KUCHING: A total of 50,521 recipients of the monthly assistance from Sarawak Social Welfare Department (JKM) will benefit from the increase in welfare assistance announced in the 2021 Budget.
Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said that the recipients of the monthly assistance included 7,532 non-working people with disabilities (OKU), senior citizens (19,639), chronically ill patients (1,787), OKU workers (3,188) and children (7,927).
“We thank the Federal government for increasing the rate of assistance for the JKM monthly recipients,” she said.
Fatimah was commenting on the welfare assistance rate increment in the 2021 Budget tabled by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in Parliament on Friday.
“During the Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development’s visit to Sarawak, I did mentioned about whether the Federal government could consider to increase the salary of Community-based Children Rehabilitation Centre (PDK) supervisors and staff.
“Thankfully there is an increase in the allowance for the staff from RM800 to RM1,200 and for supervisors from RM1,200 to RM1,500,” she said.
She said overall, Budget 2021 was a good budget as women were not left out. The government would provide a special micro credit financing scheme totalling RM95 million to women entrepreneurs.
In tabling the 2021 Budget, Zafrul Tengku announced that aid for the four categories of the JKM monthly recipients were increased.
He said for non-working OKU the assistance would be increased from RM250 to RM300 a month; assistance for senior citizens as well as OKU and chronic patients is raised from RM350 to RM500; allowance for OKU workers – from RM400 to RM450.
While assistance for children from poor families will be increased from RM100 to RM150 per child between the age of seven and 18 years with a maximum of RM450 per family or RM200 for a child aged six and below per family with a maximum of RM1,000 per family.
