The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board has publicly responded to a Facebook post that had been making the rounds on Singaporean social media last week, in which a local man named Lim Koh Leong stated that he was denied a request by CPF officials to withdraw money from his CPF account — which he intended to use to pay his daughter’s tuition fees — despite having the necessary funds.
The statutory board took to Facebook on Friday, June 28 to tell its side of the story — according to CPF, Lim did not have enough savings accrued for retirement, and hence “allowing him to use his CPF for his daughter’s education is not appropriate.”
In the post, the board added that Lim has since been contacted by its staffers, who have advised him on the alternative options available to him — and that The Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, the school that his daughter is set to study in, “will also be in touch with him.”
In Lim’s original Facebook post published last Wednesday, June 26, he recounted his experience of speaking to a staff member at the CPF Building.
According to Lim, he was told that he was not allowed to withdraw the requested portion of the funds because his salary did not meet the “lowest deposit threshold.”
He said that he tried to explain that the purpose of withdrawing the money — to pay for his daughter’s tuition — and that the CPF staff replied that though he “can apply, the chance of it is zero.”
“Right now in my CPF there is 70,000+, I only need 15,000 to pay for my daughter’s school fees,” wrote Lim, who lamented the difficulty of financing his daughter’s tuition given the fact that he is 60-years-old and “does not have a stable job.”
In his emotional post, Lim said that he “felt cheated, humiliated and angry.”
“So many years of hard work, sweat and tears to earn the money and it’s inside CPF. It is supposed to be my money. I’m in need of it and yet, I cannot take my own money to help pay my daughter’s school fees.”
“Do I really have to resort to borrowing money and loans when I got my money in my CPF? Should I be forced to stop my daughter’s education?” he asked.
In an updated post published on Saturday, June 29, Lim said that the issue over funding his daughter’s tuition had been resolved with the help of those around him. He also gave thanks to those who helped out.
Lim’s experience, however, sparked an active debate across Singaporean social media. Many citizens felt that their own experiences resonated with his encounter and argued that the he should be allowed to do whatever he wants with his own hard-earned CPF savings. Others empathized with Lim but also stressed the importance of having sufficient funds in the CPF account to retire.
