PERKESO’s latest non-employment injury scheme
As a working Malaysian, you’ve likely come across these acronyms on your payslip: SOCSO and PERKESO. For the uninitiated, these acronyms stand for Social Security Organisation in English and Pertubuhan Kesalamatan Sosial in Malay.
And if you’re a permanent employee of a company, you’ve likely seen an extra deduction on your payslip for June, as PERKESO has rolled out its Lindung 24 Jam scheme, which is a non-employment injury scheme.
The social security agency declared on 13th July that Malaysians can choose to withdraw from the program, with an application deadline of 31st August.
What does the scheme cover?
The Lindung 24 Jam plan provides 24-hour accident protection, covering injuries sustained outside of working hours and unrelated to employment. Currently, there are no wage thresholds for the scheme, meaning that anyone legally employed in Malaysia will be making monetary contributions to the scheme.
However, contributions to the Lindung 24 Jam Scheme would remain mandatory for foreign workers, while Malaysians have a choice to opt out of the scheme by 31st August.
How much of my salary will be deducted?
Contributions are automatically deducted from your monthly salary and phased in incrementally: 0.75% for the first two years, rising to 1.0% for the following three years, and 1.25% from the sixth year onward.
There is also a RM6,000 monthly wage ceiling cap for the contributions, meaning that RM6,000 is the maximum amount of an employee’s earnings that are subject to statutory contributions, taxes, or pension funds.
Where & how do I opt in/out?
The scheme is mandatory for all foreign workers but it remains an optional scheme where Malaysians can choose to opt out if they wish to. For Malaysians, if you’re choosing to opt in for the scheme, you don’t have to fill in any forms or do any paperwork as PERKESO will automatically deem you as a voluntary contributor, therefore automatically activating your Lindung 24 contributions.
However, for Malaysians who want to opt out, you’d have to fill in a liability release declaration on PERKESO’s website by 31st August, otherwise, you’d be automatically considered as a contributor and can no longer choose to opt out in the future.
Image credit: Perkeso
Newly-introduced non-employment injury scheme
With PERKESO’s newly introduced non-employment injury scheme, it offers injury coverage outside of working hours without costing an arm or a leg every month.
Cover image adapted from: PERKESO