The CPF retirement sum
The law prescribes ONE retirement sum for your cohort, and caps how much of it may be met with property rather than cash. It does not prescribe a smaller sum for property owners. The amount that applies to you is fixed by the date you turn 55 and does not move afterwards. The figures come from the Regulations themselves; none has been through our final sign-off.
There is one retirement sum for your cohort — and up to 50% of it may be met by the member's property component instead of cash.
The law does not prescribe a smaller sum for property owners. It prescribes the same sum for everyone in your cohort and caps how much of it may be met with property rather than cash. Same money, different composition.
The sum that applies to you is fixed by when you turn 55
The retirement sum applicable to you is set by the date you reach 55, and it does not move afterwards. Somebody turning 55 this year is on this year’s row for life; somebody who turned 55 in 2019 stays on the 2019 row, whatever later rows say. That is why the table below is a list of cohorts rather than a history of one changing number.
For the cohort reaching 55 on or after 1 jan 2026, the retirement sum applicable is S$220,400. Because at most 50% of it may be met by the member's property component, at least S$110,200 of it has to be cash.
55 is not a payout age. It is the age at which this obligation starts to apply.
| You attain 55 | Retirement sum applicable |
|---|---|
| 1 Jul 2004 – 1 Jul 2005 | S$84,500 |
| 1 Jul 2005 – 1 Jul 2006 | S$90,000 |
| 1 Jul 2006 – 1 Jul 2007 | S$94,600 |
| 1 Jul 2007 – 1 Jul 2008 | S$99,600 |
| 1 Jul 2008 – 1 Jul 2009 | S$106,000 |
| 1 Jul 2009 – 1 Jul 2010 | S$117,000 |
| 1 Jul 2010 – 1 Jul 2011 | S$123,000 |
| 1 Jul 2011 – 1 Jul 2012 | S$131,000 |
| 1 Jul 2012 – 1 Jul 2013 | S$139,000 |
| 1 Jul 2013 – 1 Jul 2014 | S$148,000 |
| 1 Jul 2014 – 1 Jul 2015 | S$155,000 |
| 1 Jul 2015 – 1 Jan 201718 months, not 12 | S$161,000 |
| 1 Jan 2017 – 1 Jan 2018 | S$166,000 |
| 1 Jan 2018 – 1 Jan 2019 | S$171,000 |
| 1 Jan 2019 – 1 Jan 2020 | S$176,000 |
| 1 Jan 2020 – 1 Jan 2021 | S$181,000 |
| 1 Jan 2021 – 1 Jan 2022 | S$186,000 |
| 1 Jan 2022 – 1 Jan 2023 | S$192,000 |
| 1 Jan 2023 – 1 Jan 2024 | S$198,800 |
| 1 Jan 2024 – 1 Jan 2025 | S$205,800 |
| 1 Jan 2025 – 1 Jan 2026 | S$213,000 |
| on or after 1 Jan 202618 months, not 12 | S$220,400 |
One band in that table is eighteen months long
Every band runs twelve months except one: the schedule’s anniversary moved from 1 July to 1 January, and the band spanning the move covers eighteen. If you turned 55 in the second half of 2016, you are in the earlier band and not the next one — which is worth checking rather than assuming, because it is the one place in the table where counting forward in years gives the wrong row.
The CPF Board’s three names are names for this one rule
The Board publishes three figures — and they are the Board’s vocabulary for the composition rule above, not three different sums the law prescribes. Read as three sums they produce a specific false belief, which is worth stating plainly:
"You only need the Basic Retirement Sum if you own property" is false. You always need the full retirement sum applicable to your cohort; up to half of it may be met by a property component instead of cash. Same money, different composition.
| The Board’s name | What it is in law |
|---|---|
| Full Retirement Sum | THE retirement sum applicable — RG31 First Schedule. Not one of three sums; the sum. |
| Basic Retirement Sum | The CASH FLOOR implied by reg 4(1)(b)(ii)'s 50 % property cap. NOT a separate prescribed sum, and not a lower obligation for property owners. |
| Enhanced Retirement Sum | A voluntary top-up CEILING published by the Board. Not cohort-fixed, and not an obligation at all. |
The 50% cap is where a nine-year taper ended
It is not a setting that happens to be at half this year. For the cohorts reaching 55 between 1995 and 2004 the rule was stated in explicit columns — a minimum in cash beside a maximum in property — and the share that could be property fell every single year, from 90% to exactly 50%, where it has stayed for every cohort since.
| Attained 55 | Retirement sum | Minimum in cash | Maximum in property | Property share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 1995 – 1 Jul 1996 | S$40,000 | S$4,000 | S$36,000 | 90.0% |
| 1 Jul 1996 – 1 Jul 1997 | S$45,000 | S$8,000 | S$37,000 | 82.2% |
| 1 Jul 1997 – 1 Jul 1998 | S$50,000 | S$12,000 | S$38,000 | 76.0% |
| 1 Jul 1998 – 1 Jul 1999 | S$55,000 | S$16,000 | S$39,000 | 70.9% |
| 1 Jul 1999 – 1 Jul 2000 | S$60,000 | S$20,000 | S$40,000 | 66.7% |
| 1 Jul 2000 – 1 Jul 2001 | S$65,000 | S$25,000 | S$40,000 | 61.5% |
| 1 Jul 2001 – 1 Jul 2002 | S$70,000 | S$30,000 | S$40,000 | 57.1% |
| 1 Jul 2002 – 1 Jul 2003 | S$75,000 | S$35,000 | S$40,000 | 53.3% |
| 1 Jul 2003 – 1 Jul 2004 | S$80,000 | S$40,000 | S$40,000 | 50.0% |
What this page covers, and what it does not
The table above is the scheme that applies to everyone who turned 55 from July 2004 onwards, covered in full. Two earlier schemes cover earlier cohorts, and one of them works in a different way rather than with different numbers — which scheme applies to you sets out both, with their windows and their shapes. For when money is actually paid, and why this site works out no payout figure, see CPF LIFE payouts.