UCSI POLL ON BIG IDEAS OF THE PTPTN LOAN POLICY

KUALA LUMPUR:

July 9, 2019, Asst.Prof.Dr.Noppadon Kannika, CEO of UCSI Poll Research Centre, releases the centre’s poll results on public opinion towards big ideas of the PTPTN loan policy. Both qualitative and
quantitative approaches were conducted between June 22 to July 8, 2019. This poll was conducted among 700 people across KL. The margin of sampling error for this sample size is +/- 3.5%.

The objectives of this poll include

1) to study public opinion towards big ideas of the PTPTN loan policy,

2) to study the difference of public opinion towards big ideas of the PTPTN loan policy between PTPTN
borrowers and non-borrowers, and

3) to classify public opinion towards the loan policy by gender, age generations, occupations, education and income levels.

In this poll, 49.6% of total respondents were females, and 50.4% were males. This poll found that 26.6% of respondents were generation x, 37.4% were generation y, 23.5% were generation z, and 11% were baby boomer and the silent generations. When asked about the respondents’ occupation, the results show that 38.6% were private-company workers, 25% were students, 12.9% were business owners, 8.1% were government officers, 8.6% were freelancers, and 6.9% were others such as farmers, retired people, unemployed people. The respondents’ monthly income is found that 32.5% earned under 2,000 RM, 35.9% earned 2,000 – 4,999 RM, 24.2% earned 5,000 – 7,999 RM, and 7.4% earned 8,000 RM and over.

About half of respondents or 53.5% graduated under bachelor, 42.5% graduated their bachelor, and 4.0% graduated higher than bachelor.

When asked respondents about whether they received any loan from PTPTN, the results show that over half of respondents or 50.4% said that they didn’t receive any loan from PTPTN, but 49.6% said that they did receive PTPTN loan. When asked respondents that “How likely could you pay back your PTPTN loan under your current financial situation?”, the results show that about half of respondents who received the loan or 51.6% said much more likely to extremely likely to pay back, however, 48.4% said not that much likely. Interestingly, when classified the results by income levels and found that the majority of respondents who earned 8,000 RM and higher or 57.7% were much more likely to extremely likely to pay back, but the majority of those who earned less than 2,000 RM or 59.0% were not that much likely to pay back the loan.

When asked total respondents about their opinion towards the big ideas of improving the PTPTN loan policy, the results show the top-three ranked ideas that the majority of total respondents or 73.1% agreed with the idea of repayment deferment for those earning less than RM 2,000 per month. 65.8% agreed with the idea of do-away with first-class graduated loan waivers or replace it with partial waivers. 55.3% agreed with the idea of income- based repayment for new borrowers. When classified the results by gender, 59.2% of female respondents agreed with the idea of income-based repayment for new borrowers comparing to 51.4% of males. Significantly, the results show that 90.4% of respondents who earned 8,000 RM and higher agreed with the idea of repayment deferment for those earning less than RM 2,000 per month, and 68.3% agreed with the idea of that. Nevertheless, many respondents or 45.1% strongly disagreed and disagreed with the idea of exercise full enforcement such as declare borrowers bankrupt, seize and sell defaulter’s property, direct garnishment from borrowers’ bank account and issue judgement debtor summons.

Finally, when asked respondents that “How happy would the future generation of Malaysians be rating from 0 to 10, if there is no any PTPTN loan?”, the results show the average of respondents’ happiness that 3.1 out of 10 meaning that they would be unhappy, if no any PTPTN loan in the future.

Asst. Prof.Dr.Noppadon, CEO, UCSI Poll Research Centre says that this poll would be useful for thinking about some policy alternatives. The first policy alternative bases on the findings in this poll to
use “a Step-Up repayment” for PTPTN borrowers that they can gradually pay back depending on their income levels after graduation. The second alternative is to implement big ideas of PTPTN relying on the public opinion towards them such as repayment deferent for those earning less than 2,000 RM per month, income-based repayment for new borrowers, and do-away first class graduates loan waivers. The third one is the status quo alternative of PTPTN that focuses on what have been done and doing nothing new for now. This is to find out specific problems and solve them in spatial areas.

About UCSI Poll Research Centre The UCSI Poll Research Centre (UCSI-PRC) is a public opinion research company owned by the UCSI Group. Its main objective is to utilise original and scientific research methodologies to investigate and analyse public opinions and attitudes.