PETALING JAYA: The proposal for the withdrawal age in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) retirement account to be aligned with the minimum retirement age is meant to strengthen \u00adsavings adequacy, says the World Bank.<\/p>\n
It added that as highlighted by its previous analysis, gaining access to retirement savings prior to retirement could be problem\u00adatic and lead to savings being prematurely exhausted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe note that in most countries, retirement savings are only accessed at retirement age. This is also important in the context of (non-contributory) social pension design, given that exhaustion of retirement savings can leave people needing support from the state,\u201d the World Bank said in a statement yesterday.<\/p>\n
It said the focus and findings of their recent paper entitled \u2018Should Malaysia expand its social pension? Global evidence, design issues and options\u2019, is on non-\u00adcontributory social pensions, specifically the Bantuan Warga Emas (BWE) programme.<\/p>\n
The paper did not make recommendations about the minimum retirement age, it added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur discussion and recommendation in the paper on eligibility age refers to the Bantuan Warga Emas programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe note that currently only about 4% of older Malaysians receive this assistance, and suggest that the government may wish to consider broadening its coverage to more B40 households.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that context, we mention that many other countries use 65 as a benchmark age for eligibility as a means to contain the fiscal cost of such assistance,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
On the minimum retirement age, while it is not a focus of the paper, its previous research has recommended that Malaysia gradually raise the minimum retirement age, in line with global trends and rising life expectancy (which in Malaysia now stands at over 75 years of age).<\/p>\n
This recommendation is made in the context of increasingly rapid population ageing, which presents challenges for the financial security of older Malaysians.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not prescribe a specific retirement age, as we note the need for societal discussion and consensus on this issue, and we argue for incremental adjustments rather than one large increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the public\u2019s continued interest in this topic, and would note the importance of distinguishing between contributory retirement savings schemes (such as EPF) and non-contribu\u00adtory social assistance programmes like BWE in ongoing discussions on these issues,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Previously, news reports \u00adquoted the World Bank suggesting an increase in the eligibility age for social pension from 55 to between 65 and 70, saying that the current age is too low.<\/p>\n
It also said a gradual increase would ensure the sustainability of Malaysia\u2019s social protection system, while allowing retirees to enjoy larger pension benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PETALING JAYA: The proposal for the withdrawal age in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) retirement account to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[82132,138,31320,246,31414,1775,82134,111,139,69,244,245,8393,3673,82131,82133,24547],"class_list":{"0":"post-115287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-bantuan-warga-emas","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-employees-provident-fund","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-financial-security","13":"tag-malaysia","14":"tag-minimum-retirement-age","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-personal-finance","19":"tag-personalfinance","20":"tag-poverty","21":"tag-retirement-age","22":"tag-retirement-saving-adequacy","23":"tag-social-pension","24":"tag-world-bank"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}