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CHANGES to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Act were passed in Parliament last October to legislate the closure of the CPF Special Account (SA) for members aged 55 and above in the second half of January 2025.

We are already past the halfway mark into the month and the confirmed closure date has not been publicly announced yet. However, things are afoot following the publication of a notice in the government gazette on Thursday (Jan 16) that stated that “Part 1 of the Central Provident Fund (Amendment) Act 2024 comes into operation on 19 January 2025”.

For those who are affected (including myself), the exact timing is important due to how the interest is calculated.

Before I go further, let’s do a recap.

Upon turning 55, every CPF member gets a Retirement Account (RA), which will be funded by the monies from the SA and Ordinary Account (OA) in this order of priority. If, having emptied the SA, the amount remains insufficient to meet the Full Retirement Sum (FRS), the balance in the OA will then be tapped. Prior to the change in the law, the SA account for the post-55 member remained active even if the balance dropped to zero.