Measures at dealing with the ageing population

Measures at dealing with the ageing population

1. Creating an elderly friendly environment

   • main and interim upgrading programme
   • lift upgrading programme
   • studio apartment
   • barrier free accessibility
   • SIGNIFICANCE
     • MUP: provides for elderly friendly features in current non retrofitted HDB flats such as grab bars in bathrooms, ramps
     • LUP: lifts to be provided on every level of high rise blocks, where feasible to improve mobility of senior HDB residents
     • Studio apartment: ready to live apartments created with full range of elderly friendly features to be sold to the elderly only (golden jasmine)
     • BFA: public transport, public amenities
   • LIMITATIONS
     • suitability: not all area are suitable to be made elderly friendly (due to some design feature, a few estates have not been able to implement lift upgrading)
     • cost barrier: requires constant funding for various measures to be implemented
     • awareness/publicity: challenge of getting elderly to be aware of such measures being put in place
     • public opposition: studio apartment for elderly may significantly contribute to a rise in the elderly pop of that estate.may not be popular among other residents

2. Raising the productivity of seniors

   • extending the retirement age: min at 62 but employers required to offer employment till 65
   • retraining older workers: 420 continuous education training centres/ $600 million skills programme for upgrading and resilience
   • decreasing employer;s contributions to CPF for workers over 65
   • creating job positions suitable for less mobile elderly workers+machinery to reduce physical strain (Singpost)
   • SIGNIFICANCE
     • increasing the no. of people in the workforce to mitigate the effects of the shrinking working population
     • employers can tap on the experience/expertise of older workers especially in the service sector
     • elderly workers also seen to be more loyal compared to younger workers who may easily move in search for greener pastures
     • funding by the gov alleviates cost for employers to retrain older workers and provide an economic incentive
     • increase availability of retraining schemes, so less excuse for employers not to offer reemployment
   • LIMITATIONS
     • considerable cost to retrying older workers may be a limiting factor
     • natural difficulty for elderly to relearn/adapt to technology may make them less desirable for rehiring for jobs in the manufacturing sector
     • although elderly can be rehired, they may have to suffer a pay cut
     • ageist practices/discrimination against elderly may still persist
     • given longer life expectancy, raising the age of retirement for re employm ent to 65 will still leave most with 20 years to live on their own savings

3. Shared responsibility for seniors: many helping hands approach