Socso laws will be amended to encourage mothers return to work

 

The government will amend the Social Security Organisation (Socso) laws to encourage women to get back into the workforce after a long maternity or parental leave.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said this will involve allowing the disbursement of grants equivalent to 80 percent of the insured salary value of workers.

He estimated that more than 130,000 women will benefit from the grant, which involves an allocation of RM290 million a year.

Plus, Anwar also called on employers to play a greater role in preparing childcare centres and nurseries at the workplace.

“All this while, childcare centres are provided by the government. We have to ensure that big and rich companies also provide appropriate care centres for babies and children while their mothers work,” he said when tabling Budget 2023 in Parliament today.

Anwar said the government would also provide a childcare centre subsidy of RM180 per month for civil servants, and increase the monthly household income eligibility limit from RM5,000 to RM7,000.

In order to expand access to early childhood education, he said the government would continue the construction of 80 nurseries and KEMAS kindergartens, including 13 new projects.

Budget 2023 is worth RM388.1 billion - comprising RM289.1 billion for operating expenditure, RM99 billion for development expenditure including RM2 billion in contingency savings.

- Bernama