Social security.
The fundamental right to social security is set out in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and other international legal instruments.
The notion of social security adopted here covers all measures providing benefits, whether in cash or in kind, to secure protection, inter alia, from
• lack of work-related income (or insufficient income) caused by sickness, disability, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, old age, or death of a family member;
• lack of (affordable) access to health care;
• insufficient family support, particularly for children and adult dependants;
• general poverty and social exclusion. Social security thus has two main (functional) dimensions, namely “income security” and “availability of medical care”, reflected in the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944), which forms part of the ILO’s Constitution:
“social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care” (III(f)).4 Recommendation No. 202 sets out that, at least, access to essential health care and basic income security over the life cycle should be guaranteed as part of nationally defined social protection floors, and that higher levels of protection should be progressively achieved by national social security systems in line with Convention No. 102 and other ILO instruments.
Access to social security is essentially a public responsibility, and is typically provided through public institutions, financed from either contributions or taxes or both. However, the delivery of social security can be and often is mandated to private entities. Moreover, there exist many privately run institutions (of an insurance, self-help, community-based or mutual character) which can partially assume selected roles usually played by social security, such as the operation of occupational pension schemes, that complement and may largely substitute for elements of public social security schemes. Entitlements to social security are conditional either on the payment of social security contributions for prescribed periods (contributory schemes, most often structured as social insurance arrangements) or on a requirement, sometimes described as “residency plus”, under which benefits are provided to all residents of the country who also meet certain other criteria (non-contributory schemes). Such criteria may make benefit entitlements conditional on age, health, labour market participation, income or other determinants of social or economic status and/or even conformity with certain behavioural requirements.
Two main features distinguish social security from other social arrangements. First, benefits are provided to beneficiaries without any simultaneous reciprocal obligation (thus it does not, for example, represent remuneration for work or other services delivered). Second, it is not based on an individual agreement between the protected person and the provider (as is, for example, a life insurance contract); the agreement applies to a wider group of people and so has a collective character.
Depending on the category of applicable conditions, a distinction is also made between non-means-tested schemes (where the conditions of benefit entitlement are not related to the total level of income or wealth of the beneficiary and her or his family) and means-tested schemes (where entitlement is granted only to those with income or wealth below a prescribed threshold). A special category of “conditional” schemes includes those which, in addition to other conditions, require beneficiaries (and/or their relatives or families) to participate in prescribed public programmes (for example, specified health or educational programmes).
NOTE-ARTICLE WILL BE UPDATED
The fundamental right to social security is set out in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and other international legal instruments.
The notion of social security adopted here covers all measures providing benefits, whether in cash or in kind, to secure protection, inter alia, from
• lack of work-related income (or insufficient income) caused by sickness, disability, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, old age, or death of a family member;
• lack of (affordable) access to health care;
• insufficient family support, particularly for children and adult dependants;
• general poverty and social exclusion. Social security thus has two main (functional) dimensions, namely “income security” and “availability of medical care”, reflected in the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944), which forms part of the ILO’s Constitution:
“social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care” (III(f)).4 Recommendation No. 202 sets out that, at least, access to essential health care and basic income security over the life cycle should be guaranteed as part of nationally defined social protection floors, and that higher levels of protection should be progressively achieved by national social security systems in line with Convention No. 102 and other ILO instruments.
Access to social security is essentially a public responsibility, and is typically provided through public institutions, financed from either contributions or taxes or both. However, the delivery of social security can be and often is mandated to private entities. Moreover, there exist many privately run institutions (of an insurance, self-help, community-based or mutual character) which can partially assume selected roles usually played by social security, such as the operation of occupational pension schemes, that complement and may largely substitute for elements of public social security schemes. Entitlements to social security are conditional either on the payment of social security contributions for prescribed periods (contributory schemes, most often structured as social insurance arrangements) or on a requirement, sometimes described as “residency plus”, under which benefits are provided to all residents of the country who also meet certain other criteria (non-contributory schemes). Such criteria may make benefit entitlements conditional on age, health, labour market participation, income or other determinants of social or economic status and/or even conformity with certain behavioural requirements.
Two main features distinguish social security from other social arrangements. First, benefits are provided to beneficiaries without any simultaneous reciprocal obligation (thus it does not, for example, represent remuneration for work or other services delivered). Second, it is not based on an individual agreement between the protected person and the provider (as is, for example, a life insurance contract); the agreement applies to a wider group of people and so has a collective character.
Depending on the category of applicable conditions, a distinction is also made between non-means-tested schemes (where the conditions of benefit entitlement are not related to the total level of income or wealth of the beneficiary and her or his family) and means-tested schemes (where entitlement is granted only to those with income or wealth below a prescribed threshold). A special category of “conditional” schemes includes those which, in addition to other conditions, require beneficiaries (and/or their relatives or families) to participate in prescribed public programmes (for example, specified health or educational programmes).
NOTE-ARTICLE WILL BE UPDATED
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