KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 (Bernama) — The government’s efforts to alleviate the people’s burden in view of the rising cost of living continued to be implemented this year, involving all walks of life, including the homeless.
The issue of the homeless had also become the focus of attention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in a bid to ensure this group would not be left behind.
In July, Najib had also announced the construction of centres that would provide shelter and food for the homeless and those in need.
So far, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has identified three buildings to be turned into special centres, namely a building in front of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital and two former hotels in Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Chow Kit.
The government also increased the financial aid for the poor and the low-income earners, in which the amount for this year’s 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) for households earning less than RM3,000 a month, was increased from the previous RM500 to RM700, comprising RM650 cash and group insurance (i-BR1M) of RM50.
As for the single individual aged 21 and above and earning less than RM2,000 a month, the aid was also increased from RM250 to RM300.
For the first time this year, BR1M was also given to households with monthly income of between RM3,000 and RM4,000, with aid of RM450, besides the i-BR1M that provides the minimum protection RM1,000 for natural death and maximum RM30,000 in the event of death or permanent disability due to accident.
The distribution of the RM4.6 billion allocation for BR1M, which is now in its third year, has so far been enjoyed by about 7.9 million people nationwide.
Persons with Disabilities (OKU) with monthly income of less than RM1,200, also received OKU allowance of RM300 a month, an aid that benefitted more than 6,000 OKU workers this year.
Besides providing aid, the government also continued to promote participation of the poor, including single mothers and housewives, in businesses to enable them to increase their income.
Through the Akhiri Zaman Miskin (1Azam) programme implemented since the beginning of 2011, a total of 168,000 low-income earners had also managed to get out of poverty through a number of methods, including education, entrepreneurship, agricultural activities and services.
The effort proved to be fruitful when the national poverty rate declined to 1.7 per cent in 2012, as compared to more than 60 per cent about six decades ago, while hardcore poverty level dropped to almost zero.
In its efforts to ensure more Malaysians owned a house, the government had also allocated RM2.1 billion to build 133,000 units of affordable houses this year, which was implemented by various government agencies such as PR1MA, National Housing Department and Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad.
These efforts will definitely continue next year when a total of 80,000 houses under PR1MA are built with an allocation of RM1.3 billion, as announced by the prime minister when tabling the 2015 Budget in October.
Besides increasing the borrowers’ household income limit from RM8,000 to RM10,000, Najib said the offer of 110 per cent loan would also be expanded to PR1MA house buyers from selected financial institutions.
— BERNAMA
