PETALING JAYA: Single individuals who are registered and qualified for the Cost of Living Aid (Bantuan Sara Hidup or BSH) will be given RM100 each at the end of next month, Lim Guan Eng announced.
The Finance Minister said the payment for the cash aid, formerly known as the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M), would benefit over three million individuals and involved a sum of RM300 million.
Lim’s announcement came just a day after Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called on the former to consider reinstating BSH for singles, after it was discontinued under Budget 2019.
Previously under Barisan Nasional, single individuals aged above 21 years old and are earning less than RM2,000 a month are qualified to receive cash handouts of RM450 before the category was abolished.
“Following Muhyiddin’s call and as a government that cares for the rakyat, the Finance Ministry, for a start, will make a RM100 payment to all individuals registered under the singles category in the BSH database.
“On future payments, the BSH rate for 2019 for singles will be reviewed and tabled in the Cabinet before being finalised,” he said in a statement today.
Lim said the Cabinet had prior to this agreed that BSH be focused on families, with additional rates be given based on the number of children under the family’s care.
He, however, noted that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also stressed that the issue of cost of living needed to be given attention for all groups in the near future.
BR1M was first introduced in the aim of providing financial aid to the low-income group in Malaysia.
