In fact, withdrawals at age 55 is the highest ranked reason for withdrawal from the EPF, accounting for about a third of total withdrawals in 2018. To suggest that two million members may need this initiative may be an overestimation as that represent a quarter of the active EPF members. The government needs to do more for all working adult Malaysians and not mere active EPF members. As it is, most EPF members, one time or another, have tapped into their retirement savings to fund their specific short-term needs. In addition, for some of these programmes, once withdrawn, can have a detrimental impact to the society as members may take EPF savings for granted and we would then be up against another syndrome – members getting EPF withdrawal syndrome – as they are so used to tapping into the piggy bank for their immediate needs.

Source: thestar November 21, 2020 01:07 UTC