Govt to table Senior Citizens Bill next year

March 16, 2023

Govt to table Senior Citizens Bill next year

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is expected to table the Senior Citizens Bill in Parliament next year, the Dewan Rakyat heard today.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Aiman Athirah Sabu said the bill, which is expected to have its first reading in the August House next year, was one of the government’s efforts to protect senior citizens and deal with an ageing nation by 2030.

“Following this, the ministry will scrutinise the suitability of the law against irresponsible children.

“This is also to ensure that there is awareness that caring for senior citizens is important,” she said during the question and answer session in Dewan Rakyat, today.

She said this in response to Mohd Sany Hamzan (Pakatan Harapan-Hulu Langat) on the government’s plan to introduce a law requiring a salary deduction from children who send their parents to elderly care centres.

She welcomed Sany’s proposal of the salary deduction for children who have the means to take care of their parents but fail to do so.

Meanwhile, she added that the ministry provided free services under the Welfare Department through Rumah Seri Kenangan and Rumah Ehsan for children who did not have the means.

The previous minister, Datuk Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff, said the bill to protect senior citizens and address abandonment among the elderly would be tabled in 2022.

Zailah said this was after a study carried out to draft the law was concluded in October 2021.