Use Budget to give financial aid to all children, elderly, says Unicef

 

Unicef says the poor are grappling with the financial and mental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Based on the findings of its latest report, Unicef has called on the government to include extended and improved social security initiatives in the upcoming Budget proposals.

Unicef’s latest Families on the Edge report, which involved surveying nearly 3,000 residents of low-cost housing flats, found that many were still grappling with the financial and mental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite some indications showing gradual improvement.

To meet some of the economic challenges facing poorer families, Unicef suggested widening the Social Welfare Department’s (JKM) financial assistance schemes to include all children, the elderly and those living with disabilities, as these groups are at a higher risk of falling into poverty.

It also called for measures to be established to boost the wages of low income earners and for action to be taken to improve access to employment protection programmes like Socso, to provide coverage for the self-employed and to ensure more people are registered.

Particular focus should be paid to single mothers, it said, who were in desperate need of high quality child care and employment support.

The report also found that school-aged children were increasingly absent from classes, and suggested that quality meals be provided to ease the burden on parents, initiatives be established to minimise dropout rates and that ties between mental health services and schools be strengthened.

Unicef also called for the improvement of services that prevent and respond to gender-based violence and child abuse, and said that parental support programmes must be offered to vulnerable communities.

It cited the upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan and Budget 2021 as critical opportunities to build a more effective social policy framework in Malaysia. - FMT