Social security is primarily a social insurance Social insurance has also been defined as a program where risks are transferred to and pooled by an organization, often governmental, that is legally required to provide certain benefits program providing social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:

• social insurance, where people receive benefits or services in recognition of contributions to an insurance scheme. These services typically include provision for retirement pensions In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum, disability insurance Disability insurance, often called disability income insurance, is a form of insurance that insures the beneficiary's earned income against the risk that disability will make working impossible. It includes paid sick leave, short-term disability benefits, and long-term disability benefits, survivor benefits and unemployment insurance Unemployment benefits are payments made by the state or other authorized bodies to unemployed people. It may be based on a compulsory para-governmental insurance system. Depending on the jurisdiction and the status of the person, those sums may be meager, covering only basic needs , or may compensate the lost pay somewhat proportionally to the.
• income maintenance—mainly the distribution of cash in the event of interruption of employment, including retirement, disability and unemployment
• services provided by administrations responsible for social security. In different countries this may include medical care, aspects of social work and even industrial relations.
• More rarely, the term is also used to refer to basic security, a term roughly equivalent to access to basic necessities—things such as food Food is any substance or material eaten to provide nutritional support for the body or for pleasure. It usually consists of plant or animal origin, that contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and maintain life, clothing A feature of all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body. The primary purpose of clothing is functional, as a protection from the elements. Clothes also enhance safety during hazardous activities such as hiking and cooking, by providing a barrier between the skin, shelter, education Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another, money Money is any object that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally, a standard of deferred payment, and medical care Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Before scientific medicine, healing arts were practised in accordance with alchemical treatments and ritual practices that developed out of religious and cultural traditions.

Social insurance

Actuaries define social insurance as a government-sponsored insurance In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or program that is defined by statute, serves a defined population, and is funded through premiums or taxes paid by or on behalf of participants. Participation is either compulsory or the program is subsidized heavily enough that most eligible individuals choose to participate.

In the U.S., programs that meet this definition include Social Security In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program, Medicare Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria. The program also funds residency training programs for the vast majority of physicians in the United States. Medicare operates as a single-payer health care, the PBGC The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is an independent agency of the United States government that was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep program, the railroad retirement program The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board is an independent agency in the executive branch of the United States government created in the 1930s to administer a social insurance program providing retirement benefits to the country's railroad workers, and state-sponsored unemployment insurance programs Unemployment benefits are payments made by the state or other authorized bodies to unemployed people. Benefits may be based on a compulsory para-governmental insurance system. Depending on the jurisdiction and the status of the person, those sums may be meager, covering only basic needs , or may compensate the lost pay somewhat proportionally to.^[1]

Income maintenance

This policy is usually applied through various programs designed to provide a population with income at times when they are unable to care for themselves. Income maintenance is based in a combination of five main types of program:

• Social insurance, considered above
• Means-tested benefits. This is financial assistance provided for those who are unable to cover basic needs, such as food, clothing and housing, due to poverty Poverty is the lack of basic human needs, such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared or lack of income because of unemployment, sickness, disability, or caring for children. While assistance is often in the form of financial payments, those eligible for social welfare can usually access health and educational services free of charge. The amount of support is enough to cover basic needs and eligibility is often subject to a comprehensive and complex assessment of an applicant's social and financial situation. See also, Income Support Income Support is an income-related means-tested benefit in the United Kingdom for people who are on a low income. Claimants of Income Support may be entitled to certain other benefits, for example, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and help with health costs. A person with savings over £16,000 cannot get Income Support and savings over £6,000.
• Non-contributory benefits. Several countries have special schemes, administered with no requirement for contributions and no means test, for people in certain categories of need - for example, veterans of armed forces, people with disabilities and very old people.
• Discretionary benefits. Some schemes are based on the discretion of an official, such as a social worker.
• Universal or categorical benefits, also known as demogrants. These are non-contributory benefits given for whole sections of the population without a test of means or need, such as family allowances or the public pension in New Zealand (known as New Zealand Superannuation). See also, Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend The Alaska Permanent Fund is a constitutionally established permanent fund, managed by a semi-independent corporation, established by Alaska in 1976, primarily by the efforts of then Governor Jay Hammond. Shortly after the oil from Alaska’s North Slope began flowing to market through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the Permanent Fund was.

Social protection

Social protection refers to a set of benefits available (or not available) from the state, market, civil society and households, or through a combination of these agencies, to the individual/households to reduce multi-dimensional deprivation. This multi-dimensional deprivation could be affecting less active poor persons (e.g. the elderly, disabled) and active poor persons (e.g. unemployed). This broad framework makes this concept more acceptable in developing countries than the concept of social security. Social security is more applicable in the conditions, where large numbers of citizens depend on the formal economy for their livelihood. Through a defined contribution, this social security may be managed. But, in the context of wide spread informal economy, formal social security arrangements are almost absent for the vast majority of the working population. Besides, in developing countries, the state's capacity to reach the vast majority of the poor people may be limited because of its limited resources. In such a context, multiple agencies that could provide for social protection is important for policy consideration. The framework of social protection is thus capable of holding the state responsible to provide for the poorest sections by regulating non-state agencies.

Collaborative research from the Institute of Development Studies debating Social Protection from a global perspective, suggests that advocates for social protection fall into two broad categories: 'instrumentalists' and 'activists'. 'Instrumentalists' argue that extreme poverty, inequality and vulnerability, is dysfunctional in the achievement of development targets (e.g. the MDGs). In this view social protection is about putting in place risk management mechanisms that will compensate for incomplete or missing insurance (and other) markets, until a time that private insurance can play a more prominent role in that society. 'Activist' arguments view the persistence of extreme poverty, inequality and vulnerability, as symptoms of social injustice and structural inequality and see social protection as a right of citizenship. Targeted welfare is a necessary step between humanitarianism and the ideal of a 'guaranteed social minimum' where entitlement extends beyond cash or food transfers and is based on citizenship, not philanthropy.^[2]

Social protection in sub-Saharan Africa

Social protection in sub-Saharan Africa tends not to be very developed and yet the growth of some of the region's economies and concerted attempts to tackle poverty mean that this situation may change considerably in the future.

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a country located in Central Africa. With an area of 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi) it is one of the smallest countries in continental Africa. It is also the most prosperous, however the wealth is concentrated in government and elite hands, with 70% of the population has enjoyed some of the highest growth rates in the world (37% a year on average in the past 10 years), based largely on its oil sector. With an economy 20 times bigger than it was in the mid 90s, the government can now afford to start expanding it social programmes, especially as tremendously inequality means that despite a $14,941 average GDP per capita ($30,000 according to UN population estimates), over 75% of the population live below the poverty line The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries and over 40% in extreme poverty Extreme poverty is the most severe state of poverty. Many cannot meet basic needs for food, water, shelter, sanitation, and health care. To determine the affected population, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than USD $1.25 per day . The World Bank estimates that 1.4 billion people currently live under these conditions^[3]. One particularly vulnerable group in Equatorial Guinea are the under 18s, who make up 50% of the population and whose poor levels of nutrition and education risk the country's future stability and economic growth^[3]. The country's under five child mortality rate About 10 million children die every year, very often from preventable causes. Estimates vary depending on the age limit definition of still being a child. Child mortality in this article refers to under-5 mortality, which is the death of infants and children under the age of five. In 2008, 8.8 million children under five died, down from 9.2 is the fourth highest in the world and deteriorating, maternal mortality is also very high. Costs remain a key barrier to access to key public services and Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income. Even where public despite few waivers for the particularly vulnerable, confusion prevents many from taking advantage. Low demand, as well as poor supply, of public services is also important in understanding the limits to social protection and poverty relieve in Equatorial Guinea^[3]. Despite the free provision of primary education and enrolment being relatively high, net primary school attendance rates are low, at 61% for boys and 60% for girls in 2000–2007, according to UNICEF data. Drop-out rates are high and only 33% reach the last grade of primary school, while at secondary school net attendance rates are even lower, at 23% for boys and 22% for girls. A key cause is that children are involved in child labour, in 2001, a UNICEF study showed that 51% of boys and 58% of girls worked during school hours^[3]. Youth migration (over 50% of have moved to urban areas and do not live with their parents) and sexual exploitation risks their development and Equatorial Guinea's^[3]. A small formal social security system does exist but reaches only a small proportion of the employed (or formerly employed) in the urban formal sector and social protection coverage for the poor is very limited. One promising recent initiative is the establishment of the Social Needs Fund, financed by the Government and administered by USAID The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas authorized by the Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1, and is designed to bring in international technical expertise to support institutional capacity building in the social sectors and to support social sector service delivery^[3].

Mali

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with a population more than 14 million. Its capital is has made significant economic progress (on average 5% a year between 1994 and 2006) considering a series of adverse economic shocks (such as drought) and has made some progress on reducing poverty and poverty related indicators, yet poverty remains high at 59.2% in 2006 and as in many sub-Saharan African countries, children make up a high proportion of the population - 54% in the case of Mali^[4]. Mali’s National Social Protection Policy recognises the multiple dimensions of social protection that correspond to a range of social, economic, health and environmental risks. Its main focus is health-related risks and interventions, with areas of the strategy that relate to the social and economic risks of the poor classified as ‘social development’, including ‘social action and social assistance’, e.g. ‘vulnerable’ children (defined as those living without parental care or in households where the head has disabilities or is ill) qualify for some forms of social assistance^[4]. There are also movements towards expanding social security. Two new health-related social protection programmes, the Compulsory Medical Insurance (AMO) and the Medical Assistance Regime (RAMED) are to start operating in 2010^[4]. AMO’s beneficiaries will be active or retired functionaries, formal sector employees, and members of parliament^[4]. RAMED aims to provide free health care to the destitute (those proven to have no sources of income). Mali's social protection programmes are addressed in one of the three pillars of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP), which refers to strengthening the social sector through risk mitigation and social protection for the poorest and most marginalised groups, extending better social protection coverage for the whole population.^[4] However, criticisms remain that the main focus of the GPRSP 2007–2011 is the other two pillars: ‘development of infrastructure in the productive sector’ and ‘consolidation of structural reforms’. Financial limits remain a major barrier to the extension of social protection. Other criticisms relate to the need to address to the demand for public services, as well as the supply side^[4].

See also

• Cash transfers
• Civil defense Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to prepare non-combatants for military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery. Programmes of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s but only became widespread
• Contingencies fund
• Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (Welsh: Adran Gwaith a Phensiynau) is the largest government department in the Government of the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security. It is currently headed by the Secretary of State
• Employees' Provident Fund Organisation of India
• Generational accounting Generational accounting is a method of national accounting for measuring redistribution of lifetime tax burdens across generations from social insurance, including social security and social health insurance
• Health care system Health care systems are designed to meet the health care needs of target populations. There are a wide variety of health care systems around the world. In some countries, the health care system planning is distributed among market participants, whereas in others planning is made more centrally among governments, trade unions, charities, religious,
• Human rights Human rights are "rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Proponents of the concept usually assert that everyone is endowed with certain entitlements merely by reason of being human
• Human security Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and
• Intergenerationality
• International Social Security Association
• Franco Modigliani Franco Modigliani was an Italian-American economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT Department of Economics, and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985
• National Health Service The National Health Service is the name commonly used to refer to the four single-payer publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom, collectively or individually, although only the health service in England uses the name 'National Health Service' without further qualification. The publicly-funded healthcare organisation in Northern
• Prevention
• Publicly-funded health care Publicly funded health care is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most health care needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are set down in rules applying to the whole population contributing to the fund or receiving benefits from
• National health insurance National health insurance is health insurance that insures a national population for the costs of health care and usually is instituted as a program of healthcare reform. It may be administered by the public sector, the private sector, or a combination of both. Funding mechanisms vary with the particular program and country. National health
• National Insurance National Insurance in the United Kingdom was initially a contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment, and later also provided retirement pensions and other benefits. It was first introduced by the National Insurance Act 1911, and expanded by the government of Clement Attlee in 1946 (UK)
• Social policy Social policy primarily refers to guidelines and interventions for the changing, maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare. Thus, social policy is that part of public policy that has to do with social issues. The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard University describes it as "public policy
• Social safety net Social Safety Nets are non-contributory transfer programs seeking to prevent the poor or those vulnerable to shocks and poverty from falling below a certain poverty level. Safety net programs can be provided by the public sector or by the private sector (NGOs, private firms, charities, and informal household transfers). Safety net transfers
• Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits. To qualify for these benefits, most American workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings; future
• Social Security debate (United States) This article concerns proposals to change the Social Security system in the United States. Social Security is a social insurance program officially called "Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance" , in reference to its three components. It is primarily funded through a dedicated payroll tax. During 2008, total benefits of $625
• Social Security Disability Insurance Social Security Disability Insurance is a payroll tax-funded, federal insurance program of the United States government. SSDI, managed by the Social Security Administration, is designed to provide income to people who are unable to work because of a disability. SSDI is intended to be provided until their condition improves, and is intended to
• Social Security number In the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 405(c)(2). The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the
• Social Security Trust Fund The Social Security Trust Fund is the means by which the federal government of the United States accounts for excess paid-in contributions from workers and employers to the Social Security system that are not required to fund current benefit payments to retirees, survivors, and the disabled or to pay administrative expenses. More importantly, the
• Social Security in France
• Social welfare provision Welfare or welfare work consists of actions or procedures — especially on the part of governments and institutions — striving to promote the basic well-being of individuals in need. These efforts usually strive to improve the financial situation of people in need but may also strive to improve their employment chances and many other aspects of
• South African Social Security Agency
• The Four Pillars
• Welfare Rights Welfare Rights is an activity aimed at ensuring that people are aware of and receiving their maximum entitlement to state welfare benefits. It has been established in the UK since 1969 and has also been developed in other countries including Ireland, Australia and the USA. It became necessary because of the complexity of the UK social security
• Welfare state The United Kingdom, as a welfare state, was prefigured in the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease
• Social Security (United States) In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program
• Social Security (Sweden) Sweden's social democratic economic formula, a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare elements, was challenged in the early 1990s by high unemployment. However, fiscal discipline over the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic challenges
• Social Security (Australia)
• Central Provident Fund (Singapore)

References

1. ^ "Social Insurance," Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 32, Actuarial Standards Board, January 1998
2. ^ 'Debating Social Protection' Devereux, S and Sabates-Wheeler, R. (2007) IDS Bulletin 38 .3, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Rebecca Holmes (2009) Social protection to tackle child poverty in Equatorial Guinea London: Overseas Development Institute
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Paola Pereznieto (2009) Social protection to tackle child poverty in Mali London: Overseas Development Institute

Literature

• 'Reforming European Pension Systems' (Arun Muralidhar and Serge Allegreza (Eds.)), Amsterdam, NL and West Lafayette, Indiana, USA: Dutch University Press, Rozenberg Publishers and Purdue University Press

Further reading

• Modigliani, Franco. Rethinking pension reform / Franco Modigliani, Arun Muralidhar. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Muralidhar, Arun S. Innovations in pension fund management / Arun S. Muralidhar. Stanford, Calif.; [Great Britain] : Stanford Economics + Finance, c2001.
• "The Three Pillars of Wisdom? A Reader on Globalization, World Bank Pension Models and Welfare Society" (Arno Tausch, Editor). Nova Science Hauppauge, New York, 2003
• Amazon.com, "When the Public Works: Generating Employment and Social Protection in Ethiopia" Peter Middlebrook , Lambert Academic Publishing. 2009. ISBN 978-3838306728

External links

• Social security Web portal of the International Social Security Association
• GESS - Knowledge sharing platform on the extension of social security
• Social Protection & Labor Program of the World Bank
• Social Protection Program of the World Bank Institute
• Social Protection research from the Overseas Development Institute
• Online guide to basic social protection concepts and issues
• Further resources on social protection (particularly in reference to developing countries) are available on the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre's topic guide on social protection
• Arno Tausch (2005) ‚World Bank Pension reforms and development patterns in the world system and in the "Wider Europe". A 109 country investigation based on 33 indicators of economic growth, and human, social and ecological well-being, and a European regional case study'. A slightly re-worked version of a paper, originally presented to the Conference on "Reforming European pension systems. In memory of Professor Franco Modigliani. 24 and 25 September 2004", Castle of Schengen, Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies
• OECD - Social Expenditure database (SOCX) Website

Categories: Welfare state | Welfare economics | Retirement | Social systems | Social programs

See Also:

• Social Psychology: Encyclopedia
• Science: Social Sciences: Psychology: Directory
• Science: Social Sciences: Cognitive Science: Directory
• Science: Social Sciences: Psychology: Dreams: Directory
• Science: Social Sciences: Psychology: People: Directory

What Links Here:

Recently Viewed Pages:

• Home
• Thought: News
• Science: Social Sciences: Psychology: Personality: Enneagram: Chats and Forums: Directory
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: Encyclopedia
• Johari Window
• Mini-mental State Examination
• Mini-mental State Examination: Encyclopedia
• Blogs
• Archbishop LeRoy Bailey: Blogs

Most Popular Pages:

• Stroop Effect
• Mini-mental State Examination
• Mini-mental State Examination::The Test: Encyclopedia
• Home
• Search Terms
• Mental Status Examination: Encyclopedia
• Glasgow Coma Scale: Encyclopedia
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: Encyclopedia
• Social Security: Web Search
• Stroop Effect: Encyclopedia

Related 'Social Security' Searches: