THE Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today apologised to a cancer-stricken contributor and her family over its officers making the bedridden woman show up at its Johor Baru office to withdraw funds to pay for her treatment.

“The EPF is deeply saddened and regretted the incident that went viral on social media. We apologise to the member and her family for having gone through an uncomfortable experience.

“The EPF had contacted and met the member and her family to understand their real situation,” said EPF’s corporate relations department in a statement today.

Apart from assisting its members, EPF said it would also use this experience to improve processes to provide better and more compassionate service to all members.

 “We would like to stress that EPF takes complaints and feedback from members about our service seriously to make continuous improvements,” it said. 

Yesterday, the patient’s sister, Nur Sheila Abdullah, said she was told that her sister had to be at the EPF office in person for a thumbprint scan before she could withdraw the balance from her EPF account.

Nur Sheila said that despite explaining to officers that her 56-year-old sister was bedridden and suffering from cancer, the officer insisted that her sister come in person to the Johor Baru EPF office.

In her post, Nur Sheila detailed how she had gotten an ambulance and stretcher to help transport her sister to the EPF office. – Bernama, December 22, 2019.