Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Malaysia’s Finance Minister, has tabled the 2025 Budget in parliament today (October 18, 2024).
Here are key things to note when it comes to cash aid for Malaysians (regardless of age) and initiatives that will help the youths.
Cash aid for Malaysians of all ages
In 2025, the Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) and the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) programmes will see their highest handout rates ever. The government increased the budgets for these from RM10 billion to now RM13 billion.
Our PM shared that this will support 9 million beneficiaries, or equivalent to 60% of Malaysia’s adult population.
This increase in budget allows households to receive more financial aid, from RM3,700 in 2024 to RM4,600 in 2025.
Starting next year, 4.1 million households qualify as STR recipients, and will receive cash aid of RM100 per month under the SARA programme. This is a large increase from the 700,000 recipients in 2024.
The monthly cash aid will be credited into each recipient’s MyKAD starting April 2025. This can be spent on basic necessities such as F&B, medicines, and school supplies in over 600 supermarkets and retail stores nationwide.
Single, non-married Malaysians will receive a one-off aid of RM600 under the STR programme.
Besides those programmes, Budget 2025 also increased cash aid allocations under the Social Welfare Department (JKM), from RM2.4 billion in 2024 to RM2.9 billion in 2025.
RM600 per month will be given to senior citizens. This is a RM100 increase from this year’s rate.
Poor families with children aged up to 18 years old will receive cash aid of up to RM1,000 per household:
- RM200 to RM250 per child, aged 6 years and under
- RM150 to RM200 per child, aged 7 to 18
For Federal Territories, the General Assistance Rate (Kadar Bantuan Am) is increased to RM150 per month in 2025. The maximum rate per family is RM500 ringgit per month.
Combining all the assistance offered under STR, SARA, and JKM:
- Poor households with three children are eligible to receive assistance of over RM13,000 a year. This is a slight increase compared to the RM11,000 aid at the moment.
- Poor senior citizens are eligible to receive assistance of over RM10,000 a year. This is also a RM2,000 increase from this year’s financial aid.
“This means that no one in Malaysia will have an income of less than RM1,100 per month. And this doesn’t even take into account the aid from the State Government, Zakat, and Yayasan,” Anwar stated.
“So, our responsibility is to make sure there is no drop out. Therefore, JKM and the Prime Minister’s Department (JPM) should work together and double the efforts to verify the poor.”
Other initiatives to help Malaysia’s youth
In other youth and working adult-related news, the government is increasing the minimum wage to RM1,700 per month. This will take effect starting February 1, 2025.
However, companies with less than five employees are given a 6-month postponement of this (takes effect August 1, 2025).
The Ministry of Human Resources (KSM) will publish a starting salary guide for all job sectors.
A few examples of starting salaries he listed are:
- RM2,290 for Industrial Technician and Production
- RM3,380 for Mechanical Engineer
- RM2,985 for Professional Creative Content Designer
Other initiatives to improve the people’s welfare under Budget 2025 include distributing motorcycle helmets to 67,000 poor families for children’s safety.
The government will subsidise the cost of motorcycle licence for 15 million disadvantaged youths (like students and fresh graduates).
60,000 underprivileged students who need flight tickets to return home, such as those from Sabah and Sarawak will also receive financial aid.
- Read more Budget 2025 content here.
Featured Image Credit: Anwar Ibrahim