CPF LIFE payouts
The Act confers the power to determine your monthly income and states no formula for it — so this page sets out what the Regulations DO fix (the age ladder, the plans, and your power to designate a starting age) and does not work out a figure. There is no single CPF payout age: it depends on your cohort, on your plan, and on a choice you can make.
There is no single CPF payout age
Three separate things decide when your money starts arriving, and none of them is a fixed national number. The Regulations set a specified age that depends on when you turned 55. The plan you are on has its own starting point, and for most plans the Regulations name a concept rather than print an age. And you can designate a starting age yourself, within limits. Anyone quoting you one number for Singapore has answered a different question from the one you asked.
| You attained 55 | Specified age |
|---|---|
| attained 55 before 1 Jan 1999 | 60 |
| 1 Jan 1999 – 1 Jan 2005 | 62 |
| 1 Jan 2005 – 1 Jan 2007 | 63 |
| 1 Jan 2007 – 1 Jan 2009 | 64 |
| attained 55 on or after 1 Jan 2009 | 65 |
The plans, and why this column is not a list of ages
The Regulations schedule 7plans. Only one of them prints a plain age; one gives the later of an age and an event; the rest name a concept the instrument does not fix as a number. That is the schedule’s own wording and it is reproduced here as it stands, rather than resolved into figures it does not give.
| Plan | Monthly income begins at | Refund on death |
|---|---|---|
| LIFE Balanced Planclosed to new applications | the later of 80 and the member's age at the date the plan is issued | Yes |
| LIFE Plus Planclosed to new applications | the prescribed age under s 15(7), or the applicable age | Yes |
| LIFE Income Planclosed to new applications | the prescribed age under s 15(7), or the applicable age | No |
| LIFE Basic Planclosed to new applications | 90 | Yes |
| Immediate Annuity Planclosed to new applications | the member's age at the date the plan is issued | Yes |
| LIFE Standard Planapplies if you choose none | the applicable age | Yes |
| LIFE Escalating Plan | the applicable age | Yes |
You can choose when it starts, within limits
A member whose relevant age is above 60 may, with the Minister's approval, designate 60; or may designate any age not lower than their relevant age.
Why this page does not work out your payout
Not caution, and not a gap in our research: the rule is not there to implement. The Act confers the power to determine the monthly income and neither the Act nor the Regulations state a formula, a factor, a table or a rate for it. A calculator here would be our own invention with a statute’s name on it, and there would be nothing to check it against.
Every other figure on these pages can be traced to a provision and checked. This one cannot, so it is not offered. The CPF Board publishes its own estimates and your CPF account reflects your actual plan and balance.
The Board’s published estimates, with the assumptions they rest on
These are the CPF Board’s figures, not ours and not the law’s. They are shown only together with the assumptions the Board states for them, because without those they read as a promise about your own money rather than an illustration of somebody else’s.
| If you set aside the… | Board’s estimated monthly payout |
|---|---|
| Basic Retirement Sum | S$950 |
| Full Retirement Sum | S$1,780 |
| Enhanced Retirement Sum | S$3,440 |
The Board’s own assumptions: Estimated for members who turn age 55 in 2026 and set aside/top-up the respective amounts, based on the CPF LIFE Standard Plan and CPF interest rate of 4%. One cohort, one of the 7 plans, one assumed interest rate — change any of the three and the figure changes.
Where to go next
For the sum itself and how much of it may be property rather than cash, see the CPF retirement sum. If you turned 55 before July 2004, check which scheme applies to you first — the rule for the earliest cohorts is a different kind of rule.