KUALA LUMPUR – The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) expressed its concern over the retirement security of the people when 46% of its contributors below the age of 55 have less than RM10,000 in their savings.
The Chief Executive Officer of EPF, Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a huge drop in the percentage of its member achieving the Basic Savings (RM240,000 at 55 years-old), from 36% to 27% following the withdrawals they made to support their income during the Covid-19 crisis.
For the record, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, EPF members were allowed to make three withdrawals through i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic has created the number of gig workers in the country, many are still facing insufficient retirement savings due to the unstable or unfixed income.
Besides that, the employers’ benefit and social security coverage would also be affected.
“The effect is not merely on their future welfare, but it would also burden the government,” it said in a statement.
Therefore, the main strategy of EPF in the future is to ensure gig workers and those working in the non-formal sector are absorbed into the EPF scheme so that they can save as early as possible and plan their retirement,” he said, adding that a long-term solution is needed to ensure a better social security for all Malaysians.
“While we are recovering from the crisis, the focus of EPF is to help its members to rebuild their retirement savings, so that they can have an dignify retirement,” said Amir Hamzah.
EPF said, it will continue to focus on strategic assets distribution and is always alert on the development of market risk profile to continue improving its service.
Besides that, the core objectives of EPF are to generate returns and to protect the future welfare of its members. -MalaysiaGazette
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