FOUR incentives have been introduced to reduce the burden of high childcare costs, especially for young couples in the state.
Selangor women empowerment and welfare committee chairman Anfaal Saari said a one-off cash aid of RM1,000 was offered to 5,000 working mothers under the MamaKerja programme.
The programme targeted mothers earning less than RM8,000, with at least three children below 12 years.
“The second is the ‘Bantuan Asuh Pintar’, an initiative to provide RM100 monthly cash aid for a year for children aged below four from families with household income below RM3,000,” she said.
Anfaal hopes to finalise plans on getting couples with young children to work from home four times a week.
She added that cash aid was also given to households earning between RM5,001 and RM8,000.
“For children aged five and six, there is RM50 cash aid monthly for a year under the Skim Bantuan Tadika Selangor as well as a one-off RM100 for 1,000 children under Program Insentif Yuran Pendaftaran Taska Anak Selangor Anak Kita,” she added.
Anfaal was replying to Mariam Abdul Rashid (PH-Meru) who asked about the state’s plan on strengthening families.
She said a seminar titled “Keluarga Akar Masyarakat” held on Sept 21 formulated resolutions to support the need for childcare, flexible working hours and shared responsibility between men and women.
The resolutions would be a guide to formulate initiatives for young couples next year, she said, adding that the Selangor National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) also had programmes to meet the needs of young couples.
In reply to Nurul Syazwani Noh (PN-Permatang) on incentives to encourage couples with young children to work from home, Anfaal said the state had held discussions on this but nothing was conclusive.
She added that the state had also proposed a four-day work week and this was still under discussion.
On a question by Michelle Ng (PH-Subang Jaya) about unregistered childcare centres, Anfaal replied that the state had agreed to start a pilot project to streamline by-laws on these centres including those operating from residential premises.
The initiative, she said, was to ease the application process and encourage home-based childcare centre operators to register.
“The next step is to improve the quality of care for the children.
“The agenda will be included in the Care Economy policy being prepared and due to be launched in the second quarter of 2024,” she said.
