Beneficiaries of social security maternity insurance up to 50,000 in 2018

AMMAN — The Social Security Corporation (SSC) on Saturday said that the number of women who benefitted from maternity insurance programme increased from 26,000 in 2017, at a cost of JD34 million, to 50,000, at a cost of JD54 million, by the end of 2018.

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on Friday SSC Spokesperson Musa Subaihi said that the programme was established to encourage business owners to hire more women.

Subaihi added that it would contribute to reducing unemployment among Jordanian women, which now stands at 26 per cent of the female workforce.

The statement, released in correspondence with the International Women’s Day, said that more than 23,000 housewives are subscribed to the SSC’s optional programme.

As for women retirees, some 7,000 have benefitted from the corporation’s pension programme, according to the statement.

The percentage of women subscribers with the SSC programme remains low, at around 28 per cent of the subscriber database, Subaihi noted. 

Out of a total of nearly 1.29 million subscribers, 366,000 are women, the statement highlighted.

The corporation urged employed women to inquire about their inclusion in the social security programmes. The corporation’s law does not discriminate between men and women in terms of pension or other services, stressed the SSC.

Maternity insurance entails paying women — once the baby is born — a lump sum equivalent to their salary to cover their 10-week maternity leave.