Workers nearing retirement age are calling for law changes to the Social Security Fund to give them access to unemployment compensation.

Currently, workers aged over 55 who are members of the fund are entitled only to retirement payouts once they become unemployed.

They do not receive unemployment compensation despite the fact that they paid into SSF's unemployment fund.

For workers who are younger, the fund pays an unemployment allowance equivalent to 50% of monthly salary or up to 15,000 baht for six months to those who lose their jobs.

But workers over 55 who lose their jobs are not entitled to the allowance, just a retirement payout.

Thongrat Chom-osod, 60, said she was among 300 workers laid off from a factory that closed in September last year. None of the workers received severance pay. She received only a 26,000 baht retirement payout from SSF's retirement fund.

Mrs Thongrat said she hoped she could get some unemployment insurance money.

Her younger colleagues were entitled to six months' unemployment allowance and vocational training.

Anong Baramee, 55, retired from a garment factory in Pathum Thani in July this year.

She was aware that she was entitled to a retirement payout from the SSF's retirement fund, but Mrs Anong said it was a shame that she missed the chance to undergo skill development training that would have allowed her to upgrade her dressmaking skills.

The Office of Social Security says members' payments are divided between the health insurance fund, unemployment insurance fund and retirement fund.

However, workers aged over 55 get only benefits from the retirement fund. In 2007, the fund had 200,000 members aged over 55.

Narong Phetprasert, an economist at Chulalongkorn University, said most female factory workers live in difficulty after retirement because their retirement payouts are small.