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Scope of protection of social security schemes
it
Whatever the inter-balance between the various social security programmes, is of fundamental importance to assess their impact in the countries concerned. Appendices IX and X summarise the scope of protection of persons in the social insurance schemes and statutory provident funds, and indicate the extensive limitations imposed by the legislation. In practice, administrative and other
problems may further restrict their application to eligible groups. Measurements of the scope of protection according to possible maxima (such as of all economically active persons, or all wage and salary earners) are given in Appendix XII (Part A) for six different types of social security programnes. It must be stressed that it is only social security coverage which is measured. For example, column 3 refers only to social security medical care schemes and does not include public health services, those provided as part of employers' obligations under laws regulating working conditions, or the special arrangements which apply to such groups as public employees. In spite of the difficulty of compiling complete data about all types of social security schemes, it is possible to draw the conclusion that for the period concerned, and with the clear exception of Japan, social security medical care programmes had reached quite а small percentage respectively of the total population, of all economically active persons, and of employees. Also with the exception of Japan, and in spite of some progress, the sickness insurance, employment injury and pension schemes had achieved limited coverage amongst wage and salary earners and had made very little headway in protecting other economically active groups. In contrast, the statutory provident funds, partly due to the length of their existence, had achieved a high degree of coverage of employees, and also of all economically active persons. From the comparative data in Appendix XII (Part B),
it is clear that a number of developing countries in other regions have made progress in extending the scope of protection afforded by medical care, sickness, pensions and employment injury schemes. The two family allowance schemes had covered all children of the relevant age groups. However, it should be noted that advances in social security schemes in the intervening period would be reflected in more impressive figures. For example, by March 1973 India by expansion of the social insurance scheme had increased the scope of protection in respect of cash sickness benefit and employment injury from 12 (measure C) to about 16. Similarly, at the end of 1973, the Philippines had attained coverage of about 30 per cent of all economically active persons and 80 per cent of all wage and salary earners respect of the two categories of cash sickness benefit and pensions.
Regional characteristics of social security
in
This review and analysis of the social security protection afforded on a statutory basis in Asian countries leads to the conclusion that, with the exception of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the USSR, social insurance plays a less significant role than public health services. Within the concept of social
insurance, there is still a heavy and widespread reliance on legislation imposing direct responsibilities on employers. This is true even where developing countries in the region have introduced social insurance schemes for the same contingencies because generally these have not advanced significantly beyond their first stage of covering the urban workers. The position of public employees is in sharp contrast to that of the other sections of the population, who are dependent upon the expansion of
the general social security scheme. As already mentioned, the impact of social security schemes has been restricted by their limited scope. Mainly for economic and administrative reasons, the relatively low individual paying capacity, and the shortage of medical facilities, schemes have been conditioned by the need for gradual development of social security measures. The main criteria employed in whole or part are the size of establishment, branch of economic activity, geographical area, and maximum earnings levels (as indicated in Appendix IX). This is more a matter of expediency than of priorities of need because, for example, the workers in smaller establishments face the same risks as those covered by the scheme and may well be less well protected by the system of individual employer liability because this may not be enforceable to the same extent as in the larger financially strong undertakings. The difficulty is that applying the social security scheme to smaller businesses may be disporportionately costly from the administrative point of view and could also weaken the finacial viability of the establishments concerned with adverse effects on employment. Casual workers are another group who may be greatly dependent upon earnings but are still not readily assimilated by the social security scheme. Domestic servants, often constituting a sizeable group, are dependent upon their employers for their care and maintenance in the event of sickness and maternity, mainly because their inclusion in the general social
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