LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS (LIH)

Despite Malaysia’s recent success in poverty reduction, there are still over 100,000 households classified as poor in the eKasih database today.  The achievement so far has been reducing 44,643 extreme (hardcore) poor households to zero percent at the end of 2010. Several other measures will also be implemented to improve the living standards of the low-income households (LIH) which do not fall under the categories of poor or extreme poor.

To achieve the above, we have committed to:

• Standardise the definition of low-income groups
• Implement fast, high-impact initiatives immediately and lay the groundwork for longer-term actions
• Put enablers in place to ensure the delivery of initiatives

What has been achieved so far

• Welfare assistance is distributed on the first day of each month (rather than irregularly as before) since 1 September 2009 in Peninsular Malaysia and 1 January 2010 in Sabah and Sarawak.
• 44,643 households categorised as extreme poor have been reduced to zero percent by 31 December 2010
• 16,471 households categorised as poor have been removed from poverty
• The target to train and develop 2,000 women entrepreneurs by the end of 2010 was achieved after 2,000 women completed their training and are now earning more than RM3,500 per month. The overall target is to have 4,000 women entrepreneurs trained by the end of the 2012, which will be done by training another 1,000 in 2011 and another 1,000 in 2012
• 35,095 units of low-cost homes have been offered for sale to existing Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) tenants at prices well below market value (RM21,500 to RM35,000) and 60,136 houses have been built by Jabatan Perumahan Negara (JPN) for rent to low-income households, of which 49,751 houses have been occupied