LINDUNG 24 Jam (SKBBK): the New 0.75% Deduction on Your Payslip

What the scheme actually covers

Until June 2026, PERKESO's Employment Injury Scheme stopped at the office door and the commute. Fall off a ladder at home, crash on the way back to your kampung for a festive break, break an ankle playing futsal on a Sunday — none of it was covered by Act 4, however long you had been contributing. LINDUNG 24 Jam closes that gap: it covers personal injury caused by an accident that does not arise out of and in the course of employment, anywhere in Malaysia, around the clock.

PERKESO's own examples of qualifying accidents are deliberately everyday: travelling home or on holiday with family, falling from a sleeping place at home, injuries during religious worship or the journey to it, animal attacks, recreational cycling or football, and DIY repair work at home so long as it is not income-generating. The estimate is that roughly 250,000 employees a year who meet with accidents currently fall outside Act 4 and will come inside it.

• Covered: non-work accidents occurring inside Malaysia, at any hour, with no age limit as long as you remain an employed employee.
• Not covered: accidents outside Malaysia, illness or disease (this is an accident scheme, not a medical scheme), and self-employed work — the self-employed have their own scheme under Act 789.
• Not double-dipped: you can claim only one benefit for the same accident. If an incident qualifies under the Employment Injury Scheme, it is paid from there, not from LINDUNG 24 Jam as well.

The contribution: 0.75% now, rising to 1.25%

The contribution is fully borne by the employee. Employers pay nothing extra — PERKESO's stated reasoning is that employers already fund the 1.25% Employment Injury Scheme, which protects workers during work and commuting. The rate is phased in over three stages under the Third Schedule of the Employees' Social Security (Amendment) Act 2026 [Act A1788]:

What it does to the payslip

The headline SOCSO and EIS rates did not change. For an employee under 60 who remains in the scheme, LINDUNG 24 Jam sits on top of the existing 0.5% SOCSO and 0.2% EIS, taking the total employee-side PERKESO deduction from 0.7% to 1.45% of insured wages — slightly more than double. The employer side stays at 1.75% SOCSO (1.25% Employment Injury + 0.5% Invalidity) plus 0.2% EIS.

The same RM6,000 insured-wage ceiling that applies to SOCSO and EIS applies here, so the deduction stops growing at RM45 a month however high the salary. Wages follow the section 2(24) definition in Act 4 — gross pay including leave, holiday and overtime pay, but excluding annual bonus, travelling allowances, gratuity on discharge or retirement, and statutory contributions themselves. As everywhere else in PERKESO, the amounts below are straight-percentage estimates; the legal figures come from the stepped wage-band table, so the cents on a real payslip differ slightly.

The opt-out: compulsory, then voluntary, then closed

The scheme launched on 1 June 2026 as mandatory for everyone covered by Act 4. After public pushback over a new deduction landing in a single pay cycle, the Cabinet reviewed it and the Human Resources Minister announced on 8 July 2026 that Malaysian employees could choose whether to take part. Foreign workers were expressly excluded from that concession.

Malaysians who wanted out had to file a release declaration — the Notis Pelepasan Liabiliti — through the LINDUNG Benefit Portal or at a PERKESO counter by 31 August 2026. Anyone who filed nothing stayed in by default, under the 'sekali layak, terus layak' principle. June 2026 contributions were not refunded, because the scheme was mandatory in that month.

• Already opted out: the participation form was updated in July 2026 to allow a change from opt-out to opt-in, so rejoining is possible — but no mechanism has been published for opting out a second time afterwards.
• Newly hired after the deadline: an opt-out declaration can be filed within 30 days of the employee's registration date.
• Still contributing and want to stop: the general window closed on 31 August 2026. Check the current participation form on the PERKESO portal before assuming either way, as this policy has already been revised twice.
• Changing employer: the updated form also covers reassigning which employer makes the deduction.

Foreign workers cannot opt out

Non-citizen employees have been pulled into PERKESO in three steps, and LINDUNG 24 Jam is the third. The Employment Injury Scheme covered them from 1 January 2019, the Invalidity Scheme from 1 July 2024, and the Non-Employment Injury Scheme from 1 June 2026. The July 2026 opt-out applies only to Malaysians: for a foreign worker the 0.75% deduction is compulsory and the employer must make it.

That brings the full PERKESO cost of a foreign worker in Phase 1 to 1.75% employer and 1.25% employee of insured wages. The Employment Insurance System remains closed to non-citizens — EIS under Act 800 covers Malaysian citizens and permanent residents only, so there is no job-search allowance in the package. Employers budgeting foreign-worker headcount should read this alongside the mandatory 2% EPF contribution for non-citizens.

What the scheme pays out

The benefits mirror the Employment Injury Scheme exactly, which is the point: the same entitlements, extended to accidents that happen off the clock.

• Temporary Disablement Benefit — paid for the period of certified medical leave, provided it runs to at least 4 days including the day of the accident. It is paid even if you attend work and are paid wages.
• Permanent Disablement Benefit — assessed by the Medical Board, with payment based on the assessed disablement rate, average wage and age.
• Medical Benefit — free treatment at PERKESO panel clinics or government clinics and hospitals until recovery; serious cases are treated in a government hospital second-class ward. Private treatment is reimbursed only at PERKESO or Fees Act 1951 rates.
• Constant-Attendance Allowance — RM500 a month where permanent total disablement requires another person's personal attendance.
• Physical and vocational rehabilitation — physiotherapy, occupational therapy, prosthetics, wheelchairs and Return to Work retraining.
• Dependants' Benefit — paid on death from a non-employment injury, at the same rates and shares as the LINDUNG Pekerja scheme.
• Funeral Benefit — RM3,000, paid to the widow, widower, child, mother or father, or otherwise against actual funeral expenses up to that cap.
• Education Benefit — a loan facility for a dependant's child where the insured person dies or draws periodic permanent disablement payments.

What employers have to do

• No re-registration for existing Act 4 employees — they were enrolled automatically. New hires from the effective date are registered through the usual channels.
• Deduct the contribution from salary and remit it with the normal PERKESO payment by the 15th of the following month, via the ASSIST 2.0 portal, direct debit, internet banking or an appointed panel bank.
• Handle multiple employments: only one employer may deduct for an employee holding more than one job. The employee nominates which; if they do not, PERKESO assigns one automatically.
• Include contract and part-time staff — they are covered if registered and contributing to PERKESO. Self-employed individuals are not, and must use the Act 789 scheme instead.
• Note the six-month grace period PERKESO granted after enforcement, during which employers were shielded from penalties for LINDUNG 24 Jam non-compliance specifically. Other obligations under Act 4 were unaffected, and the grace period has now lapsed.
• Failure to deduct and remit carries a fine of up to RM10,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both, and PERKESO may inspect premises and question staff.

Caveats

This scheme has changed twice in its first four months — mandatory at launch, voluntary for Malaysians from July 2026, with the participation form revised again days later. Rates, phases and participation rules are set by law and may be revised further, and the calculator on this site reflects the long-standing SOCSO and EIS rates rather than this additional deduction. Check your own payslip against the PERKESO contribution table and the current participation form at perkeso.gov.my before relying on any figure here for payroll.

This is general information, not legal or payroll advice. Employees can verify their own contribution status through the PRIHATIN portal or app; benefit claims go through the LINDUNG Benefit Portal.