General, projected that the rate of unemployment would rise to 4 per cent before the end of the year, and reach 7 per cent next year. Given a workforce of 1.8 million, the number of unemployed could exceed 120,000.????Unemployment affects both the men and women, and the young and old. But the most vulnerable are those aged 40 andabove. Likely to be the sole breadwinners, these middle-agedworkers hail from white- and blue-collar jobs and different educational background.????Generally, when women workers are retrenched, families get to lose one of their income earners. When young workers are laid off, most of them will just fall back on their parents for financial support. And when workers about to retire lose their jobs, they can dig into their CPF savings (once they reach withdrawal age) to tide them through. However, when men aged 40 and above are asked to quit, most of them run into a dead end.????Men aged 40 and above are most vulnerable because they are a favourite target for retrenchment. They are also likely to be shunned in any recruitment exercise because their salary is generally higher than young new recruits dueto their longer length of service. Management realises that they could lower costs if they replace these older workers with younger but lower-salaried ones.????Older workers are also likely to have greater financial commitments - such as car and mortgage loans, children stillattending school and, for some, elderly parents to look after. ????A human resource manager from a cruise company told me recently that she detected a desperate sense of "hunger and thirst" when this category of workers showed up for job interviews.????She said: "Most of them have been looking for jobs for several months. Some of them are even prepared to accept half of what they used to earn because they understand that,without any job, they would have no income. Even if they hadsome savings, these would be depleted in a few months' time."????Nevertheless, her company's stand is to recruit the mostsuitable candidate-not the person who is willing to work at the lowest pay-for the job. So, even