Can the repayment of the CPF Education Loan and interest be waived, especially during economic downturns?
CPF is primarily for members’ retirement needs. Hence, while you can take a loan from your CPF Ordinary Account (OA) for your own or immediate family’s tertiary education, the principal amount withdrawn has to be repaid to your OA, with the interest that you would otherwise have earned had the monies been left in your OA. This restores your CPF savings so that your retirement security is not worse off compared to not having taken the education loan. Retirement security remains important, if not more so, during economic downturns.
A waiver of the repayment is only allowed if you have already met your retirement needs, i.e. you are 55 years old and above and have set aside the Full Retirement Sum in your Retirement Account.
