EPF members going for flexible withdrawals

Naim: They prefer to continue receiving dividends from the fund

PETALING JAYA: Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members are increasingly opting to retain part of their savings, as evidenced by their growing preference for flexible withdrawals.

“We are very pleased that the total number of flexible withdrawals has seen a steady increase every quarter.

“This reveals members’ growing preference to retain part of their savings with the EPF, in order to continue receiving dividends on the balance in their accounts,” said EPF deputy CEO (operations) Datuk Mohd Naim Daruwish ( pic) in a statement.

For the second quarter of 2018, the EPF reported an increase in flexible withdrawals of members’ savings, with about RM2.64bil withdrawn under the Age 55 and Age 60 schemes.

The provident fund said the number of approved applications for Age 55 flexible withdrawals increased 48.65% to 67,696, while the Age 60 flexible withdrawal applications increased 43.16% to 40,276 from the same quarter last year.

Concomitantly, approved applications for Age 55 and Age 60 full withdrawals dropped 50.45% and 8.97% to 20,769 and 15,554, respectively.

In the quarter under review, approved applications for all withdrawals grew 4.87% to 598,919 for a sum of RM12.65bil as compared to 571,130 withdrawals for a sum of RM12.48bil in the second quarter of 2017.

As of June 30, the EPF had nearly 14 million members, of whom 7.21 million were active contributors.

There were 115,124 newly registered members, while the number of newly registered employers dropped 2.57% year-on-year to 14,568, bringing the total number to 499,321.

Contributions received by the EPF grew 9.99% in the second quarter to RM18.17bil, bringing the total accumulated contributions to RM780.07bil, 9.55% more than in the same quarter last year.

The EPF’s i-Akaun service saw a significant increase in user traffic, jumping 72.02% to 9.55 million users.

A total of 58,304 applications for housing and education withdrawal was approved via e-Pengeluaran.

Since April, applications for education withdrawal by higher learning institutions and education loan providers participating in e-Pengeluaran has had to be done online.

As of end-June, 99.97% of employers submitted their contribution details such as form A via e-Caruman, while 83.89% of employers made their contribution payments via e-Payment.

The fund’s 28 retirement advisory services (RAS) counters also saw more visitors, with the number growing 27.42% to 16,696 from 13,103 in the same quarter in 2017.

“The efficacy of our RAS team encourages us to continue to explore ways to enhance and strengthen our activities.

“This includes reaching out to more customers to increase awareness and knowledge in managing their personal finances and savings, and to enable their retirement well-being,” said Mohd Naim.