Insufficient EPF Retirement Fund

Deputy Finance Minister said said some 8.1 million EPF members had seen their median savings reduced by 50% in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic when special withdrawals were allowed. The median savings for all races of EPF contributors went down from RM16,600 in 2016 to RM8,100 in 2022. In the low income EPF contributor category - the median savings reduces to between RM3,300 and RM5,000.

To break it down by race, about seven million Malay EPF members had a median savings of RM16,900 in April 2020, and now they only have an average of RM5,500. Other Bumiputera members, about 1.4 million of them, are now left with an average of RM3,300 in savings only from an average of RM10,600.

Massive EPF Withdrawal - Some RM145bil was withdrawn from the EPF by 8.1 million members during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, 5.3 million members took out RM20.8 billion through the i-Lestari program, 6.6 million members took out RM58.7bil through i-Sinar, 5.2 million members took out RM21.4bil through i-Citra, and 6.6 million members took out RM44.6bil through the EPF’s special withdrawal program. In 2020, there were 4.7 million members with less than RM10,000 in savings.

EPF has 598,268 employers who have contributed to the retirement fund. As at December last year, EPF had 15.72 million members, with slightly more than half of them classified as active members.