Over 90% of Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members under 30 do not have enough savings for their retirement, according to a study by think tank Khazanah Research Institute (KRI).
According to KRI’s report, titled Households and the Pandemic 2019-2022: The state of households 2024, the insufficient retirement savings is partly driven by a series of Covid-19 related EPF withdrawal schemes.
EPF members pulled out more than 144.5 billion ringgit (US$34.8 billion) from the pension fund via four withdrawal schemes introduced between 2020 and 2022, when the government allowed early withdrawals to help them deal with financial hardship caused by Covid-19 lockdowns and job losses.
According to EPF’s estimation, an individual needs to have at least 35,000 ringgit in their EPF account by 30 to achieve basic retirement savings of 240,000 ringgit by 55. “Using this metric, the data shows that over 90% of members under 30 do not have enough basic savings of 240,000 ringgit by retirement age,” it says.
“This highlights the structural issue of low starting salaries among those beginning to enter the job market as they cannot achieve the basic EPF contribution for retirement,” it adds.
KRI adds that the target basic retirement savings sum of 240,000 ringgit must be discussed, as it assumes the individual would use 1,000 ringgit per month for 20 years.
“As the average Malaysian’s life expectancy increases, the target of 240,000 ringgit may be insufficient and would require re-examination as this figure has not been revised since 2019,” it says.
