The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Unicef (the UN children’s fund) said roughly 60% are unable to purchase enough food for their families, while 50% of households are either unable to pay utility bills, mortgage or rent on time.
They also said that 25% of the respondents said they continued to reduce food intake while roughly a third of them reported some or severe difficulties in providing enough money for their children to buy meals at school.
These indicators of hardship, they said, reflect the pre-existing low-income situation faced by these households even before the pandemic.
And while these households have recovered to pre-crisis levels of income, such a level of income typically reflects a condition of absolute poverty or, at best, relative poverty.
“Indeed, many of the participant households were struggling to achieve a decent standard of living even prior to the Covid-19 crisis,” the report read.
These households also have a bleak outlook of their future, with 81% of the respondents believing their financial situation will remain the same or further deteriorate in the next six months.
And while unemployment among heads of these households, it noted, has fallen since December, it remains at 12% which is 2.5 times higher than the pre-crisis baseline.
“Only 37% of unemployed heads of household believe they will secure a full-time formal job in the near future.”
The respondents have low levels of access to employment-based social security and social protection.
Some 45% of the employed heads of households are not registered with either the Employees Provident Fund or Social Security Organisation.
Among the self-employed, 90% do not have any employment coverage.
The vast majority of participant families expressed a strong need for continued, regular and reliable financial assistance, the report said.
One in two participant families felt that the most relevant policy response to their situation would be income support for low-income families with children, people with disabilities and older people.
“The fact that food baskets remain another attractive policy reflects the persistence of severe hardship among many participant families.”
The survey, carried out by DM-Analytics, was commissioned by UNFPA and Unicef. It was part of the Families on the Edge research project.
The project involved surveying 500 low-income households living in 16 of Kuala Lumpur’s public housing estates in May 2020, September 2020, December 2020 and March.
This report is the final one in the series and was conducted in March, almost a year after the first movement control order was implemented.
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