Singapore’s ageing population

Soon, Singapore will be greeting another generation of people, born in the postwar baby boom period from 1946 to 1964, who are entering their 60s. This indicates that Singapore’s population is gradually ageing away. Ageing population is a byproduct of development. With better standard of living and quality of life, people nowadays enjoy longevity. However, a burgeoning older population also means a wider range of welfare services needed for the maintenance of senior citizens such as better medical care services. Also, city planners will have to include more special infrastructures, especially for old people, in their blueprints. All these actions and planning are costly and may be a burden to the country. Adding to the problem, Singapore is having less young workers to support the senior group due to a falling birth rate. The fund to take care of senior citizens is usually taxes paid by the working group. As a result, the government may have to impose heavier taxations to generate the fund. Thus, ageing population posts a great burden to the working population as well as a great challenge to the government.

Although an ageing population will drain a substantial amount of resource, the Singapore government seems to be prepared to deal with this upcoming challenge. One of the government’s strategies is to encourage more companies to employ older worker beyond their retirement age. This is a measure the government came out with after it has studied the policies formulated by the Japanese government in dealing with an ageing population. Japan is having an ageing population right now with around 20% of its population being 65 years or above. The fact that it continues to prosper with this considerable number of senior citizens tells the success of their policies. It is important that Singapore learns from Japan to draw up other more comprehensive policies applicable to its own situation. In my opinion, this movement is beneficial. When older workers are kept in the workforce for a longer time, they would be able to generate their own income and pay for their own maintenance costs, such as medical fees, without depending too much on the welfare system. The burden on the dwindling young population will be much reduced.

The reason why many companies reject older people’s job applications is that they believe older workers tend to be less physically fit than younger workers and their productivity may be low. In fear of compromising their companies’ sustainability, many tend not to engage them. However, they should take note that among the older generation, there are skilled senior citizen, who are well equipped with knowledge, talents and experiences that have been accumulated over their years of participation in the nation’s economic development programmes. We could discover a valuable pool of skilled workers from the older population. Undoubtedly, they are capable to serve as mentors and advisors to the companies. For example, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, though has stepped down, continues to served the nation via mentoring younger politicians to help shape the leadership qualities of the nation’s future leaders and providing valuable advices to policy makers. Also, this concern over older workers’ competency is not a big problem right now, as the government is willing to provide training subsidies to train senior citizens to ensure their employability. With this measure in place, older workers’ skills will be upgraded and their capability would be comparable to that of young workers. According to a Straits Times article, the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) will bear 90 per cent of the training cost should a company decide to retrain their older workers.

Besides, a tripartite alliance—comprising the NTUC, employer and the Government—has also been established to draw up a list of fair employment practices towards workers regardless of age, gender, race or religion to ensure the successful launching of this policy.