KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 64,894 heads of household have been registered as hardcore poor as of Oct 12 this year, Women, Family and Community Development Ministry revealed.
Its Deputy Minister Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun said based on the E-Kasih system, 28,978 of them are in urban areas while the other 35,916 are outside of urban areas.
The system acts as the country's national poverty database that would classify the country's poor population as either 'poor' or 'hardcore poor'.
Azizah (BN- Beaufort) said the number of single mothers who had registered with the ministry as of this year stood at 83,325 but only 32,751 of them are recipients of the Welfare Department's aid which totalled RM75.9 million.
She said this in response to Datuk Dr Makin@Marcus Mojigoh (BN-Putatan) who had asked on those who had been categorised as hardcore poor in urban and suburban areas as well as the number of single mothers, senior citizens and people with disability (PWD) who are receiving the ministry's assistance.
"As of August this year, a total of 134,789 senior citizens have benefited from the RM300 monthly allowance which involved an allocation of RM360.8 million.
"Meanwhile, some 78,221 PWDs have benefited from the workers with disability allowance scheme with a total allocation of RM240.7 million while 56,413 PWDs who could not work have benefited from a scheme worth RM97 million.
"Some 24,571 PWDs who are bedridden or who have chronic illnesses are also assisted through a scheme that has RM68.3 million allocation," she added.
The ministry, Azizah said, had also empowered the Welfare Department's aid recipients who had been productive including single mothers and PWDs through the two-year exit programme (2YEP), which guides and encourages the target groups to become independent by actively participating in the job market or setting up their own businesses.
"As of September this year, 419 PWDs and single mothers have taken part in the two-year entrepreneurial training programme," she revealed.