Life After Retirement - Singapore’s Society
“The floor of his one-room flat was sticky, and there was a lingering dampness in the air. It took a while before the frail 79-year-old finally admitted to nurse Y. that he had no one to help him apply the eye drops to his cataract-ridden eyes.” Retirement, as defined by Cambridge Dictionary, is the act of leaving one’s job and stopping work. This essay looks at different aspects of an elderly person's life that influences their life after retirement; particularly their social life, health issues and how gender affects the elderly person's financial planning. Admittedly, there are many other factors and aspects that should be looked into. However, we chose to delve into the aspects as per mentioned as it is of greater magnitude to us and we would want to discuss the ways the effects are mitigated in the context of Singapore’s society.
Undoubtedly, gender plays a significant role in the quality of life after retirement and therefore it is important for us to look into the problems that could diminish the quality of life after retirement. Men and women are innately equal, but social structures often causes significant gender inequalities as what Therborn (2013) calls ‘existential crisis’. In most societies, working men and women are treated differently; be it in work, status or pay. This occupational inequality shapes experiences in people’s working lives and it would therefore determine the type of experiences in life after retirement. The demographic of one’s adulthood would therefore affect how financially prepared they are when entering retirement.
Women suffer greater difficulties in later life as compared to their male counterparts due to their longer life expectancy. Consequently, those with inadequate financial resources suffer from relative poverty longer, hence making up the majority of those in that bracket. We define relative poverty as a person experiencing a struggle to afford standard living patterns and therefore be denied opportunities and activities enjoyed by an average person. This may be due to the fact that many women choose not to work leading into their elderly life and retired life. However, one should take considerable notice that in many societies women are rarely found in the highest-level occupation such as directorship and generally have a lower pay. It is disbelieving that the gender inequalities in the workforce (it being an issue of its own) would lead to a life of retirement that particularly disbenefits women. From our standpoint, the ramifications of gender inequalities in the workforce should therefore be thwart with benefits directed to elderly women.
In Singapore’s context, gender inequality is prominent in the Central Provident Fund (CPF) scheme. CPF is a comprehensive social security system that enables working Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents to set aside funds for retirement. It is a work-based scheme, excluding anyone who has not been in the workforce such as housewives, the disabled and the pioneer generation of women who worked in home-based industries and were not paid. In most developed countries, retirement schemes are usually multipronged, whereas in Singapore we depend on a single-tier retirement financing system of mandatory savings during working years. This is unfair to women since they have lower labour force participation rates and shorter work histories due to childcare responsibilities, which can consequently affect their financial resources available in life after retirement. According to Chia (2019), Singaporean women have 17 percent less retirement savings than men, despite Singapore being among the world’s best nations for gender equality.
In our judgement, the system of retirement savings is insufficient especially for women who did not contribute to the workforce before entering retirement. Singapore should take up better forms of a government financed social pension so as to ensure these elderly will receive sufficient level of financial security after retirement. One policy Singapore could adopt is the 'fruit money' scheme practiced in Hong Kong, where everyone upon reaching the age of 70 receives HK$1,090 (S$175) per month without having to declare their means.
Another important factor that requires interrogation regarding the quality of life after retirement of an elderly person is their level of social engagement, notably whether the elderly have chosen to engage or disengage themselves from any form of social support after retirement; be it from society, family or friends. A high level of social engagement is assumed to be ideal, as there is shown to be a positive correlation between social engagement and involvement with ‘quality of life’ in later life. This is greatly epitomized in idealistic terms by advocates of activity theory. What is deemed to be less quintessential would be when a retired elderly chooses to detach themselves from their society on their own will, which is supported by the disengagement theory.
One would enjoy a better quality of life after retirement if they choose to be proponents of the activity theory as opposed to the disengagement theory. The activity theory argues that in order to retain one’s psychological well-being, one must maintain high level of active social participation. It also mentions that to attain successful aging, the elderly ‘should find substitutes for the activities which they had to give up, e.g. work – if they were forced to retire, clubs and associations, friends and loved ones whom they had lost by death’. It is therefore important for the elderly to maintain social engagement by involving themselves in activities within the society such as with friends or family. In the same vein, maintaining such social engagement would be a crucial factor in healing, especially for those elderly suffering from mental and medical illnesses. This is because the social relationship created by maintaining social contact would delay functional decline, death and depression. By the same token, an elderly person who is involved in social activities would portray greater mental health and physical status. More will be discussed in the later paragraph regarding the implications of social isolation on the elderly person’s health.
However, an elderly person who chooses to prescribe to the disengagement theory, unfortunately would not experience a better quality of life after retirement as compared to their counterparts who abrogates it. Much research and studies have been done to show the adverse effects of the elderly who disengage themselves from society. Tierneyet al. (2004) acknowledged that reduced social support is a factor for harm among the elderly who are cognitively impaired and resides alone. Similarly, reduced social contact, isolation and feelings of loneliness were associated with reduced quality of old people’s lives. It is therefore important for the elderly who chooses to live in isolation be given proper help by the society as a whole to facilitate a more graceful life after retirement.
Singapore has made efforts in hopes to increase the social activity of the elderly by creating a conducive living environment that would allow the elderly to expand their social capital. ‘Kampung Admiralty’, Singapore’s first public integrated development with healthcare, social and commercial facilities, it assembles the elderly and settles them in close proximity of one another. We believe an elderly person living in proximity of their peers would greatly change and influence the amount of contact they have with their friends. Their social contact would increase and thereby increase their social interactions which in the end have a positive impact on their well-being. Such efforts could therefore prevent the elderly from disengaging themselves and feeling the negative effects thereof.
Moreover, disengaging themselves would have serious implications on the elderly person's health as mentioned in the previous paragraphs. These health consequences are not confined exclusively to one’s physical wellbeing but has ramifications on psychological health as well. Retirees often find themselves living a rather isolated and sedentary life resulting in loneliness which (contributes to cognitive decline and a higher risk of dementia and disability (Tan, 2016). negatively affecting their physical and psychological well being.
The reason why retirees have reported feelings of loneliness is because a majority of their social interactions often takes place in their workplace. Upon retirement, a significant change pertaining to the spaces that they spend most of their time shifts along with the people they interact with. Considering that the social networks of an elderly person are vastly made up of workmates as workplaces provides individuals with endless socialising opportunities with colleagues, business partners and customers, leaving the workforce could cause a void in their life. These losses are further aggravated as Tan (2016) highlighted retirees to having lesser interactions with their children and other family members. This could possibly be due to the lack of spare time during employment, thus resulting in a distant kinship.
In our view, the best way to deal with the abundance of time following their retirement as well as the transition of their social roles, retirees could be to compensate it by carrying out social roles associated to their age; being grandparents and caring for their grandchildren or alternatively, participate in activities within the community. The ability to learn new roles and adjust to changes would allow retirees to remain integrated in the society. In many respects, a strong kinship would provide retirees with a strong social support system to fall back on. This mediates the effects of adversity as well as other stressful life events such as retirement.
However, evidence has shown that social isolation is most common amongst retirees whom are living with their families. It comes to show that isolation is not only confined to the idea of being socially reclusive but could manifest even in their own homes. The feeling of loneliness stems as one experiences a decline in their social circle due to lesser interactions as well as losing friends to their ‘biological expiry dates’ in line with the wear and tear theory. A study carried out by Ge, Yap, Ong & Heng (2017), highlighted the importance of friendship in preventing or alleviating depression. This is consistent with existing retirement literature that showcased how retirement leads to more profound feeling of loneliness and would kindle depressive moods leading to a decline in cognitive functions. Thus, though retirement allows retirees with more time in pursuing their interests, the social losses and losses in personal achievement that one faces upon retirement causes them to perceive their ageing process in a more pessimistic note.
Furthermore, due to the increased longevity of Singaporeans, Singapore has taken steps to monitor the physical and physiological health of the retirees through community screening like Public Health Service, where one of their key focus is on geriatrics. Cognitive function is also measured by the community screening instrument for dementia, a 32-item questionnaire, and this can be used to detect early signs of dementia and take preventive actions. Even though physical and psychological health may be affected by retirement, Singapore have continuously made efforts on prevention and cure techniques to make elderly life enjoyable))
As the saying goes, “Pessimism leads to weakness and optimism leads to power”, it is therefore in our estimation that addressing social issues faced by the elderly would in the end also address their health issues. As mentioned earlier, where isolation could possibly diminish the health of the elderly, from our standpoint we would say that many of the elderly health issues may be a result of the social issues that they face. The aspects of social and health are therefore heavily intertwined. On that end, we should therefore target the social issues mentioned in earlier paragraph faced by the elderly in order to circumvent their persistent health issues.
The aspects of the elderly person's life that were mentioned should not be seen as a stand-alone risk factor in affecting the life of retirement in the elderly. These aspects should be seen to intertwine with one another and are to be given equal urgency in dealing with their shortcomings. Elderly people who retire should be able to sit back and enjoy all they have done during their years of work. We should address and abrogate these shortcomings in our society in the way we treat our elderly. Looking back at the life of Mr H, it disappoints us that such living conditions of the elderly are still prevalent in modern day Singapore. We couldn't help but wonder if the fate of the older generations to come including ourselves would face such neglect from our own society. Certainly, more could be done for our elderly and even if others are unfazed, we could simply start by showing a little empathy.
