I've a relative who is above 80 so cannot join CPF Life. His OA / SA and RA are complete empty now ($0) and he only has some medisave left. If he puts money into his RA will he start getting monthly payouts again? And if so, for how long?
Yes, he can topup his RA up to ERS to earn max 6% on first 30k, 5% on next 30k, and 4% on the rest (RA takes priority over MA for extra interest).
He can request to start payout anytime by submitting online request.
To be sure, u can send your query to CPFB: if he topup $X into RA, how much will be the mth payout and duration. I suspect it will be until 90 and his interest for another few years later.
If he has close relatives with spare cash, should topup with cash or cpf transfer to earn the interest and income tax relief. If do cpf transfer, it is like early withdrawal from their cpf if they are below 55.
With cpf transfer, if he die, monies will be returned back to the transferer's cpf. Make sure cpf nominations are done if "donor" wants to get back their monies if he die.
Check the requirements/conditions from cpf website.
Uncle henry is the expert in playing this game. Goodluck!