KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — A post on the Social Security Organisation’s (Socso) official Twitter account saying funds for the Employee Retention Programme have been exhausted was made without approval, the agency clarified today.

It said that the ERP was still operating and assured all applicants that their submissions for assistance will continue to be processed.

"With reference to a Twitter reply that has been in circulation and suggesting insufficient of funds for the Employment Retention Program (ERP), Socso would like to clarify the message was an unauthorised tweet that does not describe the actual progress of the ERP,” it said in a statement.

The ERP was introduced as part of the expanded Prihatin stimulus package to help businesses cope with their loss of income as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the movement control order imposed to contain the spread of the disease locally.

Socso also clarified that the RM120 million figure mentioned in the now-disavowed tweet was for one months’ worth of assistance.

"The ERP is still in operations and SOCSO assures all those who have applied for the ERP as at April 27th, will continue to get the financial assistance that has been approved.”

Earlier, Malay Mail reported Socso as saying through its official Twitter account that the ERP had effectively ended on April 22 as its allocation was fully exhausted.

The now-deleted tweet had also said applications submitted after that date will not be processed.

The post was in response to a Twitter user who asked the agency to confirm if an April 23 notice of the ERP’s closure was true.

Socso’s statement issued tonight did not address the April 23 notice.