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Jamsostek expects 2.8m new clients
State workers insurance company PT Jamsostek expects to gain an additional 2
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tate workers insurance company PT Jamsostek expects to gain an additional 2.8 million new policy holders next year mainly from employees of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
President director Hotbonar Sinaga told reporters Thursday the company would launch a campaign to increase the awareness of SMEs on the benefits of workers insurance for their businesses.
“Most big companies with 500 to 2,000 employees have joined Jamsostek. Next year we aim to get small and medium companies to become new members ,” Hotbonar said.
Some SMEs are still reluctant to join Jamsostek due to the perceived extra cost burden, Bonar said, “That is why we need a strategy [to attract the SMEs], and for this we need a budget, which is not small.”
To support this objective, Hotbonar said the company would cooperate with Bank BRI, Indonesia’s biggest lender — as of March — with its strong focus on SME financing.
Jamsostek collects premiums from its members until retirement age, and in return covers payments for accidents, health costs and pensions. The company currently has about 8.7 million active members and 20 million non-active, as of October. The number of non-active members has significantly increased from 17.9 million in the same period last year, due to the global economic crisis which hit in 2008.
Non-active members mean they no longer have regular income to pay the monthly premiums, but are still entitled to Jamsostek’s benefits such as pension fund payments.
Hotbonar said that even when still aged below 55, they are entitled to cash from their pension fund as long as they have been a member for at least five years.
Those with less than five years membership behind them cannot cash in their allowances but the amount contributed will be accrued once they get another job.
The increase in the number of policy holders next year should also be related to the company’s obligation to pay additional severance payments and pension funds to about one million policy holders following crisis-led foreclosures.
“Jamsostek has paid Rp 5 trillion for pension claims this year, which is higher than the Rp 4 trillion expected,” Hotbonar revealed.
Besides increasing new members by bringing in small and medium companies throughout the country, Jamsostek is also planning to double its returns on funds invested next year, to help improve its overall position.
“We expect to net Rp 8.9 trillion [US$879.8 million] in [investment] returns in 2010. This year, we target to raise Rp 4.4 trillion. However by October we gained Rp 5.28 trillion, which is 20 percent more than targeted,” Hotbonar said.
He said that the yield would be gained from government bonds, deposits which would be put in state run banks and regional banks and also from stocks and shares.
Based on the Jamsostek financial report in October, the company has already invested this year Rp 77.8 trillion in bonds, stocks, deposits, mutual funds and others, a higher amount than the full-year investment target of Rp 72.7 trillion.
