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Elderly More Anxious About Future
By Loh Chee Kong, TODAYonline
Singapore
June 21, 2005
Singapore's growing elderly population is feeling less well-off and less optimistic about their future, according to the latest survey by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
Carried out in 2003, the Sample Household Survey covered 7,300 households across all HDB towns and estates. In the survey, which is conducted every five years, "household" refers to a group of persons who may or may not be related, living together in a unit.
The proportion of "elderly households" - or households headed by someone who is 65 years and above - in HDB estates has increased from 9.2 per cent in 1998 to 10.7 per cent in 2003, with more elderly living in older towns and estates like Bukit Merah, Queenstown and Bedok.
More elderly persons - from 14.7 per cent in 1998 to 21.1 per cent in the latest study - were also living alone.
While they were generally satisfied with their life, they were also less optimistic about the near future. Only 15.2 per cent felt that their lives would be better five years down the road, compared to 29.7 per cent in the survey done five years before.
Among the various aspects of life they had to rate, they were least satisfied with their health, their household income, medical services and the cost of living - all factors that they also rated as being important to them.
What was worrying, though, is that despite their apparent concerns about financial matters, half of the elderly surveyed had not planned for their retirement. Many in this group said that they were jobless and were more concerned with day-to-day living.
Significantly, while nine in 10 households across Singapore classified themselves as middle class, elderly households seem to have a poorer perception of themselves. In fact, one in five elderly households saw themselves in the lower class of society.
Commenting on the sense of pessimism among his peers from various income groups, 72-year-old Dr P N Avabhani, who lives in a 5-room HDB flat with his mother and wife, said that they might have grown more pessimistic because of the rising cost of living and longer life expectancy.
"Many retirees' lifestyles are based on their income before retirement. In reality, there is always room for pessimism but one has to adjust to circumstances," he said.
Dr Yap Mui Teng, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, who specialises in poverty alleviation policies and issues relating to the elderly, said that this pessimism "may be a reflection of the situation of family members on whom the current generation of Singaporean elderly is highly dependent".
"The economic downturn may affect them indirectly through their family members, even if the elderly themselves are not in the labour market," she said.
"If this is true, then the economic situation - particularly regarding employment - of the working population supporting the elderly needs to be worked on."
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