Despite working all their lives, EPF savings aren't enough to retire on resulting in many having to work into old age.
KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan said 233,299 workers will turn 55 next year and 161,263 or 69% of them will have less than RM50,000 in their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as savings.
Blaming the low-wage structure that is widely used in the private sector for this sad state of affairs, Ahmad Maslan told Parliament that most retirees were forced to seek employment elsewhere as their savings were not enough to last a lifetime.
He said although Malaysia ranked fifth in the world for the highest rate of EPF contributions at 24% of which 13% was contributed by the employee and 11% by the employer, it was still not enough for many low salary workers to retire on.
Ahmad Maslan said only 0.6% of the workers would have savings of more than RM1 million.
According to statistics provided by Ahmad Maslan on EPF contributors 26,898 people would only collect RM50,000-RM100,000 and 24,552 people, RM101,000-200, 000 while only 1,331 Malaysians will have more than RM1 million to retire on.
Source :[ Free Malaysia Today ]