KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly three-quarter of the claims made under the Social Security Organisation’s (PERKESO) Lindung 24 Jam came from low-wage workers.
PERKESO group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed said the round-the-clock accident scheme received 6,330 claims and paid out RM9.97mil between June 1 and Aug 31, its first three months in force.
He said 74% of the claims came from workers earning below RM3,500 a month, the group least likely to have other forms of coverage.
Yet lower earners were also the most likely to opt out of the scheme, making up 52% of those who did so, he revealed.
Dr Mohammed Azman said most of those who opted out were from Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, at 53%, followed by Johor at 11% and Penang at 9%.
He said this was worrying as most in this group had no insurance, citing Bank Negara data showing that only 45.5% of Malaysians held life insurance, while take-up among the B40 group was about 4%.
Dr Mohammed Azman also warned higher earners against assuming private insurance was a substitute for social protection.
“Don’t think that because you earn RM10,000 and can afford insurance, you don’t need social protection,” he said, adding that insurance and social protection are different.
Dr Mohammed Azman said a formal sector worker in Malaysia spent only about 33% of the year on the job, including travelling to and from work.
“This means for the remaining 67%, or about 244 days a year, they are not protected if an accident happens outside working hours,” he said.
He said the grace period for opting out had ended on Aug 31, and workers could no longer leave the scheme but could rejoin at any time via lindungfaedah.perkeso.gov.my.
He said close to 10,000 workers who had opted out early had already signed back up, and he expected more to follow.
Those who remain in the scheme continue to be covered as long as they meet the conditions under the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 (Act 4), in line with the “Once In, Always In” principle.
