How valid is CPF's reply on Clifford Theseira's case?

A 72-year-old CPF payee recently became a Grab driver, and shared on Facebook to the whole world how a measly S$575 monthly payout made his existence difficult to bear.
As expected, the FB post went viral prompting the CPF Board to respond quickly.
According to the Board, Mr Clifford Theseira, failed to present the whole picture and presented only a portion of the entire story.
“Mr Theseira had withdrawn a total of about S$140,000 from his CPF since turning 55. If Mr Theseira had not done so, his monthly payout could be more than S$1,000 per month,” said the Board.


“In addition, Mr Theseira co-owns a 5-room HDB flat which is fully paid up,” the Board authorities stressed.
Based on Mr Theseira’s version of the story posted on Sept 24, despite having around S$60,000 in his Medisave, his monthly CPF payouts amounted only to S$575. According to the aged retiree, he had to seek employment despite his age and became a Grab driver to support his wife.
But old age has made him incapable of driving for long hours and he claimed that his income as Grab driver is not enough to even pay his income tax obligations. He was also asked to top up his Medisave, or risk having his licence revoked. He then posted a photo of a letter from the CPF Board to this effect.
But the CPF Board repudiated Mr Theseira’s allegations.
“As stated in the letter shown in his post, Mr Theseira could contribute his Medisave monthly via Giro,” it said. The Board added that the Giro payment plan would amount to less than 1 per cent of his monthly income.
“As long as he makes regular CPF contributions, which is no different for all other workers, he will be able to renew his licence when it becomes due in July next year,” CPF management added.

The above is quoted from TRE and is a good example of the high cost of living in Singapore and how the seniors are coping or unable to cope and have to work in their ripe old age just to survive. With $575 monthly payout and a flat that is fully paid, Theseira and his wife would be in serious financial trouble to provide food on the table. I read some surveys saying that a person would need about $1,379pm to live in this expensive city. So, how could $575 pm be enough for Theseira and his wife who also has medical bills to pay? Even if he is to have $1,000 pm if he had not withdrawn his CPF savings early would not make much of a difference.

The whole argument about Theseira having a 5 rm flat is hogwash. But this is the new formula of this garment, that seniors must sell their homes, downgrade to live. It is a cold, calculative thinking, with no consideration to other factors like emotional attachment to a home, the comfort level and familiarity of living in a home. To those who think selling a home to convert to cash is the way to go, it shows that these people are inhumans, treating the seniors as digits with no feelings and sentiments. Come with nothing, go with nothing.

By the way, why should a person at 72 still be forced to contribute to his CPF in the Medisave? People at this age and above are counting every day alive as a bonus. Why the need to save some more? Whose fricking idea is this? Old folks struggling to survive, having to work at such an advanced age and still need to save for retirement, for the future?

What do you think? What is CPF about in the first place? What happens to the age when a person is allowed to withdraw his CPF savings? At 72, a person should be allowed to withdraw all this CPF savings, not to contribute more into it. Any contribution to the CPF must be voluntary.