Public service extends re-employment age to 67

SINGAPORE – The Public Service will formalise arrangements to offer re-employment to all eligible officers till age 67, announced the Public Service Division (PSD) today (Oct 2).

This will benefit some 800 public officers turning 65 next year, said the PSD.

Public officers are currently re-employed up to age 65 when they reach the statutory retirement age of 62.

“As one of the largest employers in Singapore, the Public Service, which has 139,000 officers, will take the lead to re-employ officers up to age 67. This decision to extend the re-employment age by two years is taken in consultation with the ministries, statutory boards and public sector unions,” said the PSD in a statement released this evening.

Currently, public agencies are already voluntarily re-employing officers beyond age 65 as long as they wish to continue working and can contribute to the work of the agencies. The PSD said there are about 1,000 public officers re-employed beyond age 65 today.

“Re-employment allows the public service to continue tapping on our seniors’ wealth of knowledge and experience. It also allows our older colleagues to remain meaningfully engaged,” said Mr James Wong, Deputy Secretary (Policy), Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office.

The guidelines for such public service re-employment will take reference from the Tripartite Advisory on re-employment, released by the Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers earlier this week.

The guidelines state that eligible officers who wish to continue working can do so on the same job with the same pay and benefits, provided the job is available.