KUALA LUMPUR – Voluntary contributors under the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) i-Saraan programme jumped by 77% to 599,000 people in the first quarter of 2022, said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.
“I understand that the EPF will also continue to target the informal and self-employed sectors to ensure that all Malaysians will benefit from retirement savings,” he said at the i-Lindung Insurance and Takaful Facility launch ceremony here today.
Tengku Zafrul said the government was also actively studying policies that could speed up the process of increasing social protection coverage, which would be announced later.
“Besides that, the government had announced a minimum wage of RM1,500 on May 1, which will also contribute to improving the rakyat’s quality of life,” he said.
He said improving social security was an important aspect in reducing the wealth gap as well as increasing living wages.
“If this structural issue is not addressed immediately, it will be a risk to the country’s socio-economic stability in the future,” he said.
According to Tengku Zafrul, although the government and the EPF are studying policies that can strengthen social security for Malaysians in the long run, short-term efforts also need to be continued for now.
“This is because many people still do not know about the need and importance of insurance or takaful, or even if they are aware of the importance of providing umbrellas before the rain, they may be unable to,” he said.
This, he said, caused many Malaysians to still not have any form of insurance or takaful coverage.
“A study by the National Health and Morbidity Survey shows that almost half of Malaysians do not have additional savings to pay for medical expenses.
“This is a challenge that Malaysians will face because we are getting closer to reaching ageing nation status as early as 2030,” he said.
Elaborating further, Tengku Zafrul said the financial burden would be borne not only by the government but also by taxpayers in the future if the elderly could not meet their basic needs.
“I would like to suggest that EPF members seize this opportunity to obtain appropriate insurance and takaful coverage through i-Lindung,” he added. – Bernama, July 12, 2022
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