The government is developing Malaysia’s first official cost-of-living benchmark for households that care for people with disabilities, home-based patients, and elderly family members. The aim is to measure the real cost of caregiving, which tends to fall outside standard household spending figures, and to use it in shaping welfare support.
Measuring The Real Cost Of Caregiving
The benchmark is a version of the Basic Expenditure for Decent Living (PAKW), the measure the government already uses to estimate what a household needs for a decent standard of living. This new version is tailored to families with special care needs, the first of its kind in the country.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said it would capture the extra costs these households carry, on top of everyday spending like food, housing, utilities, and transport. That includes assistive devices, medical treatment, medication, therapy, caregiving services, and equipment that supports daily living and communication.
For families caring for home-based patients, it also factors in needs such as medical formula milk and other daily care requirements.
Disability, Home Care And Older People Included
The framework covers seven categories of disability, hearing, visual, physical, speech, learning, mental, and multiple disabilities. It also includes patients who need home-based care, whether bedridden or not, and older family members who require specialised care.
DOSM is developing the framework together with the Ministry of Health and the Social Welfare Department, so that each cost component reflects real care needs rather than estimates.
What It Means For The Sandwich Generation
The benchmark speaks directly to the growing number of Malaysians supporting both ageing parents and young children at the same time, often called the sandwich generation. For these households, caregiving costs like therapy, medication, and assistive devices are extra costs above their ordinary household bills. It’s a growing group of Malaysians whose costs rarely show up in standard Govt spending figures. By recognising these costs, DOSM gives policymakers a clearer basis to design and target financial assistance, subsidies, and social protection.
If you’re caring for a dependant, it also gives you a better sense of the minimum you’d need to spend, based on your own situation. You’ll be able to use the updated benchmark through the MyPAKW Calculator on the MyPAKW portal and app from August, once it goes live.
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