Workers can opt out of Socso's Lindung 24 Jam by signing liability release cert

 

Local workers who choose not to contribute to the Lindung 24 Jam must fill out a liability release certificate form that can be downloaded online starting Monday.

Social Security Organisation (Socso) group chief executive officer Azman Aziz Mohammed said the workers would also need to inform their employers' human resources departments of their decision as the employer pays the scheme's contributions.

He said workers who complete the liability release certificate will be exempted from contributing for the month of July.

"The certificate is important to prevent Socso or the employer from being blamed in the future after an employee chooses not to contribute.

"If an accident, injury or death occurs outside of working hours, the employer and Socso will not be responsible for any liability or payment of benefits," Azman (above) said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Rejoin anytime

Azman said that employees who choose not to contribute can still rejoin the scheme at any time.

However, he encouraged employees to continue contributing at a low rate, which is 0.75 percent, to ensure that they and their families are protected in the event of an accident outside of working hours.

He said the scheme provides income replacement if the contributor suffers temporary or permanent disability, in addition to payment of benefits to dependents in the event of death.

Regarding the contributions that have been paid since the scheme was implemented on June 1, he said its implementation for that period was made in accordance with the Employees' Social Security Act 1969 (Act 4), while the option to not contribute only applies from July.

As of yesterday, a total of 207,000 employers and 2.27 million workers have been registered under the scheme, including 1.92 million local workers and 307,000 foreign workers.

Azman said the total accumulated contributions reached RM58 million, while 1,056 claims had been received, with an average of 27 claims per day, and almost RM2 million in benefits had been disbursed.

He said Socso would monitor the trend of contributions and claims over the next few months and conduct an actuarial study to assess the scheme’s sustainability after contributions for local workers were made voluntary.

Yesterday, Human Resources Minister R Ramanan announced that Lindung 24 Jam contributions would no longer be mandatory for local workers and would be implemented voluntarily with immediate effect, while contributions for foreign workers would remain mandatory.

In another development, Azman said that so far, no Socso officer had been identified as being involved or abetting in the Daya Kerjaya 2.0 Programme false claims case.

He said the officer who processed the claims did so based on documents that were believed to be valid at the time, but Socso would not compromise if investigations found that there was involvement of internal personnel.

Azman said Socso also welcomed the MACC's recommendation to improve procedures and close the loophole for manipulation in the claims process.

- Bernama