Changes to the Social Security Act

Keywords: Mazars, Thailand, Legal, Social Security Fund, SSF, Royal Decree, Royal Gazette, NSTDA, Thai Red Cross Society, Chulabhorn Research Institute

03 March 2017

This Act requires employers, employees and the government to make contributions to the Social Security Fund. Employees between the ages of fifteen and sixty are required to be insured under the Act. However, the employees under Section 4 of the Social Security Act (No. 4) B.E. 2558 (AD 2015) are specifically excluded from coverage under this Act.

Section 4 states that the Act shall not apply to the following: (1) public officials, permanent employees of central administration, provincial administration, and local administration; (2) students, nursing students, undergraduates, or interning physicians who are employees of schools, universities, or hospitals; (3) employees of foreign governments or international organizations; and (4) employees or those performing other activities as may be set out in a Royal Decree. 

Base on Section 4 (4), the Royal Degree was published in the Royal Gazette on 18 February 2017 stating that the following employees or those performing the following activities are also not subject to the Social Security Act:

1. Employees of the Thai Bar under royal patronage

2. Employees of Chulabhorn Research Institute

3. Employees of the Thai Red Cross Society

4. Employees of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)

5. Employees of state enterprises 

6. Employees of cultivation activities, fishing, forestry, and agriculture, who are not full-time, year-round employees

7. Employees of employers who hire them to work in jobs of a temporary nature, as well as for odd jobs or seasonal jobs

8. Employees of an individual who does not have a business

9. Employees of employers who sell items in street stalls