KUCHING: Sixty is the eligible age to retire from the workforce and it should remain that way to make way for new workforce for the country.
Senior citizens associations, workers’ unions and the Malaysian Employers Federation are at odds over increasing the official retirement age of 60 years old.
Some said that increasing the retirement age can help seniors to collect more retirement savings for the future but some sees it as obstacle for the younger generation finding jobs.
At the same time, the country is still recovering from the impact of the economy and extending the retirement age would hinder the new generation from the workforce.
Hence, the people interviewed as follows, view that the retirement age should remain at 60 in order to give way for new workers especially those who have the skills and knowledge of modern technology.
Dinisha Donald, 27, security analyst
“There is no need to increase the retirement age, meaning it should stay at 60 years old or lesser. This is because one organisation should consider reliable staff; where the staff is still very capable to carry on duty mentally and physically without any issues and with quality in work outcome.”
Nor Iqbal Mohd Sait, 25, Masters’ Degree student
“I don’t think this is a good idea because it will only cause more negative impact to the financial state of the people. Say the person did withdraw from their retirement savings, they have to understand the consequence of said choice; having a late retirement to make up from the amount. This is an instance where many are to blame and rightly so, but there were some preventives that could be taken and yet were not implemented/considered/as alternative.
Noraini Salleh, 33, self-employed
“I think it is enough that people who are reaching 60 years to retire. It’s because as we are old, we are concerned about health issues so as we are getting old, we need to take care of ourselves better. It’s good to spend time with family and enjoy the time resting after years of working.”
Allisa Affanddy, 26, wealth planner
“I partially agree on the decision to extend the retirement age. This is because the statistics of retirement savings is worrying. As we all can agree on, the older age should have a steady retirement savings as there are many potential risks that could happen especially pertaining medicalisation. This will also leads many youngsters to have less opportunity in job marketplace as they need to wait for this particular group to pension or retire.”
