PARLIAMENT | The Employment Insurance Scheme (EIS) for private sector employees introduced on Jan 1 this year has collected RM19,922,407 in contributions from 240,077 registered employers up to Feb 15, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Human Resources Minister Richard Riot said the scheme, implemented through the Social Security Organisation (Socso), had approved RM802,800 in payments to eligible applicants in the first month itself.

“I would like to explain that although the date of maturity for payment or dividend is Jan 1, 2019, the BN government had provided an allocation of RM122 million to ensure a most effective system.

“With such a huge allocation, up to Feb 28, even before the maturity date, payment was approved for 1,336 of the 2,471 applicants, and they are being paid RM600 a month for three months,” he said during the Ministers’ Question Time.

Riot was replying to a supplementary question from Normala Abdul Samad (BN-Pasir Gudang) who had wanted to know the benefits enjoyed by those covered under the scheme.

Riot said that besides the payment, the beneficiaries were also given training through upscaling and rescaling programmes aimed at enabling them to secure jobs in the near future.

He said Socso also conducted briefing sessions with stakeholders across the country, and these were attended by more than 6,000 participants, among them employers and employees.

Publicity programmes were also held over the radio, television, print media, advertorials, and the social media, he added.

The EIS, which requires employees and employers to contribute akin to the Socso scheme, is an initiative to ensure that employees who lose their jobs are able to sustain themselves for at least four months before getting a new job.

- Bernama