Ever since the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Account 3 was made available to the public on May 11, millions of Malaysians have flocked to respective EPF offices to withdraw money from this newly-introduced account.
If you have no idea what and how the EPF Account 3 (Flexible Account) works, here’s an overview of its mechanism:
And it seems that the amount of money being taken out from Account 3 isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon, as based on a recent report by the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
RM7.81bil withdrawn from EPF Account 3, says MOF
In a parliamentary written reply issued by the ministry yesterday (Jul 9), it revealed that 3.16 million (24.3%) of EPF members under the age of 55 have made withdrawals from their Account 3, with the total withdrawal amounting to RM7.81 billion as of June 24, reported NST.
The MOF also said that 3.61 million (27.8%) of the total EPF members under the age of 55 opted to transfer an initial amount to Account 3 from Account 2 (Sejahtera Account), with a total of RM11.52 billion being transferred as of the same date.
These statistics come after Jerlun MP Dr Abd Ghani Ahmad posed a question about the status of payments from EPF’s Account 3 beginning May 11 to contributors, and whether its existence had met the contributors’ needs for targeted EPF withdrawals.
Summary of EPF Account 3
Account 3 was introduced to the public following complaints from the public regarding high costs of living. With Account 3, Malaysians can now withdraw funds from their savings anytime regardless of age and to help them financially sustain themselves before reaching the retirement age.
Before the arrival of Account 3, 70% of every members’ monthly contribution would be funneled into Account 1, which cannot be used until retirement, while the remaining 30% goes into Account 2.
Under the new structure, monthly contribution are now split three ways: 75% into Account 1, 15% into Account 2 and 10% into Account 3.
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