SSC backs draft amendments affecting military personnel

AMMAN — Draft amendments to the Social Security Law relating to service members would enhance the rights and privileges of military personnel in the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army  and its affiliated apparatuses, the Social Security Corporation (SSC) said on Saturday.

One of the most important amendments to the law would grant the heirs of a fallen service member a monthly salary equal to 100 per cent of the service member’s salary, instead of the current 60 per cent, SSC spokesperson Musa Sbeihi said, adding that the payout would be subject to social security deductions as of the date of the member’s death. 

Another modification would change the way military subscribers’ pensions are calculated. Currently, military personnel’s pensions are based on their last few years of service, while the draft amendments would use only service members’ last salary to calculate their pensions. 

The spokesperson added that as per the draft amendments, a military subscriber who dies from a work-related injury would receive a pension amounting to 75 per cent of their total salary, while the current figure is 60 per cent.

Sbeihi said in return for these privileges and improvements for service members, monthly subscription fees would increase by 1.5 per cent to 28 per cent of members’ total salary by 2021, noting that the total deductions for subscribers in the public sector is 19.5 per cent of their salaries.

The Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) last week praised the recent amendments made to the Social Security Law relating to service members, but in the same vein it “strongly” condemned other changes that might affect minimum levels of social protection for workers in “modern business facilities”.

The JLW, affiliated with the Phoenix Centre for Economic and Information Studies, said introducing amendments cancelling the early retirement option for new subscribers, without adding new regulations related to salaries, dismissal from work and unemploymentinsurance was “unfair”. 

Late last month, Sbeihi said that draft amendments to the Social Security Corporation Law would “in no way” affect current subscribers’ conditions for receiving early pensions.

Those entitled to early retirement may still do so in accordance with the current law, the spokesperson stressed.

The goal of suspending early retirement is to change society’s viewpoint on the phenomenon and to enhance a culture of continuous work, rather than early withdrawal from the job market, Sbeihi said, noting that 113,000 people, almost half of the SSC’s 233,000 covered retirees, are early retirees.