DOSM: Govt to develop Malaysia’s first cost-of-living benchmark for families caring for disabled and elderly dependants

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — The government is developing Malaysia’s first official cost-of-living benchmark for households caring for people with disabilities, home-based patients and elderly dependants, a move aimed at giving policymakers a clearer picture of the real cost of caregiving and helping shape more targeted welfare support.

According to Sinar Harian, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) is developing a Basic Expenditure for Decent Living (PAKW) benchmark tailored to households with special care needs, the first of its kind in the country.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the initiative would measure the actual cost of living borne by these households while serving as an important reference for the government in designing financial assistance, subsidies, caregiving support and social protection programmes.

“The development and updating of the PAKW for special-needs groups aims to identify the additional expenditure incurred by families with members requiring special care, taking into account the costs needed to achieve a decent standard of living,” he said during the Data and Media Symphony Programme: Special Discourse in Putrajaya today.

The framework covers seven categories of disability: hearing, visual, physical, speech, learning, mental and multiple disabilities.

“It also includes patients requiring home-based care, whether bedridden or not, as well as older persons who require specialised care,” Mohd Uzir said.

The benchmark goes beyond basic household expenses such as food, housing, utilities and transport by factoring in costs often unique to caregiving households, including assistive devices, medical treatment, medication, therapy, caregiving services, and equipment that supports daily living and communication.

“For patients requiring home-based care, the framework also takes into account special nutritional needs such as medical formula milk, as well as other daily caregiving requirements.

“This approach ensures that the PAKW developed more accurately reflects the actual needs of special-needs groups and the cost of living borne by their families,” he said, as reported by the national daily.

Mohd Uzir said the benchmark would also provide households with a clearer understanding of the minimum expenditure needed based on their individual circumstances.

He added that the data would give policymakers a stronger evidence base to design, coordinate and evaluate social protection measures that better address the needs of vulnerable groups.

The project is being developed through a collaboration between DOSM, the Ministry of Health and the Social Welfare Department to ensure that each expenditure component reflects actual care needs and is supported by technical expertise from the relevant agencies.

The updated benchmark is expected to be incorporated into the MyPAKW Calculator on the MyPAKW portal and mobile application in August as part of DOSM’s efforts to make official statistics more inclusive.