KUALA LUMPUR: The government has made an allocation of RM20 million for 359,065 registered e-Kasih members for phase one of the Suri Incentive programme (i-Suri) to be launched next week, as part of Pakatan Harapan’s Ten Promises in 100 days.
From the registered members, housewives make up the majority (221,980), followed by widows (98,536), divorcees (28,116) and single women (10,433).
“Social security is important to all Malaysians, but it is especially crucial to enable the financial well-being of women, especially because women outlive men by about 4.7 years.
“Women deserve an adequate retirement income, regardless whether the woman’s work life is spent unpaid in the home, in the paid workforce, or a combination of the two said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Dr Wan Azizah who is also the Women, Family and Community Development Minister said this at the press conference after opening the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) International Social Security Conference 2018 at Hilton Kuala Lumpur today.
“What is crucial is to learn from past mistakes and introduce effective policies that respond to economic conditions, addressing not only vulnerabilities caused by current conditions but also strengthen preparedness for the future.”
Also present at the two-day conference was chairman of EPF, Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, and chief executive officer of Social Security Organisation (SOCSO), Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed.
The i-Suri incentive programme will be implemented in three phases. For phase one, Suri members will have to save a minimum of RM5 monthly into their EPF account (to show their commitment towards savings), upon which the government will then contribute RM40 monthly.
The target group for this phase will consist of housewives heading the household, single mothers and widows registered in e-Kasih (a database system established at the national level to support planning, implementation and monitoring of the poverty program for those in bottom 40 (B40) category.
The government’s contribution will be raised to RM50 in phase two, where in addition to the RM40 contribution to EPF, a sum of RM10 will be disbursed for protection under the SOCSO.
However, as protection under SOCSO is currently not extended to housewives, there is a need to make necessary legislation changes to make phase two possible, which is targeted to start early next year.
The programme will then progress to phase three where two per cent of the husband’s EPF of 11 per cent contribution will go to their wife’s account.
To arrive to this phase, amendments need to be made to the EPF Act 1991, targeted to be implemented by early 2020.