Savings for Retirement in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF): A Profile of Contributors and Their Views towards the EPF Scheme

Aim: The objectives of this explanatory study are to investigate the demographic profile of EPF
contributors; current and past employees and analyse their views on Malaysia’s EPF scheme related
to the social aspects.
Methodology: In this study, primary data were collected using a self-reported survey. A quantitative
method and a snowball sampling procedure were employed resulting in a total sample of 300
respondents comprising both current and past employees.
Results: Among others, this study reveals that there are greater tendencies by employees to overuse
various available pre-retirement withdrawals not specifically meant for retirement purposes during the
period of employment.
Conclusion: A large number of past employees and an increasing number of current employees, who
utilised different types of pre-retirement withdrawals of EPF scheme, respectively, are found to be
exposed to the risk of not having adequate income at retirement. Therefore, the government and
policymakers are recommended to increase the eligibility requirement for making pre-retirement
withdrawals on employees as well as putting in place the necessary supervisions so that the pressing
issue of the fast depletion of funds available at retirement can be mitigated.