KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) has postponed the expansion of the pilot programme for cashless welfare assistance payments through JKMPay until the feasibility study of the programme is completed.
The ministry said the decision was announced by the Social Welfare Department (JKM) deputy director-general (Strategy), Rosmahwati Ishak, during an engagement session with the welfare voluntary organisations (PSK) for persons with disabilities (PwDs) on Friday.
It said the two-day session at Dewan Perdana Nur, KPWKM in Putrajaya, from Feb 24, was aimed at providing information on the implementation of JKMPay.
“KPWKM takes note of all the feedback and suggestions that have been submitted for the improvement of JKMPay services in the future,” it said in a statement today.
“Only 4,722 new recipients are involved in this programme (pilot project), comprising the elderly, poor families and the disabled, while 519,409 existing recipients who are not involved, still receive all their assistance,” read the statement.
KPWKM said it always took note of issues related to the target groups, by using the ‘whole government and whole of nation’ approach, so that the mobilisation of various parties such as PSK, agencies, corporations, local leaders and communities, are utilised.
JKMPay was implemented starting Feb 1, 2021, to enable eligible individuals to receive 50 per cent of the total approved cash aid is deposited into their Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad account, while the remaining 50 per cent will be credited to the JKMPay Cashless Card.
However, this particular method of aid disbursement was opposed by some parties, including Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi, who is also the president of OKU Sentral, who called for JKMPay to be halted, as it was implemented without obtaining prior views from the community itself.
