Govt studying civil servant pensions to keep them above poverty line
PARLIAMENT | The government is looking into the pensions of civil servants to keep them above the poverty line.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) Abdul Latiff Ahmad said at present, the minimum pension is RM1,000 per month - whereas the poverty line is RM2,208.
"For the few whose (pension) may be below the poverty line, they may be forced to...
PARLIAMENT | The government is looking into the pensions of civil servants to keep them above the poverty line.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) Abdul Latiff Ahmad (above) said at present, the minimum pension is RM1,000 per month - whereas the poverty line is RM2,208.
"For the few whose (pension) may be below the poverty line, they may be forced to work to fulfil their daily needs.
"This is something we are looking into," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said the Public Service Department had done a study which will be presented to the prime minister before it is brought to the cabinet.
The goal, he said, is to ensure that when civil servants become pensioners, they are comfortable.
Earlier, he also said pensions have gone up by around two percent each year since 2013 and that giving a bigger increment to help pensioners cope with the Covid-19 pandemic will have to be studied.
Abdul Latiff was answering a Minister’s Question Time query from P Kasthuriraani (Pakatan Harapan-Batu Kawan), who wanted to highlight the plight of B40 pensioners and the families they leave behind after their passing.
Kasthuri doubted the RM1,000 per month minimum pension, saying a pensioner's widow had informed her that she only receives RM670 a month.
The minister replied that this was an isolated incident.
He explained that after a pensioner dies, their beneficiaries still receive pension payouts, but after 15 years, the amount is slowly reduced.
However, he said the government will look into this.
On a related matter, M Karupaiya (Harapan-Padang Serai) wanted to know if the government would streamline pensions for Armed Forces veterans.
He claimed that many older veterans could not afford medication now.
Abdul Latiff explained that veterans' pensions are not streamlined, with older veterans getting less than more recent veterans.
For example, he said a warrant officer who served in the 1970s may have a pension of RM1,000, whereas warrant officers now can get pensions of around RM3,000.
He said this was a service problem.
However, veterans' medical needs are looked after by the government, so this was not an issue, he added.
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