NEWS
Study reveals dire needs of Malaysian pensioners
27 August 2012
Category:
News, Asia, Malaysia
A new study on retirement trends in East Asia has revealed the rising vulnerability of Malaysians due to the early retirement age there, the low rates of pension receipt under the Employees' Provident Fund and the lack of old-age poverty floor.
The study, "Balancing Tradition and Modernity: The Future of Retirement in East Asia," is based on a survey from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) conducted in Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
The CSIS East Asia Retirement Survey reveals that a dramatic 92% of current retirees in Malaysia report they had already left the workforce by age 60, and suggests Malaysia's pattern of premature retirement will likely continue.
Malaysia is the only country in the survey whose fertility rate is above the 2.1 replacement level and the only one that will have a growing population and workforce in the coming decades, the report said.
"In China, the elderly share of the population will be approaching 30% by 2040 -– and in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan it will be approaching 40%. In Malaysia, it will still be under 20%," it said.
Malaysia's early mandatory retirement age, however, offsets its demographic advantage in building an adequate and sustainable retirement system, the report added.
The survey revealed that four out of five of today's retirees in Malaysia worry about "being poor and in need of money," becoming "a burden on their children," and being "in ill health and having no one to care for them" -– much larger shares than in any of the other survey countries.
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