Concerns over the cost of living among older adults in Singapore

• Main Authors: NGU, Rachel, TAN, Micah, STRAUGHAN, Paulin T., KIM, Seonghoon, TOV, William, CHEONG, Grace, ZHANG, Xiaoyan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Cost of living; household income; well-being; older adults; Singapore; Asian Studies; Behavioral Economics; Family, Life Course, and Society; Gerontology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/rosa_reports/13; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/rosa_reports/article/1012/viewcontent/ROSA_ResearchBrief_CostofLiving_3.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

A post-National Day Rally survey conducted in August 2022 found that the rising cost of living and health-related issues were ranked among the top concerns of Singaporeans (Baharudin, 2022). This comes as no surprise as global crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, has resulted in global and domestic inflation (Gov.sg, 2022). In May 2022, Singapore reported a 13-year high core inflation of 3.6% (Channel News Asia, 2022), while in September 2022, Singapore’s core inflation had risen to 5.3% (Ang, 2022). Additionally, the government announced that Singapore residents will see a goods and services tax (GST) hike from 7 per cent in 2022 to 8 per cent effective January 1, 2023, followed by 9 per cent on January 1, 2024 (Goh, 2022). The government concurrently announced that additional support measures will be put in place to cushion the impact of rising inflationary pressures on Singaporeans, especially the lower-income and more vulnerable groups. Some of the measures include the Household Support Package, Assurance Package, and GST Voucher Scheme, where Singaporeans will receive varying amounts of payouts and subsidies (Ministry of Finance, 2022). Nevertheless, when considering the rising cost of living in tandem with the increase in GST, Singaporeans are still likely to experience financial impact over the coming months. It is within this context that the ROSA team decided to field questions to examine how such developments had impacted older adult well-being in Singapore. Previous research has highlighted that older adults are especially vulnerable to increases in the cost of living.