Financial aid of between RM100 and RM450 a month will be given to 500,000 recipients under the 1Malaysia People’s Welfare Programme (KAR1SMA), said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
She said the majority of the recipients would be the elderly and would make up about 30 per cent of the overall figure.
“The government gave an allocation of RM1.4 billion for the programme this year. The aid is substantive, continuous and monthly because the government understands their plight.
“We give aid according to category,. The prime minister has also asked that widows of security personnel not be left out and we expect some 2,000 people in this category will also receive aid under the programme,” she told reporters after the launching of KAR1SMA at the Prime Minister’s Office today.
She said the programme was a brainchild of the prime minister himself for the ministry and its agencies to ensure the less fortunate were well looked after.
The programme which would also defray costs of community-run programmes at the community level was launched by Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Under KAR1SMA, various services will be provided to the target groups, among them monthly financial aid, care services at institutions and day care centres besides incentives for productive disabled people.
Others services include Job Coach, skills training for single mothers and women, health and mammogram checks, facilitating children’s activity centres and kindergartens.
Earlier, in her speech, Shahrizat said last year, the government spent RM1.2 billion to provide monthly financial aid to some 424,000 needy people.
– Bernama
Yalinie Mathan
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