KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 ― Jaringan Rakan Ibu Tunggal urged the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry today to review the poverty line income to reflect the increased costs of living.

The group's coordinator, Veronica Anne Retnam, said that the ministry's offer of aid to those with monthly household income of RM720 was “unrealistic”, especially for single mothers living in urban areas as some may need to spend as much as RM1,725 to feed their family of three to five.

“This is simply not reflective of the current cost of living. If a single mother has about five kids, the amount they spent on grocery, school fees, rents... all this can be around RM1,725.

“We need to look at increasing the poverty line to RM1,500. Besides, how much can a family survive with RM720 monthly these days?” the former lecturer told a news conference at the KL-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall here.

She further asserted that a family would have to spend around RM375 for grocery and the cost was for basic necessities such as rice and milk powder. 

She added that the group will continue to approach the ministry and other government agencies to ensure they are serious in helping out single mothers in the country.

On February 2015, Malay paper Utusan Malaysia reported the group handing a memorandum to the ministry and requested several ways to help single mothers, including increasing the current figure for poverty line income.

Among other suggestions in the memorandum were to provide vouchers for food, rents and school items.

They also requested for counselling services in residential areas and free transportation for the single mothers.

On February this year, the ministry replied that one of their criteria to provide assistance was that the household monthly income needed to be lower than RM720.

The ministry also promised to collaborate with other ministries to fulfil the group's requests in the memorandum.