Understanding the needs of young seniors in Singapore

Challenge

Singapore is a super-aged society and there are evolving challenges and uncertainties that come with ageing, such as employability, health and retirement security.

While Singaporeans are living longer, a significant portion of it are spent in poor health, which also impacts their ability to work and secure finances for retirement.

Leap201 thus aims to understand what currently stops young seniors (aged 50-59) from retiring well and how to address these barriers. This involved understanding how (young) seniors in three- and four-room HDB flats perceive their finances, housing, caregiving, health, work and retirement.

These insights formed the basis for preliminary cross-cutting policy recommendations, which in turn, were developed and refined in close engagement with relevant key stakeholders.

Approach

Verian was commissioned to conduct a study to understand the needs of young seniors and co-create recommendations to address these needs.

Methodology:

• N=20 In-depth interviews with seniors (50-70 years old, 3- or 4-room HDB flat owners):

  • An exploratory discussion with the participants on work, health, ageing and caregiving.

  • Through these discussions, we identified:

    • A more defined target group for the next phase of the study: 50-59yos, 3-room HDB flat owners.

    • 3 key policy pillars – plan (supporting retirement planning); work (enabling employment); care (supporting working caregivers).
      

• N=1,000 surveys of young seniors (50-59 years old, 3-room HDB flat owners):
  
  
  • Convenience sampling; 10% online panel, 90% online face-to-face interviews.
    
    
  • Focus on challenges and barriers faced in the 3 key pillars, as well as perceptions towards intervention ideas to address these challenges.
    

• The client also simultaneously engaged with n=20 organisations to get on-the-ground insights on the issues and live feedback on preliminary recommendations.

Impact

All of this ultimately culminated in a roundtable involving leading stakeholders in these areas from public, people and private sectors as panellists. Representatives from various organisations also attended the session to observe the session. During the roundtable,

• Amy, Director of Policy Development & Evaluation, Verian, presented the findings of the research to the panellists and observers.

• Leap presented preliminary recommendations based on the findings.

• Sandra Lim, Regional President (Southeast Asia), Verian, moderated a lively discussion on each of the 3 key pillars.

From the research and the roundtable, we were able to identify and refine key recommendations that will better support young seniors to age better through expanded options and closer support in retirement planning, work and caregiving.

• One of the key needs identified was that nearly 60% of Singaporeans’ wealth is locked in housing. Simultaneously, 66% of young senior respondents are concerned that their CPF LIFE payout will not sufficiently cover their basic retirement expenses, and a further 10% are unsure if it will.

• A key recommendation to address this was to expand housing monetisation options for young seniors to strengthen retirement security, particularly by lowering the qualifying age for an existing HDB scheme – the Lease Buyback Scheme – and offering more flexibility to transfer the lease to more suitable options as seniors age (e.g. Community Care Apartments). This will allow homeowners to unlock more value from their flats without compromising the sense of security one gets from owning their home.

The research and the key recommendations are springboards for further work with various relevant government and non-profit organisations aimed at better supporting (young) seniors in Singapore, with attendees of the roundtable already indicating interest in utilising the research to inform their own interventions.

For more information about the study, read the coverage in The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao.