KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — The Social Security Organisation (Socso) said applications for the Employment Retention Programme (ERP) will no longer be processed as the allocation for the scheme has been exhausted.

On Twitter, it said the programme was effectively closed on April 22 and applications submitted after that date will not be processed.

However, the Wage Subsidy Programme is still open and companies may continue applying for this.

Socso was responding to a Twitter user who wanted to confirm if the ERP’s closure was true, following the release of a notice last Thursday (April 23) stating the fact.

During the announcement of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus package by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin early last month, one of its features includes a RM600 subsidy for each employee earning RM4,000, which will be channelled to then via their employers for up to three months, with a limit of 100 employees per company.

By April 15, nearly 130,000 applications were sent in for wage subsidy, involving some 1.07 million employees. The following day, its chief executive officer Datuk Seri Mohammed Azman Aziz said 111,900 applications involving 727,288 workers have since been approved.