Covid-19 relief: For 2.8m M'sians, there's not enough in their EPF to last 12 months

Around 2.8 million Malaysians don't have enough savings in their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) accounts to fully benefit from the government's measure to alleviate their financial burden during the Covid-19 crisis.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that contributors will be allowed to dip into Account 2 of their EPF to cope with the economic challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, aggravated by a partial lockdown which was made necessary due to its spread.

He said contributors could withdraw up to RM500 a month for the next 12 months beginning in April. This translates to RM6,000 over a year.

According to EPF rules, 70 percent of contributions go into Account 1 while 30 percent of contributions go into Account 2.

This means...