New regulations ease early retirement requirements for hazardous professions

AMMAN — The Social Security Corporation (SSC) on Tuesday said it will allow its subscribers who work in hazardous professions to benefit from early retirement with shorter subscription periods.

SSC Director General Nadia Rawabdeh told reporters the new regulation, which was published in the Official Gazette at the beginning of this month, allows subscribers working in 75 professions to receive early retirement pensions for shorter subscription periods.

Hazardous professions are those that harm the health or life of the subscriber due to dangers in the work environment, even if the institution is committed to workplace safety measures, Rawabdeh said. 

Subscribers eligible for hazardous profession early retirement must be above 45 years of age and have been subscribed for a minimum of 18 years for men and 15 years for women, according to the SSC. 

Moreover, eligible subscribers must have worked for five years in a hazardous job during the 10 years prior to submitting their early retirement application.

Although the corporation is working to reduce the number of early retirees among its subscribers, it introduced the new regulation with the aim of protecting subscribers’ health, according to Rawabdeh. 

“The new regulation seeks to minimise the dangers that these workers face, especially since it might be difficult for them to remain in their jobs until they are eligible for old age retirement,” she said, adding that early retirement was created to serve workers in dangerous jobs.

Employers are required to pay an additional 1 per cent of their share of the employees’ subscriptions, as subscription periods for workers in hazardous jobs are shorter, according to the SSC.

Professions included under this regulation were selected by a special committee, Rawabdeh said, noting that jobs in the health, handicraft, chemical, electricity, transportation and sanitation sectors are on the list.

She said other jobs that meet the definition of hazardous professions could be added to the list.  

The regulations governing early retirement for workers in non-hazardous professions stipulate that eligible subscribers should either be above 50 and have a minimum of 21 years of subscriptions for men and 19 years for women, or have 25 years of paid subscriptions and be above the age of 45.

According to SSC figures, 73,500 of the corporation’s 166,000 pensioners are early retirees, constituting 43 per cent of the total.