An EIS claim Malaysia search usually starts on the afternoon somebody hands you a letter. The money side is where it goes wrong first: people know that PERKESO pays something when you lose a job, and almost nobody knows that the scheme has a definition of the word lose that decides everything, or that the clock runs from the actual date you lost the job — the date PERKESO itself determines under section 29 — and not from whatever date happens to be printed on the letter.
Everything below is what the Employment Insurance System Act 2017 [Act 800], its subsidiary legislation and PERKESO’s own pages and portal say, sourced at the bottom and checked on 14 September 2026. Alamak, one warning up front: what none of it can do is tell you what your claim is worth, because the rate is in the statute and the base is in a contribution record only PERKESO can see.
Quick Answer: apply on the LINDUNG KERJAYA portal within 60 days of losing the job. The allowance runs for 3 to 6 months depending on your contribution history, at 80%, 50%, 40%, 40%, 30% and 30% of an assumed monthly wage.
- The deadline that ends claims: 60 days. A late claim is not merely refused — section 29 deems it never to have been made.
- The word that decides eligibility: resignation. Voluntary resignation is out, but section 30(2) carves five resignations back in.
- It is not free money: after month one, each payment depends on a monthly report against a plan you agreed with PERKESO.
Table of Contents
Who is coveredWhat countsThe 60 daysWho Act 800 actually covers
The scheme is branded LINDUNG KERJAYA and has run since 1 January 2018, the date the Minister appointed for Act 800 to come into operation. Section 2(1) applies it to all industries having one or more employees. Your employer must register and insure you within 30 days of you entering employment, irrespective of the amount of wages, and failing to do that is an offence carrying a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 2 years or both.
Contributions are small and shared: PERKESO puts them at 0.4% of assumed monthly salary, 0.2% from the employer and 0.2% deducted from you, due by the 15th of the following month. Since 1 October 2024 the contribution wage ceiling has been RM6,000 a month, up from RM5,000, so the top row of the schedule as amended by Act A1725 caps each side at RM11.90 and the pair at RM23.80. A tell that this material rots: the consolidated Act text PERKESO itself publishes still reads five thousand ringgit in subsection 16(2).
The First Schedule is where most disappointments live. Outside the Act altogether: casual work not for the employer’s industry, people in detention, any member of the public service of the Federation and the States, any employee of a local authority or statutory body, anyone under 18 or aged 60 and over, anyone who reached 57 with no contributions payable before that age, and most foreign employees — the exceptions being permanent residents and two narrow identity-card categories. PERKESO’s portal states the positive version as six conditions: citizenship or PR or temporary-resident status in the private sector or domestic work, age 18 to 60, registration under Act 800, the contributions qualifying conditions, a loss of employment as defined, and being fit, willing and actively seeking work. Its FAQ confirms MyPR and MyKAS holders may apply.
Domestic workers are worth a separate line, because PERKESO’s own pages disagree. Paragraph 2 of the First Schedule was deleted on 1 June 2021, and an Exemption Order of the same date exempts only three classes: a domestic employee working for a close relative, a foreign domestic employee of a foreign employer, and a foreign domestic employee without a valid Visit Pass in the circumstances it sets out. The EIS portal names domestic workers as eligible. PERKESO’s older Contributions page still carries the pre-2021 line that domestic workers are exempt. If that is your situation, ask PERKESO rather than read the page.
What counts as losing your job
Section 30(1) does not define loss of employment by listing what counts. It says loss of employment occurs when the contract of service is terminated or becomes void for any reason other than six: voluntary resignation; expiry of the contract; termination by mutual consent without terms and conditions; completion of the work in accordance with the contract; retirement; and termination due to misconduct. Everything else is in.
Then section 30(2) narrows the first of those six. “Voluntary resignation” is defined to exclude five situations, which means a resignation in any of them still counts as a loss of employment: a resignation under a voluntary separation scheme by mutual consent of both sides; one tantamount to constructive dismissal or caused by the employer’s willful breach of the contract terms; one due to a threat to you or your family, or sexual harassment towards you; one after being commanded to do work outside your scope that endangers your health and safety; and one caused by the workplace closing or not operating because of natural disaster, riot, civil commotion, demonstration or similar, or becoming unsafe through fire, gas leak or similar.
PERKESO publishes the same boundary twice in plainer form. Its scheme page lists seven situations as loss of employment: normal retrenchment, VSS or MSS, closure of workplace due to natural disasters, bankruptcy or closure of the business, constructive dismissal, resignation due to sexual harassment or threats made in the workplace, and resignation after being ordered to perform dangerous duties outside the job scope. Its benefit calculator prints the same split as a two-column table, and adds downsizing of operations to the eligible side.
| PERKESO lists as eligible | PERKESO lists as not eligible |
|---|---|
| Retrenchment and redundancy | Misconduct by the employee |
| Voluntary separation scheme | Voluntary resignation |
| Natural disaster | Retirement |
| Bankruptcy or closure of the workplace | Expiry of contract |
| Constructive dismissal | |
| Downsizing of operations | |
| Resignation due to sexual harassment or threats, or an order to do dangerous out-of-scope work |
Who decides, when it is arguable? Section 31(1) gives any question or dispute on whether loss of employment has occurred to PERKESO, and section 31(2) lets the Director General or an authorised officer refer to authorities under any written law to verify it. If PERKESO determines there was no loss of employment, section 31(3) rejects the claim and deems it never to have been made. That phrase is not decoration — it appears again in sections 29 and 33, and it is why the 60 days matter so much.
Sixty days, and what the Act does to a late claim
Section 28 gives you 60 days from the date you consider you lost your employment to submit the claim. Section 29 then does three things in order: PERKESO determines the date on which you actually lost the employment; if the claim came more than 60 days after that date it is rejected and you are notified in writing; and the claim is deemed to have never been made. PERKESO restates the rule on its scheme page as the first of three eligibility conditions, alongside the contributions qualifying conditions and a loss of employment as the Act defines it.
Two details decide close cases. Regulation 3 of the 2018 Benefit Regulations fixes the date of submission as the date PERKESO acknowledges receipt of the claim, not the date you pressed send. And regulation 4(2) is the only second chance in the scheme: once a claim for a loss of employment has been rejected, it cannot be resubmitted for that same loss unless PERKESO is satisfied there is fresh evidence of a material fact that was not disclosed when the decision was made — and the resubmission is itself made within 60 days from the loss-of-employment date PERKESO determined. Regulation 4(1) is the part in your favour: a rejection has to come with the grounds for it.
What the allowance pays, and for how long
The rate is in the Third Schedule and it is the same for everyone: 80% of assumed monthly wages for the first month, 50% for the second, 40% for the third and fourth, 30% for the fifth and sixth. The duration is in the Fourth Schedule and it is not the same for everyone — it is bought with contribution months. Read the two schedules as two separate questions: how many months you are paid comes from the Fourth Schedule, and whichever number that is, the rate always runs down the ladder in order from 80%.
| Contribution months in the eligibility period | First claim (24 months) | Second claim (36 months) | Third claim (48 months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid 3 months | 12 to 15 months | 18 to 23 months | 24 to 31 months |
| Paid 4 months | 16 to 19 months | 24 to 29 months | 32 to 39 months |
| Paid 5 months | 20 to 23 months | 30 to 35 months | 40 to 47 months |
| Paid 6 months | 24 months | 36 months | 48 months |
Three quiet rules inside that table are worth knowing. Section 32(2) counts the contribution for the month you lost the job whether or not wages for that month were paid. Section 32(3) deems contributions made, and counts the period, for any stretch you spent on monthly temporary disablement benefit under the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 with no wages from the employer — so time on a SOCSO injury claim does not quietly empty your EIS record. And section 34(3) keeps the allowance running after you reach the minimum retirement age, provided the loss of employment happened before it.
Now the part we are not going to compute. The percentages run against assumed monthly wages, and paragraph 6 of the Third Schedule builds that from the wages for each month contributions were paid or payable in the six consecutive months immediately preceding the month of the loss, divided by the number of those months — after paragraph 8 has mapped each month’s actual wage onto a banded figure rather than using the wage itself. As amended by Act A1725 the top band is RM5,950, for wages exceeding RM6,000. PERKESO’s Contributions page describes the cap in round terms as an assumed monthly salary of RM6,000; both figures are official and they answer different questions, one about contributions and one about the banded wage used for benefits. Be careful of any page that turns this into a single number for you. PERKESO publishes its own calculator and warns on the same page that it uses a generic formula, and that the payable amount depends on the contributions qualifying conditions, the average assumed wage and the benefit types you qualify for.
The four benefits that sit beside the allowance
The job search allowance is one of five benefits, and the other four change what you should do rather than just how much arrives. The early re-employment allowance pays 25% of the job search allowance still owed to you if you take a job during the waiting period or during the payment period — a reason to accept work early, not a reason to sit out. If you report for duty inside the waiting period you may elect not to take it, and section 35(4) then leaves your contributions qualifying conditions untouched and deems the claim never to have been made, which keeps those months for next time. Nothing is paid under this head once the job search allowance period has expired.
The reduced income allowance is for people with two or more jobs who lose one but not all of them. It pays at the same rates as a lump sum, and section 36(1)(b) excludes you from the job search allowance, the training allowance and the early re-employment allowance while you are on it. If you lose every job on the same date, section 36(4) gives you one job search allowance and one reduced income allowance, and section 36(5) lets you choose which loss the job search allowance is paid against.
Then the two training heads. The training fee is capped at RM4,000, covers all costs of the training including meals and materials, and is paid straight to the provider; regulation 18(3) lets PERKESO approve a dearer course if you agree to pay the difference. The training allowance is 25% of assumed monthly wages converted to a daily rate, floored at RM10 and capped at RM20 a day, paid monthly according to the training days you actually attended, with proof certified by the provider due within 7 days of the end of that month. Section 37(1) leaves the door open longer than most people expect: you may apply during the job search allowance period, within 12 months after it ends, or within 6 months after starting a new job.
What you have to keep doing while it is paid
The allowance is conditional, and the conditions start immediately. The waiting period is 7 days from the date your claim is approved. Section 44(1) requires you to begin the re-employment placement programme inside those 7 days, and regulation 15 lists what that means: furnish your particulars, furnish health information and the relevant medical report, complete a job placement and assessment form, prepare an employment commitment plan, and comply with whatever conditions PERKESO sets. PERKESO also requires enrolment with MYFutureJobs as part of your job search, and directs updates of job-search activity there.
The first monthly payment lands immediately after the waiting period if you are participating. Every payment after that is conditional on regulation 5(2): PERKESO must receive the monthly report on your employment commitment plan and be satisfied you carried it out and hit the target in it. The report is due not more than 30 days after you receive the allowance. If you are genuinely unable to start — certified medically unfit by a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Act 1971, or for another reason PERKESO approves — regulation 16 lets you apply on Form SIPF 5 to defer.
Job offers come with their own clocks. If PERKESO tells you about an offer you have 7 days to accept it. If an employer approaches you directly you must tell PERKESO within 1 day, and you have 7 days to accept. You may refuse an offer on reasonable grounds, but section 44(6) makes PERKESO the judge of whether the grounds were reasonable, and section 44(7) is severe about the answer it does not like: on an unreasonable refusal you lose your entitlement to any benefit under the Act, and any benefit already in payment is terminated. Regulation 21 adds the other grounds for stopping the programme, including failing to comply with a direction within 2 weeks of it being given.
Three more rules with teeth. Section 34(4) bars you from being in any employment while receiving the job search allowance, and section 34(5) gives you 7 days to tell PERKESO once you accept an offer — contravening either is an offence carrying a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 2 years or both, and PERKESO’s FAQ asks you to send the appointment letter to your Employment Services Officer. Section 41 lets PERKESO suspend a benefit for up to 60 days while it holds an inquiry, then resume or terminate it. Section 42 makes any benefit you were not entitled to repayable as a debt, which PERKESO may set off against a later benefit. On the other side of the ledger, section 38 puts benefits beyond assignment and beyond attachment by any court order, and regulation 22 lets you stay in the programme after the money stops — or if you leave a new job with reasonable grounds within 6 months of starting it.
If the claim is rejected
A rejection must come with grounds, so read them first: they tell you whether the problem is the date, the definition of loss of employment, or the contribution count. If it is fresh evidence of a material fact you can go back under regulation 4(2), but only inside the same 60 days. Otherwise the route is an appeal, and it is not to a civil court — section 59(3) removes that jurisdiction entirely.
The Social Security Appellate Board decides, among other things, whether you lost an employment within the meaning of the Act, what your wages or assumed monthly wages are, your entitlement to a benefit including its amount and duration, whether an employer is liable to contribute, and any decision, order or direction PERKESO has made. Section 61(2) gives you 60 days from the date the cause of action arises, and section 61(3)(a) fixes that as the date you received PERKESO’s written decision. Note the difference from a SOCSO claim, where the equivalent window is three years: on EIS you get 60 days twice over, once to claim and once to appeal.
| Step | Deadline | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Claim for benefits | Within 60 days of the loss of employment | Form SIPF 1, filed on the LINDUNG KERJAYA portal |
| Resubmission after a rejection | Still within those same 60 days | Fresh evidence of a material fact not disclosed before |
| Application to the Social Security Appellate Board | Within 60 days of receiving the written decision | Form JR1 plus a statement of claim, a processing fee of RM2, filed in five copies |
| Appeal to the High Court | Within 60 days of the written order | Form JR8, and only on a question of law or a mixed question of law and fact |
PERKESO’s FAQ gives the address for the appeal form as the Secretariat, Social Security Appellate Board, Level 11, Menara PERKESO, 281, Jalan Ampang, 50538 Kuala Lumpur. You do not have to hire anyone: section 63 lets you appear personally, or be represented by a legal practitioner, by someone you authorise in writing, or by anyone the Board allows. The Board is not a soft forum either — section 62 gives it the powers of a Sessions Court Judge to summon witnesses and order the production of documents, and makes its order enforceable as a judgment of a Sessions Court.
Walaoeh Verdict
Three things, in the first week. Write down the date you actually lost the job, not the date printed on the termination letter and not the date your final pay landed — section 29 has PERKESO determine that date itself, and the 60 days run from it. File on the portal early rather than while you work out your options — there is no reasonable-excuse door in Act 800. And gather the four documents before you start: IC front and back, proof of termination, payslips for the 6 months before the loss, and a personal bank statement in your own name.
Then treat the first payment as the start of a duty, not the end of one. The monthly report against the employment commitment plan is what releases every payment after the first; MYFutureJobs enrolment is required rather than encouraged; and a job offer turned down on grounds PERKESO thinks unreasonable ends the entitlement outright, not just for that month.
Two things we deliberately did not do. We have not calculated anyone’s allowance: the base is a banded assumed wage built from PERKESO’s own contribution records, so we print the ladder, the formula and the RM5,950 top band and stop. And we have not written about changes that are not law yet — as at 14 September 2026 the Attorney General’s Chambers lists no amendment Act to Act 800 after A1725 of 2024, and neither does PERKESO, so every rate above is the rate in force today and dated accordingly. On the employer’s side of a retrenchment, which is a separate payment under a separate statute, see 👉 Retrenchment Compensation Malaysia 2026: The Formula. On losing your health rather than your job, see 👉 SOCSO Claim Malaysia 2026: Injury & Invalidity. On notice periods and what a resignation actually commits you to, see 👉 Resignation Letter Malaysia: Notice Period Rules & Template.
Frequently Asked Questions
I resigned. Is that automatically the end of it?
Not automatically, though the default is against you. Section 30(1)(a) puts voluntary resignation outside loss of employment, and PERKESO’s own benefit calculator lists berhenti secara sukarela under Tidak Layak. Then section 30(2) takes five situations back out of the phrase “voluntary resignation”: a resignation under a voluntary separation scheme by mutual consent; one tantamount to constructive dismissal, or caused by the employer’s willful breach of the contract; one due to a threat to you or your family, or sexual harassment; one after being ordered to do work outside your scope that endangers your health and safety; and one caused by the workplace closing or becoming unsafe through natural disaster, riot, civil commotion, demonstration, fire or gas leak. Whether your resignation is one of those is a question section 31(1) gives to PERKESO, and section 59 gives to the Appellate Board on appeal.
My last day was three months ago. Can I still claim?
Section 28 gives you 60 days from the date you consider you lost your employment, and section 29 is blunt about what happens next: PERKESO determines the actual date, rejects a claim made after 60 days from that date, notifies you in writing, and the claim is then deemed to have never been made. There is no reasonable-excuse door in Act 800 the way section 89 of the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 opens one for a SOCSO claim. Regulation 4(2) of the 2018 Benefit Regulations is the only second chance and it is narrow: a claim rejected for the same loss of employment can be resubmitted only if there is fresh evidence of a material fact that was not disclosed when the decision was made, and only if the resubmission is itself within those 60 days.
Why will nobody tell me the ringgit amount?
Because the rate is public and the base is not. The Third Schedule fixes the ladder at 80%, 50%, 40%, 40%, 30% and 30% of assumed monthly wages — and paragraph 6 builds that figure from the months in which contributions were paid or payable in the six consecutive months before the month you lost the job, divided by the number of those months, after paragraph 8 has mapped each month’s actual wage onto a banded figure. That band history sits in PERKESO’s records, not on your payslip. The one number that is public at the top end is RM5,950, the highest assumed monthly wage in the table as amended by Act A1725. PERKESO publishes a calculator for the rest, and warns on the same page that it uses a generic formula.
My employer never paid my EIS contributions. What now?
Two different problems. The employer’s is section 16(5): failing to register an employee is an offence carrying a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 2 years or both. Yours is arithmetic, because section 32(1) tests the Fourth Schedule conditions on the date you lost the job. Section 16(3) deems you registered from the date your employer first pays a contribution, and section 16(4) bars him from paying for the months before that — and unlike the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969, which at section 56 lets PERKESO count contributions that were due but never paid when it computes the qualifying period for an invalidity or survivors’ pension, the Act 800 text carries no equivalent for the contributions qualifying conditions. Do not settle it by argument in the office: section 59 puts whether an employer is liable to contribute, and your entitlement to a benefit including its amount and duration, in front of the Social Security Appellate Board.
Can I claim EIS and still fight the dismissal?
Yes, and section 43(1) says so directly: a claim for benefits does not bar a representation for reinstatement under the Industrial Relations Act 1967, a claim for termination or lay-off benefits under the Employment Act 1955 or the Sabah and Sarawak Labour Ordinances, or a complaint about premature retirement under the Minimum Retirement Age Act 2012. There is a cost in time. Section 43(2) requires PERKESO to hold its determination on the question of loss of employment until that other case is resolved, and regulation 12 requires you to tell PERKESO about it immediately, whether you started it before or after the claim. Which route fits your facts is a question for a licensed professional, not for us.
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these, all checked on 14 September 2026.
- Laws of Malaysia, Act 800 — Employment Insurance System Act 2017, text as at 1 September 2022, hosted by PERKESO. Sections 2, 3, 16 to 20, 28 to 44, 59 to 65, 72 and 73, and the First, Third and Fourth Schedules.
- PERKESO — Act A1725, Employment Insurance System (Amendment) Act 2024 and Act A1657 of 2022. The wage ceiling, the extended contribution schedule and the RM5,950 top assumed wage.
- PERKESO — P.U. (A) 354 of 2018, the Benefit and Re-Employment Placement Programme Regulations. Forms SIPF 1 to SIPF 6, the submission date, the resubmission bar, the employment commitment plan and the job-offer clocks.
- PERKESO — P.U. (A) 353 of 2018, the Social Security Appellate Board Regulations, and P.U. (A) 452 of 2017, the Registration and Contribution Regulations. Form JR1, the RM2 fee and the contribution due date.
- PERKESO — P.U. (A) 249 of 2021 and P.U. (A) 250 of 2021, and P.U. (B) 606. The deleted First Schedule paragraph, the domestic-employee exemptions, and the commencement date.
- PERKESO — Employment Insurance (LINDUNG KERJAYA), Contributions and Contribution Rate. The benefit summaries, the 0.4% split, the eligibility age band and the RM6,000 ceiling.
- PERKESO — the LINDUNG KERJAYA portal, its application guide and its FAQ. The six eligibility conditions, the four steps, the document list, the processing time and the appeal address.
- PERKESO — Kalkulator Faedah (SIP). The official eligible and not-eligible table, and the calculator’s own caveat.
- Attorney General’s Chambers — Malaysia Federal Legislation portal. Confirms that the latest amendment Act to Act 800 is A1725 of 2024 and the latest consolidated text is as at 1 September 2022.
About this guide. Written by an independent Malaysian and re-checked against official sources on a schedule — here, the Employment Insurance System Act 2017 and its subsidiary legislation as published by the Attorney General’s Chambers, together with PERKESO’s own pages and portal. It sets out what the rules say; it is not legal, financial or employment advice, and whether a particular job loss qualifies is a determination for PERKESO and, on appeal, for the Social Security Appellate Board. 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.