CPF Board to close 300,000 accounts of non-citizens, non-permanent residents from April 2024
ABOUT 300,000 Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts belonging to non-Singapore citizens and non-permanent residents will be automatically closed from Apr 1, 2024.
The CPF Board on Wednesday (Mar 8) noted that most of these accounts have low balances, with more than two-thirds of the accounts holding less than S$5,000 each.
Owners of these accounts have received contributions from employers, or made voluntary contributions before 2003. They also include former Singapore citizens and permanent residents who have since relinquished their citizenship or permanent residency status.
Account owners will have up until Mar 31, 2024, to transfer their CPF savings to their personal bank accounts. Remaining savings can still be transferred at any time after the accounts’ automatic closures on Apr 1, 2024, but will cease to earn the prevailing CPF interest rate.
Non-Singapore citizen/permanent resident employees who wish to continue saving in Singapore may consider options such as the Supplementary Retirement Scheme, or other relevant commercial investment products, said the CPF Board.
The automatic closure of CPF accounts for all non-Singapore citizens and permanent residents in 2024 comes as the “final step in ensuring that the CPF system focuses on its core objective of catering to the retirement, housing and healthcare needs of (existing) Singapore citizens and permanent residents”, said the CPF Board.
“The purpose of the CPF system is to help Singapore citizens and permanent residents retire with a peace of mind. In line with this, CPF members who are not Singapore citizens and permanent residents will have to close their CPF accounts.”
Prior to 1987, CPF contributions were mandatory for all employees working in Singapore – including those who did not have Singapore citizen and permanent resident status.
The requirement was dropped in 1987, but non-Singapore citizen/permanent resident employees working in Singapore on work permits could opt to contribute to their CPF accounts on a voluntary basis. This was extended to non-Singapore citizen/permanent resident employees working in Singapore on all types of work passes, and not just work permit holders, from 1995.
Non-Singapore citizen/permanent resident employees were disallowed from making voluntary contributions to their CPF accounts from 2003.
Previously, the CPF Board told The Business Times that Singapore citizens and permanent residents renouncing their citizenship or residency statuses were “strongly encouraged” to close their CPF accounts, as these members had no intention of retiring in Singapore.
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