Singapore brings retirement age 65 and re-employment 70 forward to 2029

Singapore brings retirement age 65 and re-employment 70 forward to 2029

26 October 2026: Singapore will raise its statutory Retirement Age from 64 to 65 and its Re-employment Age from 69 to 70 on 1 January 2029, a year ahead of the 2030 schedule. The change is one of six recommendations from the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment, published on 26 October, which the government says it "fully accepts".

Not yet independently verified. The dates and measures come from the Ministry of Manpower's release; the payment and grant amounts have not been published, and we did not read the full workgroup report. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Employers get two years' notice of the age change and new support schemes from 2028, but not the money: the ministry says further details of the measures will come in the first half of 2027.

What changes for employers, and when

The age change means an employer may not retire an eligible worker before 65, and must offer re-employment up to 70, from the start of 2029. Two employer schemes are being replaced:

• Flexi-Load Programme: replaces the Part-Time Re-employment Grant when that expires at the end of 2027. It helps employers meet the transitional costs of part-time or fractional roles, such as redesigning jobs, systems and policies built around full-time work, and its funding will be tied to employers creating additional flexi-load roles.
• Re-Employment Credit: from 2028, replacing the Senior Employment Credit that expires in 2027, to support hiring and keeping workers beyond the statutory ages.

The recommended minimum and maximum Employment Assistance Payment, the sum paid to an eligible worker who is not offered re-employment, will rise to reflect wage growth since the amounts were last updated in 2022.

Pay, tax and lower-wage seniors

Seniors who keep working beyond the Retirement Age and Re-employment Age would pay less tax through an enhanced Earned Income Relief. For lower-wage seniors, the Workfare Income Supplement will be enhanced and the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme, which co-funds employers' wage increases, will be updated.

A new programme office for career longevity, led by the Skills and Workforce Development Agency with NTUC and the employers' federation SNEF, will help workers plan career and skills changes and help employers adopt age-inclusive practices.

How the workgroup got here

The workgroup was convened in July 2025 and consulted more than 1,000 employers, union representatives, workers, HR professionals and academics, building on the 2019 Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers. Pilots under an industry alliance on multi-stage careers, run by 30 organisations, covered training, job matching, alternative employment models and phased retirement for more than 1,600 senior workers.

For HR and payroll teams the practical work is in the systems: retirement and re-employment triggers keyed to ages 64 and 69, eligibility rules for the credit and grant that replace the current ones, and Employment Assistance Payment calculations, all of which change once the 2027 details land. Our HR analytics software category lists 15 products and our payroll software category 13.

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Sources

• Ministry of Manpower: Tripartite Workgroup recommends six measures to build age-friendly jobs and multi-generational workplaces, 26 October 2026