Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Vote your survey choice for the 4 EPF proposals

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja, KWSP) has put up an online survey in their website at http://www.kwsp.gov.my for its members to vote for their preference to the 4 proposals they've put up.

The online survey starts from 21 April 2015 until 5 May 2015. You need to login to their i-Akaun system in order to participate in this important survey.

The 4 EPF proposals are as follow:

Proposal 1:  To raise the age for full withdrawal from current 55 to 60.

  • Option 1: To increase the minimum age for full withdrawal gradually from 55 to 60 in stages, over a 15-year period starting 2016 until 2031. The minimum age for full withdrawal to increase by 1 for every 3 years.
  • Option 2: To continue to allow for full withdrawal at the age of 55, but if you are still working and still contributing to EPF after 55, all subsequent contributions are locked in the fund until the age of retirement of 60.
What is the impact?

For option 1, your EPF money will be locked down and cannot be fully withdrawn for a longer period of time. If EPF performs badly and pays lousy dividend, you have no choice but to just accept it. Currently, you are able to make a full withdrawal of EPF at the age of 55, and you have your own choice to get a better fund manager to manage your fund, or to self manage your fund with your own investment.

For option 2, your EPF money can be set free at 55, and then zerorized and reaccumulates from 55 to 60.

Proposal 2: To collect EPF contributions from both employee and employer at the minimum amount based on the declared minimum wage. The minimum wage is currently RM900 for Peninsular Malaysia and RM800 for East Malaysia.

What is the impact?

If you are having a basic salary below the minimum wage, but total monthly income above the minimum wage after commission, your monthly EPF contributions will increase.

This means your monthly disposable income will decrease, but your total actual income will increase as your boss need to contribute more into your EPF account.

This proposal will not affect you if your basic salary is already above the level of minimum wage.

Proposal 3: To continue to pay dividend to your EPF account until the age of 100, if you don't make a full withdrawal after your age of retirement.

What is the impact?

Currently, EPF will continue to pay dividend to your EPF account until the age of 75 if your account is still active after the age of retirement.

This will be good for you if you trust EPF with your retirement fund until you die.

This will be bad for all other EPF members, as your dividend will be diluted by old folks with active EPF account.

Proposal 4: To introduce option for fully Syariah-compliant fund in addition to the existing EPF retirement scheme.

What is the impact?

The performance of the existing scheme and the new Syariah-compliant scheme might not be the same, and the effort of EPF fund managers on the 2 schemes might not be equal.

Are the members allowed to switch from one scheme to another from time to time?

If you are an EPF member, it is important to vote for your choice in this online survey, as the final decision made and enforced will have long term impact on you, your family, your children, and all subsequent generations.


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