Supporting healthy and active ageing through continued employment

Malaysia must do more to support elderly people’s ability to earn a living so that they can enjoy healthy and active ageing, urged the Malaysian Coalition on Ageing (MOCA).

Nothing that many elderly people had very limited savings that is only sufficient to support them for a few years after retirement, Cheah Tuck Wing, Chairman of the MOCA, said, “We need government intervention with the provision of more welfare homes and a basic universal pension scheme, which would ensure all elderly receive a ‘basic and liveable’ income. We need to reskill and upskill our aged employees to prepare them before retirement.”

Data from Malaysia’s Social Welfare Department showed that over the past five years, more than 2,000 elderly people without families had checked into welfare homes.

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Highlighting how people can maintain a better quality of life by staying engaged in work or social activities, Cheah also called for employers to assess skills rather than discriminate against people’s age to determine their suitability for a job.

The MCOA is a non-profit organisation that enables public, private, and civil society partnerships and promotes inter-sectoral cooperation and collaboration to improve the delivery of products and services for older persons in Malaysia.