About 60 per cent of members of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) are projected to achieve the basic savings target of RM390,000 by the age of 60 by 2030, said Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan.
He said that as of end-2025, a total of 3.1 million or 41.2 per cent of active Malaysian EPF members in the formal sector aged between 18 and 55 have already reached the age-based basic savings level.
“This indicates that there are still around 4.42 million members, or 58.8 per cent, in the formal sector who have yet to achieve the minimum savings level required to ensure adequate retirement funds,” he said during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Negara today.
Amir Hamzah was responding to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Ng Keng Heng regarding the government’s official estimate of the percentage of Malaysians who may fail to accumulate sufficient retirement savings within the next 10 to 20 years.
At the same time, he said the government, through EPF, remains committed to mitigating the erosion of retirement savings caused by early withdrawals by introducing the Retirement Income Adequacy (RIA) benchmark.
According to him, the RIA serves as a guideline to help EPF members assess the adequacy of their retirement savings before deciding to make withdrawals, thereby encouraging more prudent long-term financial planning.
“Various measures are also being implemented to strengthen retirement savings, including the restructuring of EPF accounts, the introduction of the Flexible Account, and initiatives to encourage voluntary contributions,” he said.
He added that promotional efforts for programmes such as i-Simpan, i-Saraan and i-Topup are also being intensified to encourage members to boost their savings.
In addition, EPF has stepped up awareness campaigns urging members not to withdraw their savings in full or as a lump sum upon retirement, as doing so could affect their post-retirement income.
“Instead, members are encouraged to consider monthly withdrawal options to ensure a more sustainable income stream after retirement,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amir Hamzah noted that the number of active employers registered with EPF rose by 4.2 per cent to 640,391 as of December 2025, compared with 614,563 in 2024.
In tandem with that, the number of contributors in the formal sector also increased by 3.3 per cent to 8.2 million in 2025, up from 7.9 million the previous year.
The positive development contributed to a 12 per cent increase in total annual contributions by Malaysian EPF members, which reached RM120.0 billion in 2025 compared with RM107.1 billion in 2024.
-HR HUB
