PUTRAJAYA: The retirement age for civil servants should be extended to 65, says Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, urging the unity government to consider such a proposal.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) said this was because these days, many civil servants who retire at 60 are still young and productive.
At the same time, the mandatory retirement age for judges is 65 with an option to serve for another six months, Azalina told the media after handing out excellent service awards for officers and personnel from her ministry who are retiring this year.
The current retirement age for civil servants is 60 but there have been proposals in the past to extend it.
“Maybe the government should look at 65 years as the new retirement age because many (who reach) 60 are still young and the proportion of 60- year-olds in the population is growing,” Azalina told the media.
“Some countries are moving to 65 and the government should study this. This is my personal view. As our judges serve till they are 65 while in some Asean countries, their judges retire at 70”.
Some 31 officers and personnel from her ministry will be retiring this year, while another 157 of them received excellent service awards.
Azalina said the idea to extend the retirement age was to allow those who reach 60 to still contribute their experience while they still feel young enough to work.
Recently, The Star relooked at proposals by experts to extend the retirement age to tackle an impending pension crisis as the country heads towards becoming an aged nation.
A 2020 World Bank study projects that by 2044, 14% of Malaysia’s population will be over 65, rising to 20% by 2056. The Department of Statistics also said the average life expectancy for Malaysians in 2023 is 74.
The proposal to raise the retirement age is also to allow individuals to continue earning more as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) reports that one in four Malaysians depletes their retirement savings within five years.
In fact, Cuepacs, an umbrella group for civil service trade unions, had proposed in 2015 that the retirement age for public sector workers be extended to 62 to allow them to earn enough for their old age.
