SUPP Central Woman Chief, Kho Teck Wan welcomes proposal of law to protect elderly parents

suppadmin | March 16, 2023

SUPP Central Woman Chief, Kho Teck Wan said she supports the proposal of a law where children must care for their elderly parents.

Kho said she is in favor of the proposal by the Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, YB Aiman Athirah Sabu, to study a suitable law in her department to deal with children who failed to support their elderly and sick parents.
This Bill is to be tabled in Parliament next year.

Kho said while helping with welfare cases of hardcore poor, she came across abandoned parents by their children who have the mean to support them.

These children, she pointed out, indirectly increased the burden of this country and our society as some of them who do not support their parents claimed the parents as dependents in their personal income tax, which makes the elderly parents ineligible for social welfare benefits.

“More than half of the states in the United States have laws requiring adult children to support their impoverished parents. Some state extended the laws to support the impoverished relatives. Adult children can even go to jail in some states if they failed to provide the support for parents. Canada, Germany, and France have some similar laws that impose adults children to provide to the impoverished parents. In France, support also includes elderly relatives while in Asia, Singapore, China, and India have laws that go after adult children who refuse to provide financial support to their aging impoverished parents, ” she said.

Kho said Malaysia Ministry of Women, Family and Social Development can also refer to the bills in these countries when studying this law as these countries that have already implemented such law have specified and taken into account the scope of parental support for adult children.