EPF introduces Jom Tambah to boost retirement funds

SUNGAI BULOH - The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has started a campaign called 'Jom Tambah" to encourage the public, especially members, to increase their contribution rate.

EPF Chief Operating Officer Sazaliza Zainuddin said the campaign was introduced last month to help members improve their retirement funds.

He explained that according to statistics in September 2022, 34 per cent of members aged 54 had only contributed RM10,000 while around 56 per cent contributed below RM50,000.

"We will face an issue in the future if we do not do anything about it, especially the young people.

"From the data, it can be seen that the people who worked then did not contribute consistently. Probably because they stopped working after having a family.

"So when they reached retirement age, they will face financial issues. Therefore, the Jom Tambah campaign was introduced to encourage all members to increase their EPF contributions," he told Sinar recently at EPF headquarters.

Sazaliza said, for now, the contribution limit to increase their self-contribution was RM60,000 per year.

"Anyone can contribute as low as RM10, we only set a RM60,000 maximum limit per year for self-contribution," he said, adding that it had received favorable response.

He explained that members who want to contribute through Jom Tambah can use the i-Akaun application and pay using online banking.

"We also encourage our members to deduct, for example RM50 or RM100, per month so they can consistently contribute to EPF," he said.

In addition to Jom Tambah, Sazaliza said, those working in the private sector can also increase the employee's EPF savings percentage rate from 11 per cent to 13 per cent.

"11 per cent is the minimum value, we can inform employers that we want to increase it to 13 per cent," he said.

Sazaliza also informed that EPF is now actively conducting an outreach program to expand EPF coverage protection, to further help Malaysians' security during retirement, especially those working in the informal sector, gig economy and with no fixed income.

"EPF has partnered with Grab and GoGet (an on-demand work platform) to encourage these workers to contribute to their retirement savings through the EPF's voluntary contribution programmes such as i-Saraan and self-contribution.

"Up until now, more than 6,000 gig workers from these two platforms have contributed to EPF, while the cumulative number of registered gig workers is over 60,000," he said.