KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — An Employees Provident Fund (EPF) survey has shown that 94.4 per cent of its members want the withdrawal age to remain at 55.
According to local daily The Star, the survey, which is part of the EPF members’ consultation exercise, also revealed that the same 94.4 per cent or 91, 047 of the 96,448 respondents, agreed that any new contribution beyond the age of 55 should only be withdrawn at age 60.
“The board was pleased that so many of our members have exercised their right to have a say in the consultation exercise,” local daily The Star quoted EPF CEO Datuk Shahril Ridzuan as saying in a statement yesterday.
This comes after prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced last month that the EPF withdrawal age will stay at 55 ahead of the release of the survey results after EPF’s initial suggestion to push the withdrawal age back to 60 received fierce backlash.
Shahril also said that the 71 per cent of respondents who agreed with EPF’s move to allow members to switch to a Shahriah-compliant scheme will “be encouraging for both Muslims and non-Muslims.”
A total of 74.6 per cent of the survey respondents were also in favour of the proposal to align the minimum contribution with the minimum wage legislation in a move that would make it mandatory for both employers and employees to calculate EPF contributions based on the legal minimum wage.
The survey also indicated that 61.3 per cent wanted to keep their savings with EPF even after retirement and agreed to extend dividend payments from age 75 to 100.
