High childcare expenses driving Malaysians to financial ruin
Alright, let’s face it. Raising a kid is not cheap…
Between the mountain of diapers, hungry teeny-weeny mouths to feed, plus the price of a lifetime of education. It’s really no surprise that the cost of rearing a child is driving some Malaysians to financial ruin.
According to data by the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) one out of every two married men and two out of every five married women confessed of having financial difficulties in managing their child expenses.
Among the problem faced by these individuals were mainly attributed to child education expenses, daily family expenses and family medical expenses.
According to the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK), couples between the ages of 20 to 40-years-old are faced with serious financial problems because of the towering cost of early childhood care and education.
AKPK corporate communications head Mohamad Khalil Jamaldin said that based on the agency’s latest data pool, a total of 55.1% out of the agency’s 266,454 recorded cases this year were made up of those at the start of their careers and individuals who have just started a family.
The data also showed that 78.% or 208,221 individuals who came seeking aid from the agency were married couples, where 13.9% are those between the ages of 20 to 30, while another 41.2% are between the ages of 30 to 40-years-old.
According to the agency, this was simply because of the high cost of raising children did not tally with the amount of income earned by parents.
This imbalance in expenditure, in the end, takes a heavy toll on a household’s finances and even drives some families to the brink of bankruptcy.
This sentiment was shared by The Association of Registered Childcare Providers Malaysia (ARCPM) president Anisa Ahmad who agreed that the price of certified daycare services in Malaysia are costly.
Anisa Ahmad explained that it was rather impossible for daycare service providers and early childhood education centres to lower their pricing as to high cost of operations.
So what do you think? Is the cost of raising a kid getting more and more unbearable?
