KUCHING: Nearly 5,000 recipients of welfare assistance under the Social Welfare Department, have successfully come out of poverty last year, says Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

She said the number is from 533,167 aid recipients involving an allocation of RM2.4bil.

"Although they (4,921 people) are not many in terms of the (overall) number, at least they managed to get out of the group receiving aid. So we helped them to be independent," she said after attending the 'Program Kasih Ramadan', organised by The National Welfare Foundation (YKN) here on Saturday (April 1).

Earlier in the Dewan Rakyat, Nancy said about 1,500 aid recipients who participated in the '2 Years Exit Programme' (2YEP) have successfully exited from welfare assistance since the programme started in 2016.

At the same time, she said her ministry has channelled an additional allocation of RM10mil to RM2.41bil for the purpose of welfare programmes this year, compared to RM2.4bil last year.

"We have an allocation of RM2.4bil for welfare alone last year but this year it was increased to RM2.41bil because the number of welfare aid recipients has increased. The target group involving the asnaf group is the highest number of recipients," she said.

Earlier, Nancy, who is also YKN chairman and Santubong MP, distributed food baskets to 100 villagers comprising the asnaf group from Kampung Beradek, Kampung Semilang and Kampung Tiang Api. – Bernama

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/04/01/almost-5000-welfare-recipients-brought-out-of-poverty-says-nancy