KUALA LUMPUR – Only 0.5% of payments of incentives and financial assistance for workers retrenched in 2020 are still pending, said the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
In a statement today, it said the pending 593 cases are not more than 14 days old, which is in accordance with the standard operating procedure (SOP).
Socso was clarifying allegations about delays in processing applications and payment of incentives and financial assistance for employers and workers.
It gave assurances that Socso closely monitors the progress of each loss of employment (LOE) case and claims application.
“Socso Employment Insurance System (EIS) is also actively taking steps to address the issue of heavy workload for its officers,” it said.
It said that besides processing claims for EIS benefits or government financial assistance, Socso also assigned EIS case managers to facilitate the unemployed in their job hunt.
It said the organisation is gradually recruiting more officers to quickly process the usual LOE cases as well as applications for various employment retention and hiring incentives under the PenjanaKerjaya 2.0 initiatives of the economic stimulus package in Budget 2021.
“With regular EIS claims under Act 800, Socso had processed 3.143 million applications under all initiatives and processed 74,795 monthly applications for Job Search Allowance (JSA) under Act 800 in 2019.
“In 2020, EIS officers received 262,547 JSA monthly applications, 45,684 ERP applications, 1.99 million monthly PSU 1.0 applications, 314,586 monthly PSU 2.0 applications, 772,674 monthly Hiring Incentive Programme, 7,104 mobility assistance applications (under PenjanaKerjaya 1.0),” it said.
EIS is a safety net for retrenched workers who meet the requirements in the 2017 EIS Act (Act 800) that supports eligible applicants with financial assistance to prevent poverty as well as case management and services to facilitate their re-employment. – Bernama, January 7, 2021
