EPF: Only 3% of contributors can afford their retirement
Covid-19-related withdrawals over the past two years have had a massive impact on the savings of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributors. EPF chief strategy officer Nurhisham Hussein said that currently, only 3% of contributors can afford to retire. He said the Covid-19-related withdrawals resulted in many members below the age of 55 having critically low EPF savings. “We now estimate that only 3% of Malaysians can afford to retire,” he said. He added that by the end of 2021, 54% of EPF members aged 54 and below would have less than RM50,000 in their savings account, noting that a majority of those who withdrew their entire EPF savings upon reaching age 55 would use it up within two to three years.
EPF said RM101 billion has been disbursed to over 7.4 million members — about half its total members — to cope with the pandemic. It also estimates that members will need to work an extra four to six years to rebuild savings that have been used during the pandemic, which has also led to a significant drop in the percentage of members meeting the Basic Savings threshold (RM240,000 at age 55) from 36% in 2020 to an estimated 27% by the end of this year.
