Singapore Democratic Party's Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan has made public an exchange he had with the CPF Board.

On Oct. 13, Chee had breakfast at Bukit Batok West Ave 6. He had publicly asked people to join him and have a chat.

Two residents allegedly faced troubles withdrawing CPF funds

Later that day, he shared a Facebook post that claimed one resident in his early 60s told him that he had to continue working even though he wished to retire.

This resident said he has S$247,000 in his CPF, but could not withdraw his funds.

Another resident in his 60s said that he suffered from an illness and could not work for two years.

He wrote to CPF and asked them to release some funds for assistance, but they allegedly refused. He then sought help from charities and had to cut down to two meals per day.

Chee said these were examples of ordinary Singaporeans who "played by the rules" but still lacked financial security. He added that the government was "callous" and "impervious to their pleas".

You can see his post below:

CPF Board contacted Chee

On Oct. 25, Chee gave an update and said that the CPF Board had contacted him via email.

The first email was dated Oct. 22, and addressed his earlier Facebook post. It said:

"Every year, we address close to two million requests and queries either in person or through the phone, e-mail and written correspondence. The fastest way for members to reach us for assistance is to visit our five service centres conveniently located across the island, phone our call centre or write in to us.

If you wish to help the two CPF members you cited, please let us know their contact details so that we may look into the matter. We look forward to receiving the details soon."

This email was unsigned.

Asked for an author

SDP Vice-Chairman John Tan replied to this email and asked for the "identity and designation" of the email's author, or else SDP would treat it as "fraudulent".

Another email was sent on Oct. 24, and signed off by Christopher Ee, a Senior Deputy Director writing from the Communications Group.

He repeated the request for the contact details of the two CPF members.

On Oct. 25, Chee publicised the entire exchange with CPF, including his email reply to them.

Chee commented on their request for contact details:

"You seem to have missed the point. They came to the SDP precisely because they had approached CPF to return them their savings but were turned away.

It, therefore, strains credulity that you now want to contact them to “look into the matter”.

Nevertheless, I hope that this is a genuine effort on your part to assist these Singaporeans with their difficulties rather than conduct a public-relations exercise to assuage the people’s anger over the retention of their CPF savings because of the looming general elections.

Chee added that he hoped that it was not lost on CPF that it was "immoral" to withhold retirees' savings.

You can read the full exchange at this link on the SDP's website.

Mothership first contacted CPF Board on Oct.25 for comment.

The CPF Board spokesperson responded to Mothership with the following comment today:

"The CPF Board had reached out to Dr Chee Soon Juan to request for details of the two CPF members whom he cited in his FB post on 13 October 2019.

We have not received the details from Dr Chee and without that, we are unable to look into the circumstances faced by the two members."

Top image from Chee Soon Juan's Facebook page.