The Malaysian Council of Former Elected Representatives (Mubarak) today pat themselves in the back after successfully gaining a pension hike, along with the pay rise given to parliamentarians.

Mubarak said the NGO had struggled for this because the previous pensions meant many were barely making ends meet.

"The former senators who served one term or three years, receive a pension (as low as) RM1,200 a month.

"And the pension will be received when they reach 50 years of age," Abdul Rahman Sulaiman said.

The earlier pension scheme, he said, had forced some of the former senators and elected representatives to sell teh tarik and work as taxi driver.

"Meaning, they can even apply for 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) […] but they told us they are too shy to queue up to collect the aide," he said.

Households with an monthly earning below RM4,000 will get RM650 under BR1M 2015, while those with household incomes below RM3,000 are entitled to RM950. 

A total of 7.28 million recipients have benefited from BR1M, where 4.6millions are for families while the remainder for single recipients.

The new pension rates for parliamentarians are as follows:

  • Former senator(after two terms or six years): RM5,500 (up from RM2,400)　
  • Former parliamentarian (after one term or five years ): RM8,000 (up from RM3,250)
They will only get their pension when they reach 50 years of age.

Those who serve three years only can get partial pension.

Just making ends meet

 

"Do not get us wrong, we are not enjoying enormous benefits. What we have today just matches living costs, he said.

The pay and pension rises come after both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara passed the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) (Amendment) Bill 2014.

Under the new hike, MP's allowance increase from RM6,508 to RM 16,000, while senators’ allowances increased from RM4,112 to RM11,000.

Members of parliament enjoy half of their allowance in the form of pension when they retire.

Mubarak, established in the 90s, an umbrella body for the current 820 former parliamentarians, senator and state assemblypersons from BN parties.