Around 2.8 million Malaysians don't have enough savings in their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) accounts to fully benefit from the government's measure to alleviate their financial burden during the Covid-19 crisis.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that contributors will be allowed to dip into Account 2 of their EPF to cope with the economic challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, aggravated by a partial lockdown which was made necessary due to its spread.

He said contributors could withdraw up to RM500 a month for the next 12 months beginning in April. This translates to RM6,000 over a year.

According to EPF rules, 70 percent of contributions go into Account 1 while 30 percent of contributions go into Account 2.

This means...