S

tate-owned employee insurance company PT Jamsostek says it is looking for more than 38,000 people who have not asked for pension funds amounting to Rp 6 billion (US$666,000), even though they have reached retirement.

Jamsostek president director Hotbonar Sinaga said the members had previously contributed to the social security program for up to 30 years while they had been employed but had not received pension benefits after they reached the retirement age of 55.

“For transparency and fairness, Jamsostek has decided to release the names of the 38,000 members so that they or their relatives may take the funds back,” he said at an iftar (fast-breaking dinner) gathering in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Hotbonar also said that Jamsostek would persuade inactive employees and corporate members to revive their memberships.

More than 30 million people and 215,695 companies registered with Jamsostek under the law on social security programs for workers— but only 8.9 million people and 127,106 companies are currently active and paying premiums to Jamsostek, according to reports.

Jamsostek operations and service director Ahmad Ansori said many companies have avoided paying social security for their employees. Some companies have not register all of their employees while others have not submitted true figures for gross monthly salaries to Jamsostek to avoid paying the premiums stipulated by the law.

Jamsostek is planning a holistic membership verification to clean its membership records, he said.

“We will re-register all members with a single identity card, in line with the population administration system being prepared by the Home Ministry,” Ahmad said.

Jamsostek provides four kinds of social security programs for participants including informal workers: pension funds, health insurance, workplace accident insurance and life insurance.

Jamsostek’s unaudited balance report shows that it had Rp 80.7 trillion (US$8.95 billion) in investments in 2009, which yielded more than Rp 8.4 trillion in dividends.

Jamsostek said it has paid Rp 353.53 billion in compensation to 10.7 million workers for occupational accidents and provided Rp 557.7 billion in mortgage credits to more than 74,000 workers nationwide in the first half of 2010.