Over half of Malaysians struggling to meet expenses with current income, survey shows

A recent poll reveals that more than half of respondents are struggling to cover expenses with their current income, with a reduction in allowance cited as the most common reason.

The survey by the UCSI Poll Research Centre, conducted among 618 people across the country, showed that 50.3% of respondents are unable to meet their expenses.

Of these, just under half (49.8%) cited a reduction in allowance while 47.9% cited a cut in overtime payment.

Just over 42% said this was due to a reduction or loss of passive income such as dividends and rental, 40.5% cited a reduction or loss of active side income while 32.2% said they had suffered a pay cut.

Again, just over half (50.2%) said they were dipping into their savings to deal with their financial situation while 48.9% said they were borrowing from family members and friends.

Another 48.9% said they were making withdrawals through the EPF’s i-Sinar programme, 36.3% said they had taken out bank loans, and 9% said they had no solution.

Survey participants were allowed to choose more than one reason.

“This brought about the question of how long people can rely on savings to remedy their financial difficulties. This can be worrying as people may resort to borrowing when they run out of savings,” the centre said in a statement.

“Besides, people will need time to re-accumulate their savings and the lack of disposable income might slow down economic recovery.”