Which scheme applies to you
Exactly one scheme governs you, decided by when you turned 55, with no comparison between them. Two state a fixed figure for your cohort. The oldest states something different in kind: not a figure at all, but an amount worked out from your own CPF balance at 55. Knowing which one you are under decides what the question even is.
Exactly one scheme governs you
The three schemes below do not overlap and are not compared with one another. The date you turned 55 decides which one applies, and that is the whole test. There is no more-favourable-of and nothing to choose between.
| If you attained 55… | Instrument | What you must set aside is… |
|---|---|---|
| on or after 1 July 2004 | CPF (New Retirement Sum Scheme) Regulations 2004 | a fixed figure for your cohort |
| on or after 1 July 1995 and before 1 July 2004 | CPF (Revised Retirement Sum Scheme) Regulations 1995 | a fixed figure for your cohort |
| on or after 1 January 1987 and before 1 July 1995 | CPF (Retirement Sum Scheme) Regulations 1988 | an amount worked out from your own CPF balance at 55 |
The oldest scheme is a different kind of rule
For the earliest cohorts the amount to set aside was not a figure at all. It depended on the member's cpf balance at 55, excluding the medisave account — nothing at all below the lowest threshold, a share of the balance in the middle, and a fixed ceiling only above the top threshold. Two people in the same cohort with different balances owed different amounts.
| Your CPF balance at 55 | You could withdraw | You had to set aside |
|---|---|---|
| $11,900 or less | the whole balance | nothing |
| more than $11,900 but not more than $23,800 | $11,900 | whatever is left |
| more than $23,800 but not more than $70,800 | half the balance | half of the balance |
| more than $70,800 | the whole balance except $35,400 | S$35,400 |
Worked example: a balance of S$50,000 at 55, in that window
That balance falls in the middle band, so the amount to set aside is S$25,000 — half the balance — and the rest could be withdrawn. It is not S$35,400, which is that cohort’s retirement sum and the ceiling this rule rises to. That figure applies only above the top threshold; reading it as everybody’s answer overstates the obligation for anyone below it.
What we have, and what we do not
The balance tiers here cover ONLY the 1 Apr 1994 – 1 Jul 1995 sub-window. RG16 governs members who attained 55 from 1 Jan 1987, and the tier tables for the earlier sub-windows within that range were not recovered. A page rendering these tiers under RG16's full window heading would overclaim by the uncovered part, so the scheme is named with its window and the tiers are labelled with theirs.
One adjustment sits alongside it
Pension offset (RG16, Second Schedule): Where the member has a pension paying under $272 a month at 60, the amount required to be set aside is the LESSER of a formula result and the Schedule figure. Carried as structure: the formula itself is not reproduced here.
Scope, stated rather than implied
This site covers the current scheme in full — every cohort row is on the retirement sum page. The two earlier schemes are named here with their windows and their shapes so that nobody in an older cohort is left thinking the current table is theirs, but their cohort figures are not reproduced in full. That is a choice about scope, and this sentence is it being disclosed rather than left to be discovered.