What happens to your CPF at 55

The official rule

What CPF does at 55

When you turn 55, four things happen to your CPF.

Sources: CPF Board, reaching age 55 and withdrawal of CPF savings for property owners, checked 12 Oct 2026

Retirement sums by the year you turn 55

The Full Retirement Sum (FRS) is always twice the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS). The Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS), the most you can top your RA up to, was 3 times the BRS for members turning 55 up to 2024 and is 4 times the BRS from 2025.

CPF has announced the sums up to members turning 55 in 2027.

Sources: CPF Board, how much is my Basic Retirement Sum? and what is the current Enhanced Retirement Sum?, checked 5 Oct 2026

How your plan models it

How your plan models it

You enter today’s Ordinary (OA), Special (SA) and MediSave (MA) balances from your CPF statement, once per person. Your plan carries each one forward to age 100. At 55 it forms your RA from your SA first, then your OA, and works out a CPF LIFE payout.

Interest

Each account earns its own base rate every year. The first $60,000 of your combined OA, SA and MA balances also earns an extra 1%, though at most $20,000 of it can come from your OA. From 55, the RA earns the same 4% as the SA and MA.

The extra 1% is counted on your OA first (up to $20,000), then your SA, then your MA, until the $60,000 is used up. This is the same order CPF uses.

Contribution rates by age

While you work and your income attracts CPF, your plan caps your monthly income at that year’s wage ceiling. It then applies the employee and employer rates for your age, and splits the total across your accounts using the allocation table below.

These are the 2026 rates. From 2027, the 56 to 60 band is 19.0% employee and 16.5% employer (35.5% total), and the 61 to 65 band is 13.0% employee and 13.0% employer (26.0% total). Other bands stay the same. Your plan uses the rates for each calendar year and rounds the way CPF does.

Sources: CPF Board contribution rates from 1 January 2026 and 1 January 2027 (PDFs), checked 12 Oct 2026

The wage ceiling

Only the part of your monthly income up to the wage ceiling attracts CPF. Income above it doesn’t.

A plan that starts in 2026 opens at $8,000, one that starts in 2025 opens at $7,400, and one that starts before 2023 opens at $6,300. The ceiling then holds at $8,000 through 2031 and grows 5% every 5 years from 2032.

How contributions are split

The year’s total contribution is split across your OA, SA and MA by age band, the same split CPF publishes. From 55 the SA has closed, so the SA column goes to your RA.

Sources: CPF Board allocation rates from 1 January 2026 and 1 January 2027 (PDFs), checked 12 Oct 2026

Retirement sums in your plan

Your plan holds the BRS on record for members turning 55 from 2022 to 2027. For any later year, it grows the 2027 figure by 3.5% a year. The FRS is always 2 times the BRS. Your plan uses 4 times the BRS as the ERS for every year, including the years before 2025 when CPF’s ERS was 3 times the BRS. For members who turned 55 in 2022 to 2024, that pairs CPF’s ERS payout, which CPF set at 3 times the BRS, with 4 times the BRS, so the payout for an RA above the FRS comes out lower than CPF’s.

Which tier you land in

At 55, your plan compares your combined OA and SA with your BRS and rounds the ratio down. So a balance from exactly 1 times up to just under 2 times the BRS lands fully on the Basic tier, never a blend.

This is a simplification. CPF moves your savings into your RA up to the FRS whatever the ratio. With 1 to 2 times the BRS, your plan sets aside only the BRS, as if you had pledged a property, and leaves the rest in your OA, where your plan can draw on it. With 4 times the BRS or more, your plan sets aside the ERS, which CPF only does if you top up yourself.

Your RA is formed from your SA first, then your OA, up to the retirement sum. Your SA then closes, and any SA above the retirement sum moves to your OA. If you’re pro-rated, your whole OA and SA go into the RA and nothing is left over.

Your OA stays open, and is drawn on first

Your OA stays open after 55. It keeps earning 2.5%, keeps receiving its share of your contributions and can still pay for your home. The amount above your retirement sum isn’t paid out as cash. From 55, your plan can draw on your OA when your cash runs short, before it sells anything else. See Cash and assets for the full order.

After 55, year by year

If you’re already 55 or older, the SA balance you enter is treated as your RA (the app labels the field “Retirement Account (RA)”), and the OA balance is your current OA. Your CPF LIFE payout is read off your RA, using the payouts for the group that turned 55 in your year. From 55, your plan applies these rules each year:

1. The RA share of your contribution goes to your RA, up to the FRS in force that year. The rest goes to your OA.
2. The MA share goes to your MA. MediSave above the Basic Healthcare Sum (BHS) overflows to your RA, up to the FRS, then to your OA.
3. The RA earns 4%. The extra interest CPF pays on balances from 55 isn’t modelled.
4. At 65, your RA becomes your CPF LIFE premium. Money added to your RA after 55 raises your payout, and money added after 65 raises it from the next year.
5. MediShield Life, CareShield Life and other premiums you pay from MediSave come out of your MA. Any shortfall is paid in cash.

Two fixed charges also come out of your OA, before and after 55. A Dependants’ Protection Scheme premium is taken every year up to 64, from $18 a year at 34 and below to $298 from 55 to 64, and none from 65. A flat $300 Home Protection Scheme charge is taken in every year you make a property payment from your OA. See the Assumptions reference for the full table.

If your RA falls between two tiers, your payout is worked out in proportion between them, not set to the lower tier.

Basic Healthcare Sum

The BHS is the most your MA can hold. Before 55, CPF moves MediSave above the BHS to your SA. Your plan applies the BHS only from 55. It uses the published figure for each year, then grows it 3.5% a year, the same rate as the retirement sums. At 65 it is fixed for life at that year’s figure. Before 55, your plan doesn’t cap your MA, so MediSave above the BHS keeps growing there.

Source: CPF Board, is there a maximum amount I can save in my MediSave Account?, checked 12 Oct 2026

CPF LIFE monthly payout

Each tier has its own payout table, keyed by the year you turn 55, not the year you turn 65. Payouts start at 65. For later groups, your plan keeps the latest payout per dollar of retirement sum, so the payout rises in line with the retirement sums.

Payouts for 2022 to 2026 are on record, with the 2026 row from CPF's June 2026 table. CPF hasn't published the payouts for the 2027 group, so 2027 and later groups are projected from the 2026 payout per dollar of retirement sum, scaled to the projected BRS. For 2022 to 2024 the Enhanced payout is CPF's figure at 3 times the BRS, but your plan reaches it only at 4 times.

Source: CPF Board, how much CPF payouts can I get every month?, checked 5 Oct 2026

Self-employed MediSave

If your income comes from self-employment, your plan skips the employee and employer contributions above. It applies the compulsory MediSave contribution instead, based on your projected net trade income (NTI) and age, and credits it the following year.

Nothing is owed if your net trade income is $6,000 or less a year. Between $12,000 and $18,000 the amount phases in, so it never drops as your income rises. Above $18,000 the rate in that column applies to your whole NTI, up to the yearly cap.

What you enter in the app

The CPF part of your plan asks for one thing per person: today’s OA, SA and MA balances, copied from your CPF statement. The fields start empty on purpose, because a placeholder balance would quietly throw off every projection after it. See Money in and out for where this sits in the app.

Citizenship decides whether CPF applies at all. If a person’s citizenship is “Others”, your plan has no CPF projection for them. Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents always get one.