Singapore brings forward retirement age rise: 65 for retirement, 70 for re-employment from 2029

Singapore's senior workers will be able to retire later, and sooner than originally planned. The Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment, comprising the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), released its report on October 26, and the government has accepted all six recommendations, including bringing forward the final step of the retirement and re-employment age increases by a year.

From January 1, 2029: 65 and 70

Under the new timeline, the statutory retirement age rises from 64 to 65 and the re-employment age from 69 to 70 on January 1, 2029. The retirement age is not a mandatory retirement age but a safeguard: employers cannot ask employees to retire because of their age, and eligible employees must be offered re-employment up to the re-employment age. The two ages were only raised to 64 and 69 this July, with the final step originally scheduled for 2030.

Flexi-load fills a gap in flexible work

The report notes that flexible locations and flexible hours are already fairly common in Singapore, but flexible workloads remain a significant gap: MOM data from 2024 shows that among full-time resident employees aged 50 to 64, 85.5% were offered flexible hours and 78.7% flexible locations, but only 74.5% flexible workloads. The workgroup therefore recommends a new flexi-load programme to help employers create part-time and fractional roles for workers aged 50 and above, taking over when the current Part-Time Re-employment Grant expires at the end of 2027.

Other recommendations include raising the minimum and maximum Employment Assistance Payment employers must pay when they cannot offer re-employment (currently 3.5 months' salary), enhanced Earned Income Relief for those working past the two ages, a new Re-Employment Credit replacing the Senior Employment Credit from 2028, and enhancements to Workfare Income Supplement and the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme for lower-wage seniors. Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash said the point is for seniors who wish to keep working to have genuinely meaningful options. The workgroup was set up in July 2025 and consulted more than 1,000 stakeholders.