Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah
KUCHING (Nov 7): A total of 50,521 recipients of monthly assistance from the Sarawak Social Welfare Department (JKM) will enjoy an increase in the rate of welfare assistance as announced in Budget 2021, said Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
The Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister said out of the total recipients, she said 7,532 of them consisted of people with disabilities (OKU) who are not working, 19, 639 are the elderly, and 1,787 are bedridden patients.
She added that 3,188 will receive the workers’ allowance and 7,927 were children recipients.
“We are grateful to the Federal Government for the increase in JKM monthly welfare aid.
“The increase will, at least, ease the burden that they bear,” she said when commenting on the increase of the monthly welfare aid as tabled by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in Budget 2021 in Parliament on Friday.
During a recent visit by the Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development to Sarawak, Fatimah said she had voiced out the need to increase the allowances for staff and supervisors at Community Based Rehabilitation Centre (PDK).
As such, she expressed her gratitude to the federal government for the raise in staff allowance from RM800 to RM1,200 and PDK supervisors from RM1,200 to RM1,500 as well as the increased allocation for Senior Citizens Activity Centers.
On the RM4.5 billion allocation for infrastructure, health and education facilities improvement in Sarawak, she said the federal government could have given the same amount as that of Sabah as RM5.1 billion was allocated for the latter.
When met by reporters after officiating an event in Dalat today, she said she remained grateful for the allocation, adding that it was the responsibility of the government to provide the basic needs.
“When we look at the budget, the (allocation) was not as much as Sabah. Even though the allocation of RM4.5 billion is less than the one for Sabah, we remain grateful,” she said.
On the RM170 million allocation for early childhood education, she pointed out that the allocation was for the whole of Malaysia, adding that “we should wait on how much will they (the federal government) will give to Sarawak” in terms of that.