In Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, the Central Provident Fund (Abbreviation

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...

: CPF; Chinese: 公积金, Pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: Gōngjījīn) is a compulsory comprehensive savings plan for working Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

ans and permanent resident

Permanent residency

Permanent residency refers to a person's visa status: the person is allowed to reside indefinitely within a country of which he or she is not a citizen. A person with such status is known as a permanent resident....

s primarily to fund their retirement

Retirement

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...

, healthcare and housing

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

 needs. It is administered by the Central Provident Fund Board, a statutory board

Statutory boards of the Singapore Government

The statutory boards of the Singapore Government are organisations that have been given autonomy to perform an operational function. They usually report to one specific ministry.*Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority...

 under the Ministry of Manpower

Ministry of Manpower (Singapore)

The Ministry of Manpower is a ministry of the Government of Singapore that directs the formulation and implementation of policies related to manpower in Singapore.-Mission:...

. The CPF was started on 1 July 1955.
The British colonial authority in Singapore introduced the CPF in 1955 as a compulsory savings scheme so as to allow workers to save for their retirement, 10 years after the end of the Japanese Occupation

Japanese Occupation of Singapore

The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...

 when people were struggling to make ends meet.

With Singapore's entrance into developed status, life expectancy

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...

 rose with the rising living standards.