On August 22nd the Department of Social Work held the second Ee Peng Liang Memorial Fund Forum. The Guest-of-Honour for the Forum was BG (NS) Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister of State for Manpower and National Development. NUS alumnus Mr Ng Kok Hoe, who was awarded the Ee Peng Liang Memorial Fund Scholarship last year to pursue his PhD in Social Policy at the London School of Economics, presented some findings from his research, titled “Old-age income security and intergenerational co-residence in Hong Kong and Singapore”.
In a very thorough and clear presentation, Mr Ng discussed how the sources of income and the living arrangements for the aged in Singapore and Hong Kong have changed between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. Mr Ng noted that the aged who live with their children are more financially secure. However the number of elderly living with their children here is going down; as Singapore’s retirement income system is built on inter-generational family support, he said, the sustainability of the current system, particularly related to CPF, is in doubt. Some of the more shocking findings showed the income and assets disparity between the sexes going into retirement.
Guest-of-Honour , BG (NS) Tan Chuan-Jin, spoke on meeting the challenge of securing retirement adequacy in the face of an ageing population. He remarked that Mr Ng’s presentation broughtup some interesting issues which will be further analyzed by policy makers.
Mr Gerald Ee, Chairman of the National Kidney Foundation and son of the late Mr Ee Peng Liang, also spoke on the hopes for his father’s legacy. The event is named after the late Dr Ee, widely acknowledged as Singapore’s Father of Charity and a founder member of what is today called the National Council of Social Service, and the Community Chest.