The old age security Jaminan Hari Tua (abbreviated as JHT) of the labor and social security program Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial Ketenagakerjaan (abbreviated as BPJS Ketenagakerjaan), which suddenly became a hot topic in February of this year, has become a typical example of failure due to lack of awareness regarding legal revisions. We have announced revisions and then withdrawn them in the face of opposition, but the content of this revision was extremely logical, and in fact, it could be said that it was the way it should have been. Let's take this opportunity to review worker social security.

[Two types of social security programs]

The social security program consists of the Labor Social Security Program (hereinafter referred to as Labor BPJS) and the Health Social Security Program (hereinafter referred to as Health BPJS). Directly translated from Indonesian, BPJS is a social security implementation agency, so it is actually the name of the organization, but currently the program also uses this name. To begin with, Health BPJS is a transition from Health Security Jaminan Kesehatan, which was in Labor BPJS. Labor BPJS is an organization formed by merging the social security program for civil servants, the military, and state-owned enterprises with the social security program for private enterprises, formerly known as Jamsostek. Health BPJS, which serves as national health insurance, and Labor BPJS, which covers all workers, were established on January 1, 2014, by integrating several social security programs that had previously been operated separately. Labor BPJS has been operating relatively calmly because its previous parent company had long-term management experience, but Health BPJS was a private company that was not obligated to enroll if it provided better specs than the default, and on top of that, it suddenly became a national health insurance that included subsidies not only for workers but also for the poor, so to this day it has had repeated problems of non-payments to hospitals and continuous deficits.

[Five programs of Labor BPJS]

Labor BPJS originally consisted of four programs: occupational accident insurance Jaminan Kecelakaan Kerja (abbreviated JKK), death insurance Jaminan Kematian (abbreviated JK), old age security and health insurance. When we separated from Health BPJS, our health insurance was no longer available. In 2015, the Pension Guarantee Jaminan Pensiun (abbreviated as JP) started, and four programs were put into operation again. Pension security starts paying monthly pension benefits only after a 15-year participation period, so you will receive the sum of your contributions plus investment profits as a lump-sum payment after you reach retirement age. On the other hand, for old age security, by submitting the employment certificate Surat Keterangan Kerja, which is a document from the company where the employment relationship has ended, you can receive the amount of the previous contributions plus investment profits as a lump sum payment. Therefore, it also had the function of unemployment insurance, but the Omnibus Law added unemployment insurance Jaminan Kehilangan Pekerjaan (abbreviated as JKP), and it became possible to receive benefits from February 2022.The latest revision of the eligibility age regulations for old-age security was to eliminate the unemployment insurance function of old-age security and make it function purely as old-age security after retirement. However, the start of receiving unemployment insurance benefits and its contents were not sufficiently well-known, leading to the illusion that workers would no longer receive their savings, which led to the current strong opposition. It seems that we will have to wait and see how unemployment insurance works for a while longer.

Related regulations: Law No. 24 UU-24/2010 of 2011, Government Decree No. 37 PP-37/2021 of 2021