Seniors Aged 55 and Above Who Benefited from Senior Worker Support Package

6 Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the trend of senior re-employment in 2020 and 2021 has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; and (b) if so, what further support can be given to companies to enable them to continue to offer re-employment for their senior employees who are eligible for re-employment.

7 Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked the Minister for Manpower (a) how many seniors aged 55 years and above have benefited from the Senior Worker Support Package introduced in 2020; and (b) whether the Government will be looking into extending this support or other ways of promoting senior employability.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I take Question Nos 6 and 7 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Dr Tan See Leng: Before I start my response, with your permission, Mr Speaker, may I ask the Clerks to distribute a handout on Senior Worker Support Package.

Mr Speaker: Yes, please. [A handout was distributed to hon Members. Please refer to Annex 1.]

Dr Tan See Leng: In line with the 2019 recommendations by the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers, the retirement age and re-employment age will be increased to 63 and 68 respectively, and this will take effect from 1 July 2022. CPF contribution rates for senior workers aged above 55 to 70 will also be raised by up to two percentage points with effect from 1 January 2022.

The Senior Worker Support Package was introduced in 2020 to support employers in implementing these and other key recommendations made by the Workgroup, and it consists of four schemes. Members can refer to it in the handout that was just distributed.

First, the Senior Employment Credit provides employers wage offsets of up to 8% for hiring senior workers aged 55 and above. The Senior Employment Credit started from 1 January 2021. Thus far, close to $150 million have been disbursed to 86,000 employers, benefiting 482,000 senior workers.

Secondly, the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant encourages employers to implement a higher internal retirement age and re-employment age, above the statutory minimum. From 1 July 2020 to 31 August 2021, 21,000 senior workers working in 2,800 companies have benefited from the grant.

Thirdly, the Part-time Re-employment Grant supports employers who commit to a part-time re-employment policy whenever eligible senior workers request for it. From 1 July 2020 to 31 August 2021, more than 19,000 senior workers working in close to 2,000 companies have benefited from the grant.

With the healthy take-up rates, the Government topped up over $200 million for both the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant and the Part-time Re-employment Grant in February this year. This was on top of $100 million committed to these grants in 2020.

Finally, the CPF Transition Offset will provide employers with transitionary wage offset equivalent to 50% of the increase in employer CPF contribution rates that will take effect in 2022.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment rate of those aged 55 to 64 held steady at over 67%, while the employment rate of those aged 65 and above has increased from 27.6% in 2019 to 28.5% in 2020. This is comparable to the average of the top three OECD countries. The re-employment offer rates among eligible private sector resident employees who wished to continue working have also remained high, at well over 90% in 2020.

Senior worker employment rates have held up and the Government has allocated S$1.5 billion through the Senior Worker Support Package over three years. In addition, last year, the Government introduced the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package to help mature and senior workers stay employable and enter new jobs or new roles. We have also provided additional support for employers who are expanding local hiring amidst the current economic and labour market uncertainty.

The Jobs Growth Incentive, or JGI, provides wage support to eligible firms that hire new local jobseekers, with higher support for new local hires aged 40 and above, including older workers. We had recently announced an extension by another six months till March 2022 with tapered support levels, to support employers to continue expanding local hiring. JGI-eligible firms that hire mature local hires from October 2021 to March 2022 – the cut-off age is 40 – JGI-eligible firms that continue to hire will receive up to $36,000 per hire.

With employers continuing to reskill their senior workers and making every effort to retain and hire them, with society supporting their choice to remain active in work, our seniors can continue to participate actively in all spheres of life.

Mr Speaker: Ms Jessica Tan.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): I thank the Minister for his reply and it is very heartening to hear that senior employment has stayed stable despite the COVID-19 situation. Could I just ask one supplementary question of the Minister? While re-employment has stayed steady, is there any data to share whether the kind of roles and the jobs are also similar or have they had to take a cut or part-time employment?

Dr Tan See Leng: I thank the hon Member for her question. Indeed, the majority of the roles, I can share the exact data later on, but the roles that we have placed in the JGI, the majority of them are in roles that were the same or better – in terms of their draw of the salary levels. This is the majority of the hires that we placed under the JGI scheme. If my memory does not fail me, I think the percentage is more than 60%. I need to confirm that and revert.

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo Wan Ling.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Thank you. COVID-19 has been devastating for many families and my residents have told me that in coping with COVID-19, many of them have depleted their intended retirement savings, or that maybe even retrenchments have caused them no choice but to dip into their retirement nest eggs. As such, I was very heartened to hear that the Ministry is looking at more training programmes for our seniors, but I would like to ask if there will be more of such training programmes, especially place-and-train programmes for our seniors.

Also, given that most seniors may have to push back the retirement due to the challenges to their livelihoods because of COVID-19, would the Ministry also give us an update on the preparations for the retirement age to be extended to 70 years old, or its plan for the end of the decade?

Dr Tan See Leng: I thank the Member of Parliament, Ms Yeo Wan Ling, for her question. Some parts of her question, I think I will address in my answer to Question Nos 8 to 16 later. For her second Supplementary Question with regard to the planning for retirement, up to 70 years and beyond, we are working closely with MOH in terms of an overall broader construct, in terms of studying how to ensure the healthy ageing, together with healthy productivity, is maintained.

At this particular point in time, I think it is premature for me to comment. Today, we have a very clear sustained path to raise the retirement age, eventually to 65, and the re-employment age to 70. I think that will be the first phase. We are also talking to other OECD countries where we are looking at beyond a certain age, work, and retirement ages and re-employment ages could be adjusted according to the healthy life expectancy of the population at that point in time. And they adopted a very dynamic model, but we are still studying it.

Mr Speaker: Mr Sharael Taha.

Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for sharing the Senior Workers Support Package. Despite all this, many aged 40 and above still struggle to seek re-employment. Can I ask the Minister how many companies have taken up JGI and taken full use of this incentive? What more can we do to get companies to consider senior employment or get companies to look at job redesign, so that we can hire more of these workers?

Dr Tan See Leng: Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank the hon Member of Parliament, Mr Sharael Taha, for his question. But may I request for your permission to proceed if there are no further supplementary questions on the first two Parliamentary Questions (PQs) filed, so that I can take them all in a more holistic manner with Question Nos 8 to 16. And if I cannot address in my subsequent answer, then perhaps I could request for the Member to raise the supplementary question again.