马来西亚的社会援助：谁受益，谁错失

WHO BENEFITS, AND WHOMISSES OUT YA SHIN WAN Social Assistance and Inclusion in Malaysia Series (Part 1) © 2026 The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org Some rights reserved This work is a product of The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusionsexpressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the dataincluded in this work and does not assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, ordiscrepancies in the information, or liability with respect to the use of or failure to usethe information, methods, processes, or conclusions set forth. The boundaries, colors, Nothing herein shall constitute or be construed or considered to be a limitation upon orwaiver of the privileges and immunities of The World Bank, all of which are specifically Rights and Permissions The material in this work is subject to copyright. Because The World Bank encouragesdissemination of its knowledge, this work may be reproduced, in whole or in part, for Attribution—Please cite the work as follows: Wan, Ya Shin and Cheng, Natalie Fang Ling(2026) “Social Assistance in Malaysia: Who benefits, and who misses out”, World Bank, Any queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed toWorld Bank Publications, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, Cover illustration: © pch.vector and barokahselalu777/FreepikCover design and layout: Good News Resources Sdn Bhd/www.gnrsb.com Introduction This paper presents an in-depth analysis of whobenefits and who misses out on social assistance(SA) transfers in Malaysia.As the first in a two-part series on SA, the paper uses data from theHousehold Income Survey (HIS) of 2019 and 2022to assess targeting outcomes and the adequacyof benefits received by those in need. In doingso,the paper profiles those who are excluded WorldBank(2023)found that direct transfersreduced poverty by 1.6 percentage points.1,2Whenconsidered along with taxes and subsidies, cashtransfers reduced inequality by 2.4 points from thepre-fiscal level, a figure that is close to the average The extent to which cash transfers contribute toreductions in poverty and inequality depends toa significant extent on who receives them.Whencash transfers benefit lower-income households,and not higher-income households, their impacton inequality will be greater (the progressivity ofthe taxation system, through which SA transfers Motivating this study is the important role thatSAplays in supporting poor and vulnerableMalaysians.The Malaysian Government has overthelast two decades developed a substantivesocialsafety net comprising of non-contributorySA programs.The focus of these programs varies:some are designed to address chronic poverty orpromote equal opportunities, while others aim to Accurate targeting of SA programs is crucial toensure that SA reaches the intended population. Flaws in the design and targeting of SA programscanlead to the exclusion of the intendedpopulationand the inclusion of unintendedbeneficiaries. Examples include complex or overly Previous analysis in Malaysia has shown thatSAtransfers reduce poverty and inequality. The authors acknowledge and are grateful to Matthew Dornan, Matthew Wai-Poi, Ririn Salwa Purnamasari, and Yoonyoung Cho for theirvaluable insights. This series was presented to the Malaysia Social Protection Council and the Social Protection Technical Committee. We alsoextend our appreciation to the Malaysian officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development,Implementation Coordination Unit, Pantau Madani Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education,Employees’ Provident Fund, Bank Negara Malaysia, and Selangor State Government for their constructive feedback on an earlier draft ofthis paper. The analysis in the sections “Limitations of targeting by household income” and “Who among the B40 is excluded from SA?” in Malaysia. The second section introduces the maingroups of SA programs. The third section assessescoverage, adequacy, and incidence of benefits ofSA programs, before providing an in-depth analysisof targeting outcomes and discussing the targeting of the intended population and the inclusion ofunintended beneficiaries in SA programs can alsoresult from various implementation and delivery This paper is divided into four main sections.The Overview of Social Assistance in Malaysia Malaysia is committed to the MADANI vision of“Social protection for all”.The MADANI frameworkaims to improve the social safety net to a minimumacceptablelevel,strengthen the EmploymentInsuranceSystem(EIS)and invalidity scheme,expand the coverage of the Employees Provident prioritizing SA for those most in need – noting thatSA transfers are a particularly important means to Malaysia spends l