Low-skilled worker life expectancy is five years less than for graduates

DutchNews, August 16, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Today’s new pensioners with a college or university degree will live an average of four to five years longer than those with vocational qualifications, the national statistics agency CBS said on Friday. 

Men with a degree are now expected to enjoy 22 years of retirement, while men with few qualifications will live a further 17 years, the CBS said. In addition, the life expectancy gap for men has grown a full year since the period 2011 to 2014. For women, the gap remains four years. 

Lifestyle is likely to be behind the difference, the CBS said. ‘People with a lower level of education are more likely to be overweight and to smoke,’ a spokesman told news agency ANP. They are also more likely to have hearing, eyesight and muscle problems. 

In addition, people with degrees retire, on average, eight months before the low-skilled – meaning they enjoy both a corporate and state pension for longer. 

The FNV trade union federation, which is campaigning for early retirement to be incorporated in the current proposals to reform the pension system, said the new figures demonstrate the real need for change. 

‘The growing difference in life expectancy shows that the union is right to call for the state pension age to be frozen and to scrap the fines for early retirement,’ a spokesman told ANP.

FNV members to vote on pension deal, finally agreed after nine years

DutchNews, June 5, 2019

Ministers, unions and employers have reached a deal on reforming the Dutch pension system, nine years after talks first started. 

The agreement, which still has to be voted on by members of the FNV trade union federation, involves a slowdown in the planned increase in the state pension age and gives workers the option to retire early – both of which were key union demands. 

The new deal involves freezing the state retirement age at 66 years and four months for the next two years. After that it will increase in increments until it hits 67 in 2024. 

Then onwards, the state pension age will continue to rise in line with increases in life expectancy – based on an eight month increase for every year we live longer. 

The talks had broken down last November when the unions walked out but resumed earlier this week after ministers indicated some compromises were on the table. 

For example, ministers have agreed to bring in some form of early retirement scheme which is aimed at people doing heavy physical work but which is open to everyone. 

The scheme is most attractive to people on low incomes. Employers will have to pay a fine if workers earning more than €19,000 a year quit early. The money, ministers say, will compensate for the loss of premium and tax income. 

It will also be easier for the self-employed to join a pension fund, but it will not be compulsory. 

Insurance 

However, freelancers will be required by law to take out insurance against becoming unable to work through illness. This, commentators say, was one the demands made by GroenLinks and the social democratic party PvdA in return for their support in steering the deal through the senate. 

There may be an opt-out for people who show they have sufficient reserves to support themselves. Currently just 20% of freelancers have such a policy, and the cost runs into hundreds of euros a month. 

More details about this part of the agreement are due in the coming days. 

Fund changes 

Pension funds will also have the option of offering employees two sorts of pensions – one in which the premium varies in line with interest rates and one in which funds can take more risk – and spread that risk over all participants, broadcaster NOS said. 

Although employers organisations and smaller unions have backed the new plan outright, the FNV has said it is up to the members to decide whether or not to support the new deal.

Chairman Han Busker said he expects a ‘tough discussion’ with members but said the agreement as it now stands is ‘justifiable’.

Dutch showman makes global headlines with ‘I’m 49 not 69’ court case

DutchNews, November 8, 2018

Emile Ratelband at a book launch in 2015. Photo: Fotopersburo Edwin Janssen via HH 

Dutch showman and self-styled ‘motivational guru’ Emile Ratelband has hit headlines around the world with a court case to have his age officially cut by 20 years. 

Ratelband was in court in Arnhem earlier this week in a bid to have the clock turned back on his official documents so that he is only 49. 

‘We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can’t I decide my own age?’ Ratelband is quoted as saying. In particular, Ratelband, hopes being officially younger will enable him to attract more women.

‘When I’m on Tinder and it says I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position,’ he said. Ratelband has been married twice and has seven children. 

The BBC, Daily Mail and Telegraph are among the foreign media outlets which have picked up the story, which has generated thousands of comments. 

Ratelband, who converted to Buddhism earlier this year, told the Telegraaf that he is not suffering from the Peter Pan syndrome and has been checked out by a doctor to make sure he will ‘be able to deal with this major step.’ 

After all, he told the paper, there are some disadvantages to becoming younger. ‘For a start I’ll be missing out on my old age pension for 20 years,’ he said. 

Judges will rule on the case later this month. 

Ratelband has a history of outspoken comments and has described Osama bin Laden as a ‘freedom fighter with clear principles’. In 2003 he made an attempt to enter parliament on a populist platform. He received just under 10,000 votes.

A Dutch "young god" just months shy of his 70th birthday has launched a legal bid to slash 20 years off his age as he looks to enhance his prospects at work and in love https://t.co/HvJgOg49Bk

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 8, 2018

Related Article:

Dutchman, 69, in legal bid to cut 20 years off his age

Dutch pension system leads world ranking, reforms still far off

DutchNews, October 22, 2018

Photo: DutchNews.nl

The Dutch pension system is once again the best in the world, according to the annual Global Pension Index. 

Denmark overtook the Netherlands seven years ago and had led the ranking, compiled by consultancy group Mercer, since then. It is now in second place, but the difference with the Netherlands is just 0.1 percentage point. 

‘Both offer A-Grade world class retirement income systems with good benefits – clearly demonstrating their preparedness for tomorrow’s ageing world,’ Mercer said. 

The consultancy looked at the pension systems of 34 countries this year. Bottom of the list was Argentina. 

The new ranking comes at a time when government pressure is mounting on both unions and employers in the Netherlands to reach a deal on changing the Dutch pension system. 

In particular, the government is known to be keen to introduce ‘personal pension pots’ to bring more flexibility into the pension system. Currently, the Dutch corporate pension sector is dominated by industry or company-based schemes. 

An agreement on how to move forward between unions and employers would then form the basis of new legislation. 

However, the FNV trade union federation says the cabinet must come up with more money for the state pensions by freezing the pension age, if it wants the unions to make a deal on reforming the entire system. 

The state pension age in the Netherlands is currently 66 but will rise to 67 and three months by 2022.

Today’s pensioners will live for 20 years after retiring

DutchNews, May 30, 2016

Photo: Depositphotos.com

People currently turning 65 are likely to live for a further 20 years, an increase of five years on 1956 when the state pension was introduced, national statistics office CBS said on Monday. 

Women are likely to reach the age of 86 while men will live to just over 83, the statistics office said.

While women tend to live longer than men, the difference has been eroded since 1980. This is largely due to smoking. Women took up the habit later than men and that is now being translated into more deaths from lung cancer, the CBS said. 

More men have also stopped smoking or never began, and that too is having an impact on life expectancy rates, the CBS said. 

Nevertheless, six in every 100 women who are currently 65 will reach the age of 100, as will three in 100 men, the CBS said.

The state pension (AOW) age is being raised in stages to 67 because of improved life expectancy rates.

Related Article:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”

Dutch pension system is one of the best, but could do better

DutchNews, October 19, 2015

The Dutch pension system is one of the best in the world but is performing less well in terms of future sustainability, according to the latest research by consultancy Mercer. 

The Danish system tops the Mercer list of 25 pension systems, with the Netherlands in second place, just head of Australia, Sweden and Switzerland. Mercer produces its annual ranking based on 50 different criteria. 

The Netherlands derives its high ranking from the way the pension system guarantees a liveable minimum income, news agency ANP says. 

However, the Dutch score for future sustainability has gone down this year, Mercer said. In addition, the Netherlands can do more to make it attractive to save for a private pension and improve the protection for corporate pensions in case of bankruptcy. 

The Netherlands has the toughest residency requirements for a state pension in Europe. To qualify, a person must have lived in the country for 50 years. A person who has worked in the Netherlands for 40 years is only entitled to 80% of the state pension.

Indonesian Pension Contribution Set to Rise to 8% of Salary

Jakarta Globe, Siprianus Edi Hardum, Apr 09, 2015

Employees' contribution to the pension system could rise to 8 percent
from 5 percent now. (Antara Photo/Fanny Octavianus)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government plans to raise the pension contribution to 8 percent of an employee’s monthly salary starting in July from 5 percent now, said Labor Minister M. Hanif Dhakiri on Wednesday.

The plan is part of a new government regulation draft that aims to revamp the country’s pension system.

“The draft has been finalized. We are only waiting for the harmonization process at the Law and Human Rights Ministry and ratification,” Hanif said.

Hanif did not elaborate on the share of contributions by employees and employers in paying pensions. Currently, employees pay 2 percent of their salary for pension, while their employers pay the remaining 3 percent.

Indonesia started last year a universal pension program under BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, which seeks to cover pensions for all workers nationwide.

The draft includes a clause that requires employees to be in the universal pension program for at least 15 years before making use of the pensions. It also sets the pension age at 56 years old.

GlobeAsia

Related Article:

Beijing sets occupational pension standards for civil servants

Beijing sets occupational pension standards for civil servants

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-04-07

A senior center in Yuncheng, Shanxi province, March 19. (File photo/Xinhua)

China announced detailed standards of occupational pension for government employees on Monday as a move to build a multi-level, sustainable pension mechanism.

The welfare fund, as a supplementary part of the basic pension system and commercial insurance, will require a government department to pay 8% of its total salary amount and a government employee to contribute 4% of their taxation-based salary, according to an announcement released by the State Council, China's cabinet.

The benchmark for the payment base is the same with that of the basic pension and the fund sources also include related investment yields and other legal contributions.

The fund will be left to qualified institutions such as securities houses, asset management companies an insurers to manage the pension and conduct investments.

The introduction of occupational pension is expected to retain talent as recent reforms in the basic pension system for government institutions might compromise employee welfare.

China started pilot reform programs in government organizations to require them to pay social insurance and pension funds like other private employers in 2008 to promote social fairness. Before that, government employees only had to pay income tax.

Vietnam Shoe Workers Strike for Pensions

Jakarta Globe, John Boudreau, Apr 01, 2015

Workers sew clothing with sewing machines at a garment factory at the
Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in Thuan An, Binh Duong province, Vietnam.
The new government pension rules will stop many workers from being eligible for
 lump-sum social insurance payments when they leave a company, delaying
payouts until they retire. (Bloomberg Photo/Brent Lewin)

Thousands of workers at a Ho Chi Minh City factory stayed on strike for a sixth day on Wednesday over a government pension change as officials moved to quell the nation’s worst labor unrest since May’s anti-China riots.

Several thousand workers converged outside the factory owned by Taiwanese footwear manufacturer Pou Chen, some blocking a highway that leads into the complex as police tried to break up protesters. As many as 90,000 of the workers went on strike last week, VnExpress reported.

It is unclear which shoemakers the facility supplies to. Workers said they made footwear for Nike and other companies, while Nike denied sourcing from the factory affected.

The new pension rules will stop many workers from being eligible for lump-sum social insurance payments when they leave a company, delaying payouts until they retire. Workers have said they are concerned the money may not be there in the future.

Vietnam’s Communist government restricts large, unsanctioned gatherings.

“None of us has a house,” striking worker Nguyen Van Thu, 28, said outside the gates of the shoe factory on Tuesday night. “When we can’t work, we want to get our social insurance all at once so we can build a house for the family.

We struggle to make a living. We have to pay for all kinds of insurance, and we’re afraid we’ll lose it under the new law.”

Thu was one of dozens of workers sitting outside the plant gate in a suburban district of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, workers crowded the factory complex, chanting and unfurling banners as police with batons stood by. The company blared a recorded message beckoning workers to return to work.

At about noon, hundreds of workers blocked an eight-lane highway near the factory as police ordered them to disperse and redirected traffic away from the highway.

“The workers want to raise their voices and speak out on this government policy,” said Serena Liu, chairwoman of the Council of Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam. “They feel this is the only way they can do it. It’s not about working conditions.”

Pou Chen called on the Vietnamese government to provide assurances to workers on the social insurance issue, said company spokesman Amos Ho. The work stoppage, which began on March 26, may cause some production delays, Ho said.

Pou Chen manufactures shoes for Nike and Converse, according to its website. But Nike and Converse do not source from the “contract factories currently affected by the strike,” Nike said in a statement.

“There has been no impact to Nike or Converse production at contract factories in Vietnam,” according to the statement. “We are aware of the situation and will continue to monitor.”

The Vietnamese government pledged to prevent more labor unrest after workers damaged foreign factories following China’s placement of an oil rig in contested waters off Vietnam’s coast last year.

The labor ministry is in talks with the shoe factory workers and has ordered government agencies across the country to explain the purpose of the new policy, which goes into effect in 2016, to head off further protests.

The strike occurred after officials from Ho Chi Minh City’s social insurance office met with factory workers to inform them about the new pension law, Doan Mau Diep, the deputy labor minister, said on Wednesday.

The change in the law is designed to encourage workers to save more money for retirement by not allowing them to withdraw their pension contributions before they retire, he said. Under the current law, workers are permitted to withdraw money from their pensions with a penalty that reduces future government retirement payments, Diep said.

Because of the strike, the ministry is considering amending the law that goes into effect next year to give workers the option of receiving their pension as a lump sum when they leave a company or after they retire, he said.

“Given this incident, we will have to carefully look into ways to improve our communications to avoid something like this from happening again,” Diep said.

Most strikes in Vietnam are focused on the practices of a company rather than the government. More than 100 Vietnam Airlines pilots called in sick at the start of 2015 amid discontentment over salaries.

Last May, two people died during anti-Chinese protests at foreign factories. More than 1,000 workers at Levi Strauss’s factory in the northern province of Ninh Binh engaged in a three-day strike in November 2013 to demand better working conditions.

“This is a very complex issue involving the poor living and working conditions of the workers and the poor protections the government provides to them in terms of social security,” said Alexander Vuving, a security analyst at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.

“There is a lack of trust. Institutionally, nobody represents the interests of the workers. There are labor unions in Vietnam, but they are part of the Communist Party system.”

Bloomberg

Dutch health service pension fund calls for ARCP board to quit

DutchNews.nl, February 27, 2015

Dutch health service pension fund manager PGGM has called on property investment firm American Realty Capital Properties to remove its entire board in an effort to regain investor confidence in the company. 

PGGM, the second biggest Dutch pension manager with over $200bn in assets, says it has been monitoring the investment firm closely since it deliberately issued inaccurate financial statements in October 2014. The scandal led to the resignation of the firm’s founder Nicholas Schorsch in December.

‘It is essential that the board demonstrate its commitment to the highest standards of corporate governance, in light of the fiduciary duty it owes to all shareholders,’ the PGGM letter said. 

ARCP needs a truly independent board to choose a new management team, PGGM said. ‘This selection process will be of crucial importance in ensuring that all successful candidates are free from any real or perceived conflicts of interest.’ 

PGGM, which has over 11.6 million shares in ARCP, or a 1.3% stake, said it is urging fellow shareholders to ‘contribute to a meaningful and lasting change’.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy,Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) -(Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Pension reform in China paves way for social equality

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-01-19

Retired school teachers in Nanjing. (File photo/CNS)

China's plan to unify its two-tiered pension system is expected to improve social equality by eliminating a major disparity between public and private employee benefits.

According to the reform measures announced last week by the State Council, the segregated system will be unified, with public institution staff brought under the same pension rules as private sector employees.

Pension reform has been an ongoing process in the world's most populous country over the past two decades, the result of which has been a system that requires both employers and employees to contribute to pension funds, which are distributed to employees after retirement.

The pension benefit amount is based on how much both employers and employees have contributed to the pension account.

The majority of Chinese workers must pay 8% of their salaries each month toward their pension benefits, while employers are required to contribute an additional 20% of an employee's salary toward pensions.

However, pension reform has stalled at public institutions, which have an estimated workforce of 40 million, including civil servants, teachers, doctors, and science researchers. These public employees have inherited a six-decade-old pension system that does not require staff contributions, even though they enjoy bigger pension payments, which are entirely state-funded.

The two-tiered system has led to public complaints about inequality, with many arguing it is unfair for public employees to enjoy better pensions than private sector staff, even though they do not pay a dime during their working years.

An ongoing survey on the "dual pension system" conducted by Xinhua News Agency on its website shows that pension disparities and inequality were the top concerns among respondents, followed by the system's potential impediments to switching jobs, and its growing burden on government spending.

"The reforms will be conducive to building a social pension system that is fairer and more sustainable," Chinese vice premier Ma Kai said.

Ma said the unified system will also boost other reforms at public institutions, such as human resources management. Under the segregated pension system, public institution staff with guaranteed state-paid pensions have been reluctant to switch to jobs "outside the system" for fear of forfeiting benefits.

Analysts said that the new reform measures will make it easier for workers to switch between public and private employers.

"The reform measures will change the old stereotype that public institution staff are of a noble class compared to other workers. They are weakening the traditional view that a job inside the state-backed pension system means life stability," said Su Hainan, vice president of the China Association for Labor Studies.

"By bringing different groups of people under the same social benefit framework, the reforms reflect China's efforts to promote fairness and justice," said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

Wang said that pension system reform has long faced many obstacles, but the latest measures will boost expectations for future reforms.

Given possible opposition from public institution staff, the government pledged that current public employees will be able to retain their state-funded benefits earned prior to the reform, according to the State Council.

Meanwhile, a "career bonus scheme" will be established for staff as a supplementary measure to ensure that their pension benefits will not be severely downgraded following the reforms, according to the State Council.

What Retirement? Singapore Recruits Older Workers to Stay

Jakarta Globe, Rina Chandran,  Jan 07, 2015

Customers dine at a food court during lunch hour in the central business
district of Singapore. (Bloomberg Photo/Nicky Loh)

Everyone calls her Auntie Helen. At 69, she’s one of the oldest employees at the food court at Raffles Place in Singapore, where office workers grab sandwiches and bowls of soba noodles in the lunchtime rush.

As she cleans and stacks cutlery, Helen Wong might seem to represent the workforce of the city’s past. For a government grappling with an aging population, rising costs and curbs on immigration, her generation is the future.

“Food, transport, medicine are all more expensive now,” said Wong, who works seven hours a day, five days a week in the canteen-like basement, where diners can choose dishes from more than a dozen different vendors. “If I’m healthy and my body allows it, I’d like to work for as long as I’m able.”

In a culture that traditionally expects children to look after elderly parents, Singapore’s employment rate for those between ages 55 and 64 is now 66 percent, among the highest of the 34 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The government has made it mandatory for companies to offer three more years of work to those turning 62, the official retirement age, and plans to extend that to five years by 2017.

“The earlier mindset that having elderly people working indicates a lack of respect by younger people has changed,” said Theresa Devasahayam, editor of “Gender and Ageing: Southeast Asian Perspectives” and a visiting senior research fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. “There are fewer children to take care of the elderly.”

Global trend

The trend in Singapore is a microcosm of what’s happening across much of the developed world as families shrink and people live longer, increasing the strain on government pension systems.

South Korea, with the fastest-aging population in the OECD, told employers to provide retirement plans for staff starting in 2016 after realizing that its state pension fund may go broke by 2060, when its population over 65 is set to triple.

Germany and the UK plan to raise their retirement ages to 67 from 65, while Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey wants to increase the threshold to 70, the highest in the world.

Singapore has gone a step further. Rather than simply extending the working age, the government is encouraging companies to bring retirees back into the workforce. New registrations by those over 60 at state-run career centers, which help find jobs and retrain workers, almost doubled to 4,799 in 2013, from 2,494 in 2008.

“This is a huge change that has enormous social consequences that we haven’t fully grasped yet,” said Randolph Tan, an associate professor at SIM University in Singapore and a nominated member of parliament. “I’m not sure there’s much benefit to be had from raising the age any further.”

Better society

The push to hire older workers follows an attempt to increase the population by as much as 25 percent by 2030 through immigration, a policy that prompted a public backlash as the arrival of migrants pushed up property prices and strained public transport. More than 40 percent of the country’s population was born abroad.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong responded by tightening rules for foreign workers, warning that the cost may be higher taxes over the next two decades. In his New Year statement on Dec. 31, Lee said weak productivity gains for three straight years amid a labor crunch was “disappointing.”

“We need to employ all facets of labor of our very small workforce,” said Wai Ho Leong, a Singapore-based senior economist at Barclays, who was previously head of the trade and industry ministry’s microeconomics unit. “Society is better off when older people are active.”

Salmon filleter

To help address the labor shortfall, a committee for the employability of older workers unveiled an advertising campaign last year showcasing a 65-year-old lifeguard, a 76-year-old assistant inventory manager and a 60-year-old salmon filleter.

“Tap Into a Wealth of Experience,” exhorted an ad plastered across the side of a bus driving through the central shopping district, featuring a 58-year-old assistant front office manager at Raffles Hotel.

“Given the tight labor market situation, you actually would find many employers coming forward to say they’re willing to hire older workers,” Senior Minister of State for Manpower Amy Khor said in parliament in September.

Older workers have found jobs in companies including Hotel Royal Plaza on Scotts, Singapore General Hospital and ComfortDelGro, which runs the island’s biggest taxi service, according to the committee. The government in 2012 raised the age limit for taxi drivers to 75 from 73.

Low pay

Singapore offsets part of the costs of hiring elderly workers and companies can tap government funds to redesign jobs and human resource systems for them. Older employees are especially useful for lower-skilled positions that otherwise might not be filled, said Leong at Barclays.

Cleaners, laborers and production and transport operators accounted for the highest numbers of older workers, according to a survey last year by Singapore-based DBS Bank. A majority of the elderly who were employed drew gross monthly incomes of less than S$1,500 ($1,124), it showed.

“When you see elderly people cleaning the pavement in the middle of the day, you have to wonder if this is sustainable,” Devasahayam said. “It’s not practical to expect them to keep doing it; it’s cruel, there’s a moral dimension to it.”

Singapore has pledged to spend S$9 billion on health care and other benefits for the elderly in a so-called Pioneer Generation Package for about 450,000 citizens who were at least 16 years old in 1965, when the country gained independence.

Part time

About one-fifth of Singapore’s employees over 55 work part time, such as Margaret Lee, who retrained after retiring from a childcare center to work two days a week at a school cafeteria.

“It gives me something useful to do, and some extra money to spend,” said Lee, 62, whose husband is retired. Working part time allows her to help look after her grandchildren while their parents are at work.

By 2020, more than a third of Singapore’s population will be over 50, and by 2050 the nation’s median age will be 54, according to the committee on older workers, which includes representatives from government, business and trade unions.

“It has become essential to hire older workers because of the aging population,” said Angelina Toh, co-founder of AJA Enterprises, which adapts buildings to withstand bomb blasts. She said her company employs them in supervisory and marketing roles where they adjust better than foreign workers. “They’re more mature emotionally, more independent,” Toh said.

Longest retirement

Singaporean men live more than 20 years beyond the official retirement age on average and women 25 years, the longest out of the 68 countries in the Global Sunset Index released by Bloomberg Rankings in 2013. While retirees can draw from their pension savings at 55, at least S$155,000 must be kept in the account to provide a steady income stream.

Only one in five Singapore investors is confident their pension accounts will meet their retirement needs, with 47 percent indicating the savings will be insufficient, according to a survey released in August by Toronto-based insurer Manulife Financial.

Auntie Helen says the money from her job in the food court covers her daily expenses and she enjoys chatting with her younger colleagues.

“What else is there for me to do, watch TV?” she said. “I was getting bored at home.”

Bloomberg

Related Articles:

Singapore Population Growth Hits 10-Year Low

Fewer parents in China want a second child than expected
German birth rate hits new low

Dutch Birth rate drops again, economic crisis gets the blame
Seven billion people and climbing, but not everywhere

Dutch centenarians double in 14 years to 2,200

Japan’s Centenarian Population Swells to Record, at Almost 59,000


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”