Social protection for the ageing population in Malaysia / Mary Magdaline Pereira

This paper analyses social protection provided by the Malaysian government for the elderly in a country that boasts of annual growth rates as high as 9% and poverty rates as low as 5.5%. This includes the provision of old age pensions, mandatory retirement savings, healthcare and poverty-alleviation measures. It is based primarily on an examination of data from secondary sources supplemented by anecdotal data and interviews with relevant parties. Analysis of the existing system shows that large segments of the population who are self-employed or who work in the informal sector, especially women, do not enjoy any form of income security in their old age. Even for those who do have pensions or mandatory retirement savings, it is often inadequate to sustain them throughout their old age. The approach taken by the government in providing social security renders old age savings and pensions is vulnerable to economic shocks and downturns. Women who choose to be homemakers or caregivers are not entitled to any old age pension. Although public health care is available to all citizens, the elderly are confronted with long waiting lists, unequal access and high out-of-pocket payments. The effectiveness of poverty-alleviation and welfare programmes is reduced by weaknesses in policy design, bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption; thus, rural, urban and hardcore poverty still exist and the elderly are also found within these pockets of poverty. Social protection for the ageing population in Malaysia is in need of serious reforms; this can be done effectively only with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders.