PETALING JAYA: The Social Security Organisations (Socso) has allocated RM3.8bil through its Wage Subsidy Programme 4.0 (PSU 4.0) under the National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (Pemulih) initiative that will benefit 2.5 million employees nationwide.
Socso CEO Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed in a statement said that the wage subsidy programme is the continuation from the previous PSU 3.0, an initiative to help employees sustain their lives amid the pandemic.
“The subsidy application terms have also been improved where the employee salary limit is not set for PSU 4.0 compared to the salary limit of RM4,000 and below for the previous PSU assistance.
“Employers are also required to include the subsidy details in their employees’ pay slip,” he said on Thursday (July 1).
The application for PSU 4.0 will start from Aug 1 until Oct 31 via Socso’s Prihatin’s website.
Socso also introduced some improvements for the Hiring Incentive programme (Penjana Kerjaya 3.0) by lowering the minimum wage rate to RM1,200 from RM1,500 for employees that fall under the Malaysianisation work category.
The category refers to the job positions that are normally filled by foreign workers.
In addition, the employment contract period for all incentive categories was also reduced from 12 months to six months for the group of job seekers aged 50 and above, People with Disabilities (PwD) and ex-inmates.
“The Kerjaya Gig has also been improved by widening the scope of the recruitment that will include gig or temporary jobs.
“As an addition to the existing categories, the incentive is also opened to the ‘extreme unemployed persons’, who are those who have been unemployed for over 180 days,” Azman said.
The Penjana Kerjaya 3.0, which will involve the job placement incentive for private employment agencies, is targeted to create 180,000 job opportunities until the end of the year.
Job-seeking allowance (Elaun Mencari Pekerjaan) will also be opened for non-contributors such as fresh graduates, school graduates and informal economy workers this time round.
The financial assistance under the Employment Insurance System (SIP) was announced during the Budget 2021 last year.
“Job seekers must register through MYFuture Jobs that is managed by Socso to be qualified for the assistance.
“An extra of RM400 will be paid to the qualified job-seekers that successfully secure a position through the portal,” Azman said, adding that the registration can be made from July 15.
Socso said that 229,000 job seekers will benefit from the financial assistance.
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