PETALING JAYA: The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) website and i-Akaun mobile application appears to be inaccessible to users following the special RM10,000 withdrawal announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob today (March 16).

       The hashtag KWSP is currently a trending topic on Twitter with over 10,000 tweets. A number of users are sharing how they are unable to access their details on both the website and i-Akaun application.

       A check by LifestyleTech showed that the website and mobile app was taking a longer time to load, which may be due to high traffic.

       mStar also reported that users began reporting difficulties accessing the site normally since around 2pm today. The report included a screenshot of a pop-up message on the i-Akaun app indicating that the server is taking a long time to respond and urging users to try again later.

       On Facebook, EPF announced that details about the special RM10,000 withdrawal such as application method and payment mechanism will be divulged in the near future.

       Ismail Sabri in a press conference earlier said the government is allowing the special RM10,000 withdrawal after considering requests from various parties. He also appealed to EPF contributors to ensure that they still have some savings remaining in their account.

       Previously, the government allowed EPF contributors to withdraw money from their accounts through various schemes such as i-Lestari and i-Sinar. The scheme is meant to lessen the financial burden of people who were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.