Singaporean retirees highly dependent on financial support from grown kids: report

70% are living with their children.

Despite Singapore’s strong retirement framework, majority of elderly Singaporeans still rely on their grown children for support during their retirement years.

A survey by the Global Aging Institute and Prudential showed that seventy percent of today’s retirees report living with their grown children, while 29 percent report that they depend on them financially.

“For today’s retirees, the retirement years can be a time of considerable anxiety. The economic circumstances of today’s retirees are far from secure,” the report said.

Nearly one out of five say that they “could not get by at all” without the financial support of their grown children, while two out of five say that the income they have now is “a lot less” than when they were working.

Overall, the median household income of the elderly is just 60 percent of the median income for all households, a lower ratio than anywhere else surveyed except Hong Kong, Malaysia, and South Korea.

“The retirement prospects for today’s workers, although improving, remain uncertain. While a larger share of today’s workers expect to receive benefits from the Central Provident Fund than is the case for today’s retirees, the benefits that most of them receive will be quite modest,” the report said.