Productive Welfare Policy: An Innovative Way in Social Safety Net in Malaysia

The Productive Welfare approach has been widely used in western countries to help the poor to be independent without depending on the government’s aid. Malaysia is also among the countries that adopting the approach as it is in line with the government’s aspiration through the National Key Result Areas (NKRA), which is to raise the income level of the low-income group. The Social Welfare Department's statistics show that their monthly beneficiaries are increasing from year to year and indirectly increase the financial implications of the Government's annual financial expenditure. This issue ponders more questions on matters pertaining to the initiatives undertaken by the Malaysian Social Welfare Department (SWD) in mitigating this issue effectively. For this reason, the primary objective of this concept paper is to analyze the effectiveness of the programs embedded in the Malaysian Productive Welfare Policy. Hence, this paper concludes that a thorough understanding of Productive Welfare programs is important for the government and citizens to develop necessary actions precisely for a B40 group of people alongside also strategizing on ways to propel forward to be a prosperous nation by 2030.