A recent visit to CPF Board to request for a relative’s CPF Statement was not approved. I was surprised to know that third party request is not available since 2004.
The first thing that came into my mind was the report from Straits Time dated 7th Jun 2014 with the heading “1,560 Singpass accounts possibly tampered with”.
It was possible to retrieve a statement over the CPF counter if we have an authorisation letter, the owner’s NRIC and the authorised person’s IC. What this mean is the owner will know every time you request for a statement because you need to ask him for his NRIC.
Without the third part request, the only way to retrieve a statement is to request for a password. For someone who may not be IT Savvy will need a third party’s assistance to access his CPF using his password. What this means is the third party can easily change the password and access multiple times without the knowledge of the account holder. While there are laws to bring these people to court, it may be too late for e.g. if someone logs in and make an irreversible transaction from the Ordinary to Special Account.
May I suggest CPF to re-look into this option as there will be elderly or disabled people who may not be physically fit to visit the CPF Branches. They are people who may not have Internet access or knowledge to log in upon getting their password. A third party request may be useful for these groups of people and I believe it can reduce the number of tampered accounts.The contact number of the owner can be a requirement so the CPF Staff can always verified with them in case of doubt. We should never compromise security with convenience.
Without the third part request, the only way to retrieve a statement is to request for a password. For someone who may not be IT Savvy will need a third party’s assistance to access his CPF using his password. What this means is the third party can easily change the password and access multiple times without the knowledge of the account holder. While there are laws to bring these people to court, it may be too late for e.g. if someone logs in and make an irreversible transaction from the Ordinary to Special Account.
May I suggest CPF to re-look into this option as there will be elderly or disabled people who may not be physically fit to visit the CPF Branches. They are people who may not have Internet access or knowledge to log in upon getting their password. A third party request may be useful for these groups of people and I believe it can reduce the number of tampered accounts.The contact number of the owner can be a requirement so the CPF Staff can always verified with them in case of doubt. We should never compromise security with convenience.
My IFA@Sg 