Economists welcome draft amendments to Social Security Law

AMMAN — Economists on Wednesday welcomed the Cabinet’s decision to approve the draft amendments to the Social Security Law for 2022.

However, economists were quick to urge the government to reconsider some of the clauses in the amended law.

On Tuesday, the government approved the SSC draft law prior to referring it to Parliament to proceed with legal procedures for its endorsement.

Director of the Phenix Centre for Economics and Informatics Studies (PCEIS) Ahmad Awad said the government’s decision was “a step in the right direction”.

“Although the government did not agree to all the suggested amendments by the Social Security Corporation, they left space for additional amendment studies in the future,” Awad told The Jordan Times.

 However, Awad maintained that the current “amendments are not enough, since, for example, the upheld amendments will not allow the youth to benefit from old age retirement [until they are 30] when entering the labour market”.

Awad also praised the decision pertaining to the cancellation of health insurance.

The government “must take full responsibility in cooperating with the relevant partners to design a national health insurance within the SSC system,” he said.

“The government, workers and private sector will have to equally share the cost of this insurance system so that it will be fair to all, and at the same time, provide quality service,” Awad said.

SSC officials have stated in recent months that the SSC health system will “cover retired citizens who do not have any health insurance, or individuals who work in the private sector and do not have insurance coverage”.

The number of people benefiting from the SSC is around 1.45 million, including 1.2 million who will benefit from the new health system, according to SSC officials.

The draft health law stipulates that “social health insurance will either by managed by the SSC, or via the insurance companies”, SSC officials said.

President of the Workers House Organisation Hamadah Abu Nijmeh and former secretary general of the Labour Ministry agreed with Awad, saying that some of the cancelled amendments were “necessary and needed”.

“The new SSC draft law is good progress, since the decision was taken to cancel early retirement and increase the retirement age clauses,” Abu Nijmeh stated.

Abu Nijmeh said that most individuals earn low salaries, so it is “good that they are allowed to retire at an early age so that they can get another job base on specified SSC conditions”.

The draft amendments are aimed to enhance governance of the SSC through amending the mechanism of appointing the chairman of its board of directors, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The board of directors will be headed by a minister to be named by the Cabinet upon a recommendation from the prime minister. 

Amendments also include a mechanism to appoint the deputy chairman, where the board shall elect a deputy from members who are neither SSC’s director general nor the chairman of the Social Security Investment Fund (SSIF).

Amendments also included the mechanism to appoint the deputy chairman of the SSIF, where the deputy shall be elected by members of the SSIF board of directors and shall not be the chairman of the SSIF or the SSC director general.

The bill also includes procedures to stimulate the private sector to employ jobless youth through enabling private facilities to reduce the percentages of subscriptions incurred for covering employees.

It also seeks to provide more protection to female subscribers through amending the preconditions for maternity leave beneficiaries and enhancing social protections for divorced daughters and sisters or widows by granting them a share of the pensions of their deceased fathers or brothers. 

The bill also regulates the legal status of military pensioners before they complete the age of 45, and adds an extra year of service for employees in the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army and security agencies who were still on duty on June 10, 2020, in a bid to grant more incentives for military personnel and injured servicemen.