Ammon News - The Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF) has organised a discussion session in cooperation with the World Bank to launch a policy paper titled “Social Security Corporation (SSC): Toward Coverage Expansion and a More Adequate, Equitable and Sustainable Pension System” as part of partnership to produce policy papers that review public expenditure in Jordan.

Mousa Saket, JSF member, said that the initiative aims at enhancing and supporting efforts to identify obstacles that can be avoided or opportunities that should be seized to expand coverage at the SSC under a sustainable and equitable finance mechanism that accords with challenges facing SSC system during and post-COVID-19 pandemic, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Montserrat Pallares, Senior Social Protection Economist at the World Bank said that the percentage of total expenditure on pensions and workers’ compensations in Jordan is high as per international standards, standing at some 9 per cent of GDP in 2019.

She noted that the pensions system in the Kingdom needs to rely more on diversified finance resource, and to be supported by voluntary saving programmes to conform to SSC subscribers’ contribution.

Zafiris Tzannatos, former adviser of strategies and policies at the World Bank, said that the government is required to develop a long-term comprehensive reform model while taking into consideration the economic repercussions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

SSC Director General Hazem Rahahleh said that workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises and individual workers are the most vulnerable to market changes, stressing that the corporation seeks to include all categories of the society in the near future.