Help for those struggling to cope

PETALING JAYA: Some 11 million households, senior citizens and single people in the B40 and M40 income categories are expected to benefit from the government’s latest RM4.6bil Covid-19 Special Assistance aid package.

In his special address yesterday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the initiative under the RM150bil National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (Pemulih) was important to ensure that the rakyat will continue to receive aid until the end of the year.

Hardcore poor households will receive RM500 in August and November and RM300 in December, while single people among the hardcore poor will get RM200 in August and RM300 in November.

Households in the B40 category will receive RM500 in August and RM300 in December while individuals in this category who are single will get RM200 in August, he added.

Muhyiddin said that the M40 category will not be left out, with households getting aid of RM250 and single people receiving RM100, both to be paid in August.

On the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) worth a total of RM4.9bil, the prime minister said the additional payment of up to RM500 announced earlier under Pemerkasa Plus will be paid in stages beginning today.

Those in phase three of the RM100 to RM1,400 BPR aid and successful appeal cases of the BPR aid will receive the cash in September.

Muhyiddin also announced the Loss of Income Aid that is expected to benefit up to a million people, to the tune of RM500mil.

A total of RM500 will be given in October to workers who lost their source of income based on data from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) or Social Security Organisation (Socso) this year, he said.

“With these three types of cash aid, needy groups will get appropriate help every month between June and December this year. I hope this cash aid will help you all to keep going in the coming months.”

Muhyiddin also said the government would extend the Job Search Allowance of at least RM300 to non-contributors of Socso, especially fresh graduates, school leavers and informal sector workers who register with the MYFutureJobs platform.

He added that an additional RM10mil had also been allocated by the government for a special food basket programme for the Orang Asli community.

He said the government will implement a price control programme for cooking oil based on the threshold price for crude palm oil.

This, he said, was a part of the government’s initial plans to tackle the increase in the price of bottled cooking oil of between 1kg and 5kg.

“Through this programme, for example, the price for a 5kg bottle of cooking oil can be controlled to not exceed RM30,” he said.

Aside from that, the government will maintain the retail price for RON95 petrol, diesel, and LPG, which is expected to involve a subsidy worth RM6bil this year.