Social Security Corporation (SSC) Director General Hazem Rahahleh on Saturday said that electronic applications for the sustainability programme, "Estidama”, will be open from December 20, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The programme, launched by Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Bisher Al Khasawneh on Thursday, targets institutions that are unauthorised to operate during the pandemic and hard-hit sectors by the coronavirus pandemic, Rahahleh added. 

Rahahleh said that sectors benefitting from the programme will be announced in an upcoming defence order, noting that payments would be facilitated by banks.

Receiving financial support is only conditioned by the institutions’ enjoying social security coverage prior to December 1, 2020, Rahahleh said, adding that workers would be paid, provided that they have joined social insurance scheme since September 2020. 

The programme will cover 50 per cent of wages for those working in unauthorised institutions, with a minimum of JD220 per month and a maximum of JD500, extending from December 2020 to May 2021. 

In regard to workers at the most affected sectors, they will receive 75 per cent of their wages, with 50 per cent covered by employers, extending from December 2020 to May 2021. 

In case individuals working at hard hit institutions received less than JD220, the programme would bear the difference in payments, he said, noting that Estidama’s contributions would not exceed JD500. 

Institutions would hold responsibility for differences in payment if workers received less than 75 per cent of their wages, Petra reported.  

In a meeting organised by the Amman Chamber of Commerce, the director general noted that the total cost of the programme is JD200 million, of which JD134 will be incurred by the government and a JD66 million contribution from the SSC.