Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced that the government will provide an insurance protection plan of RM10,000 for poor families who have lost their source of income due to the passing of their heads of household.

With an annual allocation of RM13.4 million, the insurance protection plan is expected to benefit 268,000 poor households that are registered in eKasih. To clarify, eKasih is the national poverty database that was built to collect information on Malaysia’s poor households, as well as plan and manage the various aids provided to them. 

Aside from announcing the insurance protection plan, the Prime Minister said that the Malaysia Social Protection Council (MySPC) will also look into various other efforts to increase the socio-economic level of poor households. These include focusing on and providing value-added programmes that can raise the income of the heads of poor and hardcore poor families registered in eKasih. 

On top of that, the council will strive to amplify the social protection agenda at the district administration level. This will be done via the state social protection technical committees. 

Additionally, the council also launched the Social Protection Database (PDPS), a social protection mechanism that is said to be “more dynamic, flexible, and able to respond to any risks faced by members of the Malaysian Family”. It will serve as the primary reference for Malaysia’s social protection programmes that have been launched thus far, encompassing employment, insurance, and social aids. 

Ultimately, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri said that the Covid-19 pandemic has helped to highlight the weaknesses of the social protection system in many countries around the world, including Malaysia. He hopes that the various measures that were announced by the MySPC will bolster Malaysia’s social protection agenda, and assist the government in achieving its target of eliminating hardcore poverty by 2025

(Source: Bernama)

• TAGS:
• Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob
• eKasih
• Malaysia Social Protection Council