KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Non-governmental organisations that work with poor communities said Budget 2023’s direct cash aid would temporarily help these groups, but lacked detailed plans to help them defeat the poverty trap.

Yayasan Chow Kit’s Datuk Hartini Zainuddin argued that funds such as the RM2,500 under Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia scheme for families with five or more children, would be better spent on programmes such as workshops to help these communities save and spend wisely.

"One-off payments are a leg up. Subsidies are great. But how are we going to wean those needing subsidies off in the long run?

"Where is the master plan to ensure there is a cohesive transition that has upward social mobility?” she added.

"And what happens after the money runs out? Will other programmes kick in to transition? I wish it were a bit clearer,” she told Malay Mail when contacted yesterday after the Budget tabling in Parliament.

However, Hartini commended the government for allocating funding for the mental health for women and underprivileged communities.

She was referring to the RM34 million budgeted for the establishment of a National Centre of Excellence for Mental Health, and another RM8 million of funding to One-Stop Social Support Centres.

Nevertheless, Hartini questioned how the effectiveness of the announced measures will be monitored, which was also a matter brought up by Sumitra Visvanathan, executive director of Women’s Aid Organisation.

"It remains to be seen how lessons learnt from previous budgetary allocations have informed this budget,” said Sumitra.

"Many allocations announced last year have not received sufficient monitoring and evaluation, including the D11 allocation and last year’s allocation towards introducing period products to 130,000 B40 youth to alleviate period poverty,” she added.

D11 refers to the police force's sexual, women and child investigation division, which was given RM13 million in Budget 2022.

According to Adrian Pereira, founder of a worker rights group called North-South Initiative, Malaysia still has a labour crisis that the government is attempting to rectify by bringing in foreign labour, which he said removed the incentive to offer the employment for local B40 communities.

"Cash handouts, with inflation, will finish very fast. The only thing that can really help sustain is decent jobs with better pay, working standards and social protections.

"That’s where we don’t have clarity yet,” he said.

Pereira also said that many of the workers his organisation has helped were paid less than the RM1,500 minimum wage despite being eligible for it under the scheme that started in May for companies with five or more employees.

Companies with fewer than five employees were allowed to postpone this to January 1, 2023.

"We don’t know if the government has increased labour inspectors to make sure there is compliance.

"So yeah, cash handouts can work to a certain limit, but beyond that we really need structural reforms,” he said.