EPF, or KWSP in Malay, is Malaysia’s national retirement savings fund. If you’re a Malaysian employee under 60, you put in 11% of your monthly wage and your employer adds 12% or 13%, all locked away until you’re 55 or 60. The full rates and the law behind them sit in the Third Schedule of the EPF Act 1991 on the official KWSP site. As of October 2025, the part most expats in Kuching keep asking me about finally has a clear answer: foreign workers now contribute too, at a much lower 2%, and it is no longer optional.
Part of our guide to Working & Money in Kuching.
I’m not a financial adviser, and EPF rules for foreigners have changed more than once. Everything below is checked against kwsp.gov.my, with the links so you can confirm before you act. Where a figure could date, I’ve flagged it.
Key Takeaways
- EPF (Employees Provident Fund) / KWSP is Malaysia’s compulsory retirement savings scheme for employees.
- Malaysian employees under 60 contribute 11%; employers add 13% on wages of RM5,000 or below, 12% above that (source).
- From October 2025, EPF is mandatory for foreign workers too, but at 2% employee + 2% employer (source).
- Since 11 May 2024, your savings sit in three accounts: Akaun Persaraan (75%), Akaun Sejahtera (15%), Akaun Fleksibel (10%) (source).
- You check your balance through i-Akaun, but as a foreigner you usually have to register in person at an EPF office first.
- For a short-term foreign worker, the money is genuinely locked up and a hassle to pull out when you leave.
- The 2024 dividend was 6.30% for both conventional and Shariah savings (source).
What is EPF / KWSP, in plain terms?
EPF stands for Employees Provident Fund. KWSP is the same body under its Malay name, Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja. It is a government-run savings pot that takes a slice of your pay every month, adds a slice from your employer, invests the lot, and pays you an annual dividend on the balance. You get the money back when you retire, with earlier partial withdrawals allowed for specific things like housing, health, and education.
Think of it as a forced savings account with a return attached. You don’t pick the investments and you can’t freely dip into most of it, which is the point. Malaysia has no broad state pension for private-sector workers the way some countries do, so EPF is the main retirement safety net for most people here.
What are the EPF contribution rates in 2026?
For a Malaysian or permanent-resident employee under 60, the standard split is 11% from you and 12% to 13% from your employer, based on your monthly wage:
| Who | Employee share | Employer share |
|---|---|---|
| Malaysian / PR, wages RM5,000 or below | 11% | 13% |
| Malaysian / PR, wages above RM5,000 | 11% | 12% |
| Malaysian / PR, age 60 and over | 0% | 4% |
| Non-Malaysian (foreign worker), from Oct 2025 | 2% | 2% |
These rates come straight from the KWSP Employer Mandatory Contribution page and the Third Schedule. One quirk worth knowing: for wages up to RM20,000, EPF uses fixed bands from the Third Schedule rather than an exact percentage, so the ringgit figure on your payslip can look slightly off from a clean 11%. Above RM20,000 it’s a straight calculation. Either way, the employer cannot deduct their share from your pay. It’s on top of your salary, which is why a job offer quoting “RM5,000 plus EPF” is worth more than one quoting RM5,000 flat.
Do foreign workers have to contribute to EPF?
Yes, since October 2025, with one big difference: the rate is 2% from you and 2% from your employer, not the 11%/13% Malaysians pay. This came in through the Employees Provident Fund (Amendment) Bill 2025, and the official confirmation is on the KWSP page for non-Malaysian citizen employees.
Before that, contributing was voluntary for most foreigners. Plenty of expats I know in Kuching worked here for years and never had an EPF account, because nobody required one. That’s the part that trips people up: if you arrived before late 2025 and assumed EPF didn’t apply to you, the rules have moved.
The coverage is for non-Malaysian employees holding a valid passport and employment pass. Domestic workers (maids, cooks, gardeners, drivers, and similar) are excluded. So a foreign engineer at a Bintulu plant or a lecturer at Swinburne Sarawak is in; a live-in domestic helper is not.
What is the Account 1, 2, 3 restructure?
In May 2024, EPF split everyone’s savings into three accounts instead of the old two. Every contribution made after 11 May 2024 is divided like this, per the official account restructuring page:
| Account | Share of new contributions | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Akaun Persaraan (Retirement) | 75% | Locked for retirement, withdraw at 55/60 |
| Akaun Sejahtera (Wellbeing) | 15% | Housing, health, education before retirement |
| Akaun Fleksibel (Flexible) | 10% | Short-term needs, withdrawable any time |
The old Account 1 became Akaun Persaraan and the old Account 2 became Akaun Sejahtera, keeping their existing balances. Akaun Fleksibel started from zero, with a one-time window in 2024 to move some Sejahtera money across. The headline change for members is Akaun Fleksibel: it’s the one slice you can withdraw whenever you want, with no reason needed, though doing so eats into your retirement pot. This restructure applies to members under 55.
How do I check my EPF balance?
Through i-Akaun, EPF’s online portal and mobile app. Malaysians and PRs can register straight from the KWSP i-Akaun app using e-KYC, a selfie-and-MyKad verification that takes a few minutes.
For foreigners it’s clunkier. Without a MyKad, you generally can’t self-register on the app and you have to show up in person at an EPF office with your passport, your work permit or visa, and a KWSP 3 (Daftar) form, which you get from EPF or your employer. The nearest EPF office to most Kuching residents is in town; budget a morning for it, take a queue number, and bring originals. Once you’re registered, the app works the same as it does for anyone else and you can see your balance, your dividends, and each month’s contributions.
What about withdrawals?
The default is that you get everything at 55 (full withdrawal) or you can leave it growing and take it at 60. Before then, withdrawals are limited to specific categories from your Akaun Sejahtera (housing, critical illness, education) plus the anytime access to Akaun Fleksibel.
For foreigners there’s one more route that matters: if you leave Malaysia for good, you can apply to withdraw your full EPF savings under the “Leaving the Country” withdrawal. That’s the good news. The catch is in the next section.
What does EPF actually mean for an expat working in Sarawak?
Honestly, for a long-term resident my read is that it’s a decent deal, though I’m not a financial adviser and you should weigh it against your own plans. The 2024 dividend was 6.30% for both conventional and Shariah savings, declared in March 2025 (KWSP dividend page). That’s a stronger, lower-risk return than the savings accounts I’ve held here, and at the new 2% foreign rate the employer share goes onto a fund that compounds. If you’re settling in Kuching for years, that compounding is worth having.
For a short-term foreign worker, it’s a worse fit, and I won’t pretend otherwise. The money is locked up. If you’re here on a two-year contract and you leave, your EPF doesn’t follow you automatically. You have to apply for the “Leaving the Country” withdrawal, prove you’re going for good, and wait for it to process, which for foreigners can mean an in-person trip, paperwork, and a delay measured in weeks rather than days. People I know have left Malaysia with EPF balances still sitting unclaimed because chasing the withdrawal from abroad was more trouble than the amount was worth. At 2% the sums are small, so for a brief stint it can feel like an administrative tax you’ll spend more effort recovering than it’s worth. That’s the trade for being inside the national savings system, and for a short stay it’s a poor one.
The rules around foreigner contributions are also genuinely confusing. They’ve changed recently, the lower 2% rate is new and may be reviewed, and the in-person registration steps are easy to get wrong. If your status or your account doesn’t look right, don’t guess from a forum post. Check directly with EPF.
Where to confirm everything before you act
EPF is your retirement money and the rules carry legal weight, so go to the source. The KWSP member overview covers contributions and registration, the non-Malaysian citizen employees page covers the foreign-worker rules, and i-Akaun shows your own numbers. If you’ve just started a job in Kuching, ask your HR which EPF rate they’re applying to you and check that the contributions show up in i-Akaun within a couple of months. If the deductions aren’t appearing, that’s the conversation to have early, while the paper trail is fresh.
Keep exploring Kuching Insider: SOCSO explained, Malaysia’s minimum wage, and the cost of living in Kuching.