In a newspaper report dated 1 March 2006 in a Chinese national daily, there was a case where the deceased mother and his wife were involved in a tussle over his estate.

This young man, aged 26 was involved in a serious road accident in Kuala Lumpur on 30 September 2004 and was in coma for nine months before he died. He left behind his elderly parents and a brother who suffers from autistic illness. Before his death, he had already registered his marriage with a girl but they had not organized a traditional Chinese tea ceremony to celebrate their marriage.

In the press conference, the deceased’s mother claimed that her daughter-in-law had already made withdrawal from SOCSO amounting to RM 9,672 and kept the money to herself.

When the deceased mother inquired about her son’s contributions in EPF, she was told by the officer that her daughter-in-law had made application for withdrawal and RM 5,000 had been paid out so far. Legal action was in progress trying to prevent her daughter-in-law from getting hold of the balance of RM 33,000.

The distraught mother told reporters that her son was the main bread winner in the family. He was a skilled technician with good income and contributed generously every month for the living expenses of his aging parents and disabled brother. His father, age 63 was only working part time as a daily paid laborer. Now that her son was gone, the family needs the deceased’s SOCSO payout and EPF money to finance the living expenses of the family.