The Penang government has refuted "unofficial and misleading claims" regarding the annual Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme cash payment.
State executive councillor for welfare and caring society Phee Boon Poh (above) today denied that the state government had a new ruling on this.
In a statement, he refuted claims that only payment via EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) would be paid out.
"Statements that all cash payments supposed to be paid out by June 30 will be discontinued are misleading," Phee said.
He added it is a state government initiative to assist eligible elderly to have their payments paid via EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer).
He said the payments can be paid out either via cash or EFT taking into account how convenient it would be for the eligible elderly.
"Note that for any EFT transaction that was rejected (for varying reasons such as account unable to be located or account closed) will be put on a schedule for the next phase’s cash payment," Phee said.
"Rectifications must be done as soon as possible."
The programme relates to the payment of RM150 to senior citizens over 60 in Penang since January this year, a RM50 increase since it was started in 2009.
Last year, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow also announced RM50 million for welfare programmes (including i-Sejahtera), RM26.7 million for an RM20 increase in the senior citizens' annual cash awards and RM1.5 million for the disabled community.
Phee said as part of risk management measures, the state government decided to only make payments involving recipients who have updated their bank account information.
He said this was to prevent close contact among recipients when collecting their cash had happened in the past.
"For the rest of the eligible recipients who have yet to update their bank account information, they will be put on the schedule for the upcoming cash payment at the year-end," Phee said.
Recipients are told to update their bank account information accordingly to enable EFT payments to be done in a more efficient manner to benefit them.
Public access to the i-Sejahtera online system to update bank account information will be open until July 31.
Information registered in the system must be printed out and submitted to the assemblyperson's service centres in the recipient's respective area or to the nearby Land Office.
They are also to submit printed bank statements and online documents showing the recipient’s name and bank account number (joint accounts with the recipients' names are also acceptable).
Eligible recipients can seek assistance from the assemblyperson's service centre in their respective areas. - Mkini
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