A SOCSO claim Malaysia search almost always starts on a bad afternoon — someone slipped on a wet floor, or a motorcycle went down on the way home from the factory. Alamak, and then the second problem arrives: nobody in the office seems to know which form, or whose job it is to send it.
One form does all of it, and the deadline that matters most is not yours. Everything below is what PERKESO’s own pages, its own forms and the gazetted text of the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 say, sourced at the bottom. What none of it can do is tell you what your case is worth — that figure rests on a contribution record only PERKESO can see.
Quick Answer: everything goes on Form 34. Your employer must send it to PERKESO within 48 hours of hearing about an ordinary accident, and a benefit has to be claimed within 12 months of falling due.
- The form nobody names correctly: Form 34. Borang 10 and Borang 21 stopped being PERKESO forms in 2013.
- The gate on medical leave: at least 4 days, counting the day of the accident.
- What changed this year: since 1 June 2026 accidents outside work are covered too, for local employees on an opt-out basis — but the opt-out window (13 July–31 August 2026) has already closed, so if you did not opt out then you are in it now.
Table of Contents
Three schemesWhat countsThe 48 hoursThree schemes sit inside one Act
The Act reaches further than most people assume. Section 3(1) applies it to all industries having one or more employees, and section 5(1) insures every employee in them irrespective of the amount of wages. There is no salary line above which you fall out of SOCSO — only one above which the wage stops counting, and since 1 October 2024 that ceiling has been RM6,000 a month, up from RM5,000. A small tell that this material rots: the consolidated Act text PERKESO itself publishes still reads five thousand ringgit in subsection 5(2).
Under that ceiling sit three contingencies. Employment injury (branded LINDUNG PEKERJA) for accidents and occupational diseases arising out of and in the course of employment; invalidity for a permanent inability to earn, from any cause, around the clock; and since 1 June 2026 non-employment injury, branded LINDUNG 24 Jam. First category contributions buy all three, second category buys the two injury schemes without invalidity — below 60 the employer pays first category, from 60 second category only, and someone joining above 55 having never contributed pays second category only. PERKESO’s own table puts the employer at 1.75% in total (1.25% employment injury plus 0.5% invalidity) and the employee at 1.25% (0.75% LINDUNG 24 Jam plus 0.5% invalidity).
The First Schedule puts a short list outside the Act altogether — casual work not for the employer’s industry, the armed forces, police officers on police duties, people in detention — and a second, narrower list outside invalidity pension only: anyone who has attained 60, anyone who reached 55 without earlier contributions, and most foreign workers. Temporary and part-time staff must be registered. And your PERKESO registration number is your IC number.
What counts as an employment injury — and the word that ends a claim
Section 23 presumes that an accident arising in the course of employment also arose out of it. Section 24(1) then deems three journeys to be in the course of employment: on a route between your place of residence or stay and your place of work; on a journey made for any reason directly connected to the employment; and between the workplace and where you take your meal during an authorised recess. Section 24(2) takes it back again, and this one sentence decides more commuting claims than anything else — an accident during any interruption of, or deviation from, that journey is not deemed to arise out of and in the course of employment. The detour to pick up dinner is the whole argument. Section 25 separately covers emergencies at the employer’s premises.
Occupational disease runs on its own track: section 28 deems a Fifth Schedule disease contracted in a listed occupation to be an employment injury unless the contrary is proved, including within 60 months of leaving that occupation — noise-induced hearing loss and occupational asthma are two PERKESO names outright. Then two hard edges. Section 22(a): no temporary disablement benefit at all unless the disablement lasts at least 4 days including the day of the accident. And section 31, which most people do not know exists: neither you nor your dependants can recover compensation or damages from the employer under any other law for an employment injury covered here.
Form 34 and the 48 hours
There is exactly one form. Form 34, Notice and Benefit Claim Details, made under the Employees’ Social Security (General) Regulations 1971. The English version PERKESO currently publishes is headed Amendment 2/2026 and carries five tick-boxes on page one: employment injury, occupational disease, death, non-employment injury, invalidity. If you have been told to look for Borang 10 or Borang 21, that advice is thirteen years out of date — P.U. (A) 370 of 2013 substituted Form 34 for both and deleted Form 10 outright.
The sequence: you give notice of the accident to the employer or to PERKESO under regulation 68; the employer then, immediately after receipt, completes Form 34 and furnishes it to PERKESO with a copy to an Insurance Medical Practitioner. Regulation 71(4) sets the outer limit — immediately, or as soon as practicable, where the injury caused death or is likely to cause death, permanent disablement or loss of a body part; in any other case, within 48 hours. The 2026 amendment left that intact.
One honest complication, because two official PERKESO documents give two answers. The regulation says 48 hours. PERKESO’s own current Form 34 checklist says the employer shall report immediately or at the latest 30 days from receiving the accident report. We print both rather than pick one: the gazetted regulation is the law, the checklist is what the counter hands out. Either way the same checklist warns that PERKESO may fine, compound or prosecute an employer for a late report — and may reject an application that is incomplete, unclearly written, or later than the stipulated period.
| Notice type | What goes in with Form 34 | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Every claim | Copy of the IC, front and back; proof of the claimant’s own bank account | Form 34 checklist |
| Accident at work | Medical or sick leave certificate; punch cards or attendance records | Regulation 57(1); PERKESO FAQ |
| Accident while commuting | The above, plus the original police report or a station-certified copy, and a sketch map of the route | Regulation 71(3); PERKESO FAQ |
| Occupational disease | Medical report plus special reports such as MRI, x-ray, CT scan, audiogram, NCS or pathology | Form 34 checklist |
| Invalidity | Medical report from any Registered Medical Practitioner giving the location, nature, extent and diagnosis of the condition | Regulation 46 |
| Death | Death certificate or burial permit; funeral receipts if the claimant is not an eligible dependant | Form 34 checklist |
Where it goes: PERKESO’s Benefit Application page says every benefit application must be submitted to the nearest office to be reviewed and verified by its officers, handed in at the counter — with post, or another method PERKESO accepts, allowed by the checklist. Portal LINDUNG FAEDAH creates the accident, occupational disease or death notice online, and emergency treatment is free at a registered panel clinic, where eligibility is checked from your IC number through the SEHATi application. Read one more line on that checklist before anyone offers to help you for a fee: do not use an agent or middleman who charges, because PERKESO’s service is free. Falsifying a claim is punishable under section 93 with up to 2 years or a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or both.
What the Employment Injury Scheme pays
| Benefit | Official rate | Floor and ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Medical | Free at a PERKESO panel clinic or a government clinic or hospital until fully recovered; second class ward for serious injuries | Non-panel treatment reimbursed at PERKESO’s rates or under the Fees Act 1951 |
| Temporary disablement | 80% of the average assumed daily wage | RM30.00 to RM158.67 a day |
| Permanent disablement | 90% of the average assumed daily wage | RM30.00 to RM178.50 a day |
| Constant-attendance allowance | PERKESO describes it two ways — see below | RM500 a month |
| Dependants (death) | 90% of the average assumed daily wage | RM30.00 to RM178.50 a day |
| Funeral | Actual expenditure or RM3,000, whichever is lower | RM3,000, effective 1 June 2024 |
| Education | A loan to a dependant child, not a grant | 2% service charge |
Two things the table cannot hold. 20% is the line on a permanent disablement payout: the Medical Board assesses, at or below 20% it can be paid as a lump sum, above 20% you are given the option to commute one fifth of the daily rate into a lump sum with the balance paid monthly for life. And dependants’ benefit is split by fixed share — widow or widower three fifths, for life even on remarriage on or after 1 May 2005; each child two fifths, rising to three fifths if the widow or widower dies, until marriage or age 21, whichever is earlier, or until a first degree is finished for a child at an institute of higher learning. With no widow, widower or child it goes to parents at four tenths for life, a sibling at three tenths to age 21 or marriage, and grandparents at four tenths if the parents have died.
And the constant-attendance allowance, where PERKESO contradicts itself in public. The scheme pages call it fixed at RM500 per month for someone with total permanent disablement so severely incapacitated as to constantly require another person’s attendance. The FAQ calls the same thing 40% of the permanent disability benefit or invalidity pension, subject to a maximum of RM500 per month, fixed at RM500 from 1 January 2013. Section 30 names no amount at all. Both pages are official; we print both.
Invalidity is a different test, and the qualifying period is the gate
Invalidity ignores fault, and does not need an accident at all. The test is earning capacity: a specific morbid condition of a permanent nature, either incurable or not likely to be cured, leaving the person no longer capable of earning, by work corresponding to his strength and physical ability, at least one third of the customary earnings of a sound insured person. Cover runs around the clock and is not tied to the employment. The age gate is 60 at the date the invalidity notice is received; an older claimant must show the condition set in before 60 and that there has been no gainful employment since.
Contributions then set the rate. The full qualifying period is at least 24 months of monthly contributions within the 40 consecutive months before the month of notice, or not less than two thirds of the complete months since contributions first became payable with at least 24 paid. That earns 50% to 65% of the average assumed monthly wage — starting at 50% and rising 1% for every 12 months of contributions paid in excess, capped at 65% — with a minimum pension of RM550 a month. The reduced qualifying period is not less than one third of those months, again with at least 24 paid, and pays a flat 50% on the same RM550 floor. PERKESO’s own worked example: joined 01/07/1999, notice received 01/01/2015, 186 months of contributions to December 2014, two thirds of 186 months is 124 — and that employee draws 59%.
Fail the contribution conditions and you are not left with nothing: the invalidity grant is a one-time lump sum equivalent to the employee’s and employer’s Invalidity Scheme contributions, with interest. Die of a cause unrelated to employment before 60, or while receiving invalidity pension at any age, and the dependants get survivors’ pension on the same 50% to 65% band with a minimum of RM475 a month. The scheme also funds dialysis for chronic renal failure, which surprises people who think of SOCSO as accident cover only. One limit runs across all of it: section 96, as substituted by Act A1788, bars invalidity pension and permanent disablement benefit for the same period and the same disablement — where both are due, you choose, and the choice is final.
LINDUNG 24 Jam: what changed on 1 June 2026, and again on 8 July
Act A1788 came into operation on 1 June 2026 and added non-employment injury to the Act — a personal injury caused by an accident not arising out of and in the course of employment. New section 44C is the generous part: disablement from one earns all the same benefits as an employment injury. It phases in across three gazetted windows — First Phase 1 June 2026 to 31 May 2028, Second Phase 1 June 2028 to 31 May 2031, Third Phase from 1 June 2031 — and during the First Phase the daily rate is 48% of the assumed average daily wage for temporary disablement and 54% for permanent total disablement, rising to 64% and 72%, then reaching the full 80% and 90%. The minimum daily rate climbs the same way: RM18, then RM24, then RM30.
Then it changed again. Contributions are fully borne by the employee — 0.75% in Phase 1, 1.00% in Phase 2, 1.25% in Phase 3, on monthly salary up to the RM6,000 ceiling, with no employer share. And following a Cabinet decision on 8 July 2026 the scheme is mandatory for foreign workers but voluntary for local employees. Joining needs no action, because you are enrolled by default; only opting out does, through Portal LINDUNG Faedah. The opt-out window ran from 13 July to 31 August 2026, and anyone who had not opted out by then was activated automatically, under what PERKESO calls the Once In, Always In principle. June 2026 contributions were mandatory under the law as it then stood and cannot be refunded; refunds run from July 2026 onwards and only an employer can apply for one. The PRIHATIN Portal shows which side of that line you are on.
Covered: accidents inside Malaysia, outside working hours, unrelated to the job — at home, on a personal trip, and non-work commuting. PERKESO states that road accidents which are not criminal offences count even if the police issue a fine or compound. Not covered: anything already certified as an employment, self-employment or domestic injury; accidents outside Malaysia; fraudulent claims and criminal acts; self-inflicted injury or suicide; a month in which no contribution was made; anything before midnight on 1 June 2026; and any disease or injury unrelated to an accident, including occupational diseases. A pre-existing condition such as diabetes does not disqualify an injury caused by the accident itself. One procedural difference matters: under new regulation 73A you or a dependant file this notice of accident yourselves in Form 34, and the employer only confirms you are still in active employment and not on unpaid leave. Two employers at once, and regulation 12B makes you pick one within 30 days of PERKESO’s written notice; fail to, and PERKESO names one itself within 14 days. Self-employed people are outside this scheme entirely — they sit under Act 789’s LINDUNG KENDIRI, four plans from RM157.20 to RM592.80 a year, claims on Form PS2, temporary disablement capped at RM105.33 a day.
The full LINDUNG KENDIRI picture — the four contribution plans, who is covered, and how to claim — is in our self-employed SOCSO guide.
If the claim is turned down
There are two ladders and they are not interchangeable. A dispute about medicine — whether you are invalid, how badly disabled — goes to a Medical Board, and section 33(2) lets either you or PERKESO appeal from it to the appellate medical board. An assessment already made can be reviewed on fresh evidence or on substantial and unforeseen aggravation, but except with the appellate board’s leave not on an application made less than 3 years from its date, or 6 months for a provisional one.
A dispute about entitlement goes to the Social Security Appellate Board, which decides the section 84 matters for PERKESO, employers, employees and dependants. Eleven Boards exist — nine in Peninsular Malaysia, one each in Sabah and Sarawak — and applications go to the Secretariat at Tingkat 18, Menara PERKESO, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. You may be represented by a legal practitioner or by an authorised officer of a registered trade union. No Civil Court has jurisdiction over what the Act assigns to the Board or to a medical board, and the High Court is reachable only on a substantial question of law, within 60 days of the order.
| What | Deadline | Whose job |
|---|---|---|
| Form 34 after an ordinary workplace accident | Within 48 hours of the notice reaching the employer | Employer |
| Form 34 where the injury caused death or is serious | Immediately, or as soon as practicable | Employer |
| Notice of occupational disease to PERKESO | Within 48 hours of receiving the notice | Employer |
| Claiming the benefit itself | Within 12 months after the claim became due | You |
| Permanent disablement benefit | Within 12 months from the last date of the temporary disablement | You |
| Application to the Social Security Appellate Board | Within 3 years of the cause of action | You |
| Appeal to the High Court on a question of law | Within 60 days of the order | You |
Three protections sit alongside that, and they are the ones employers most often get wrong. Section 53: except as provided under the regulations, no employer shall dismiss, discharge, reduce or otherwise punish an employee while he is receiving disablement benefit for temporary disablement, and notice of dismissal given in that period is not valid or operative. Section 52: wages cannot be reduced by reason only of the liability to contribute. Section 56: PERKESO may count contributions that were due but never paid when computing a qualifying period, then recover the value from the employer who failed to pay. Going the other way, section 55 puts a duty on you — report anything that affects your continued right to a benefit or its rate.
Walaoeh Verdict
Four things, on the day it happens. Tell the employer in writing and keep a copy — regulation 68 is what starts the employer’s clock, and that clock is measured in hours. Get the medical certificate, because without at least 4 days of certified leave counting the day of the accident there is no temporary disablement benefit at all. If it happened on the road, make the police report and sketch the route while you still remember it. And diarise 12 months from when the benefit fell due — the deadline PERKESO applies, though section 89 lets the Appellate Board still pay out late if it accepts a reasonable excuse.
The thing worth checking this year is whether you are in LINDUNG 24 Jam — the difference between an off-duty accident being covered and not covered at all. It costs 0.75% of salary, it is opt-out rather than opt-in, and the decision window has already come and gone once. Check the PRIHATIN Portal instead of assuming.
Two numbers we deliberately did not turn into an equation. We have not computed what anyone will receive: the rate is a percentage of an average assumed daily wage built from a contribution history PERKESO holds and we cannot see, so we print the percentage, the floor and the ceiling and stop. And we have not multiplied the First Phase percentages by the wage cap to invent a maximum daily rate for LINDUNG 24 Jam, because no official page publishes one. On losing the job rather than the health — a separate scheme, the Employment Insurance System — see 👉 Retrenchment Compensation Malaysia 2026: The Formula. On notice periods, see 👉 Resignation Letter Malaysia: Notice Period Rules & Template.
Frequently Asked Questions
My boss never reported the accident. Is my claim dead?
Not automatically. Regulation 71(2) says that if no notice of accident in Form 34 is furnished by the employer, PERKESO may in its discretion accept any other evidence relating to the accident. The employer’s failure is the employer’s problem: PERKESO reserves the right to fine, compound or prosecute for a late accident report. Section 56 goes further — PERKESO may count contributions that were due but never actually paid when working out a qualifying period, and then recover the value from the employer who failed to pay. What you cannot rescue is time: a benefit has to be claimed within 12 months of falling due, though section 89 lets the Appellate Board pay out late if it is satisfied there was a reasonable excuse.
I crashed on the way home. Does SOCSO cover that?
Section 24(1)(a) deems an accident while travelling on a route between your place of residence or stay and your place of work to arise out of and in the course of employment — so yes, in principle. Section 24(2) is the catch: if it happened during an interruption of, or deviation from, that journey, it is not. For a commuting injury that is more than minor, regulation 71(3) requires the original police report to go in with Form 34, and PERKESO’s FAQ also asks for a sketch map of the route taken. If the journey was not a commute at all, it may instead fall under LINDUNG 24 Jam, which covers non-work-related road accidents inside Malaysia — but only if you are contributing to it.
Is it still Borang 21 or Borang 10?
No, and it has not been for thirteen years. P.U. (A) 370 of 2013 substituted Form 34 for Form 10 in regulations 53 and 66(1), substituted it for Form 21 in regulation 58(3), and deleted Form 10 outright. Everything now runs on Form 34, Notice and Benefit Claim Details, whose current English version is headed Amendment 2/2026 and carries five tick-boxes: employment injury, occupational disease, death, non-employment injury and invalidity. A full read of PERKESO’s Forms page returns no Borang 21 and no Borang 10.
How much will I actually get?
We are not going to compute that, and be careful of any page that does. The rate is fixed but the base is not: temporary disablement pays 80% of your average assumed daily wage and permanent disablement 90%, and that assumed wage is derived from a contribution record only PERKESO can see. What is public is the corridor — a floor of RM30.00 a day and a ceiling of RM158.67 for temporary disablement or RM178.50 for permanent disablement and dependants’ benefit. And the shape of a permanent disablement payout turns on 20%: at or below that assessment it can be a lump sum, above it you may commute one fifth of the daily rate and take the balance monthly for life.
Can my company fire me while I am on SOCSO medical leave?
Section 53 of the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 says no employer shall, except as provided under the regulations, dismiss, discharge, reduce or otherwise punish an employee during the period he is in receipt of disablement benefit for temporary disablement — and subsection (2) adds that any notice of dismissal, discharge or reduction given during that period shall not be valid or operative. Section 52 separately stops an employer reducing wages by reason only of his liability to contribute. Whether a particular dismissal was lawful is a question of fact for the authorities, not for a web page.
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these, all checked on 14 September 2026.
- Laws of Malaysia, Act 4 — Employees’ Social Security Act 1969, text as at 1 September 2022, hosted by PERKESO. Sections 3, 5, 22 to 31, 33, 34, 52 to 56, 84 to 93 and the First Schedule.
- PERKESO — Act A1788, Employees’ Social Security (Amendment) Act 2026 and P.U. (B) 196 of 2026. Non-employment injury, the substituted Third Schedule, the amended Fourth Schedule and the three phase windows.
- PERKESO — P.U. (A) 205 of 2026 and P.U. (A) 206 of 2026. The minimum daily rates, and the 2026 changes to the General Regulations 1971.
- PERKESO — P.U. (A) 370 of 2013. The current wording of regulations 46, 71 and 83, and the replacement of Form 10 and Form 21 by Form 34.
- PERKESO — Employment Injury Scheme and Invalidity Scheme. Every benefit rate, floor and ceiling, the dependants’ shares and the qualifying periods.
- PERKESO — Non-Employment Injury Scheme (LINDUNG 24 JAM) and its official FAQ. The opt-out window, the contribution percentages, and what is and is not covered.
- PERKESO — Form 34, Notice and Benefit Claim Details and the Form 34 document checklist. The five notice types, the document lists, the offences and the reporting line.
- PERKESO — Benefit Application, Employment Injury Treatment Programme and Portal LINDUNG FAEDAH. How and where a claim is actually submitted.
- PERKESO — Contribution Rate, Self-employed (LINDUNG KENDIRI) and the official FAQ. The wage ceiling, the Act 789 plans and the constant-attendance wording.
- PERKESO — Social Security Appellate Board. The eleven Boards, the address and the three-year limit.
About this guide. Written by an independent Malaysian and re-checked against official sources on a schedule — here, PERKESO’s own pages, forms and the gazetted text it publishes. It sets out what the rules say; it is not legal, medical or financial advice, and an injury claim can turn on facts a web page cannot see. Rates, thresholds and forms in Malaysia change. Before a deadline runs out, confirm with PERKESO at 1-300-22-8000, at the nearest office, or with a licensed professional.