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A survey of the social security legislation of many industrialised countries will show that relatively little is said in the preambles to legislative texts on the ultimate purpose of social security legislation or about the functions of the whole system. Apart from the conceptual difficulty involved in such an exercise, it is not difficult to guess the most likely explanation of this situation: statements of objectives in a field with such highly important political impact could become embarrassing for the Government if the real performance of the system were to fall short of initial promise and expectation. It may also be suggested that, in view of the piece-meal development of social security systems, the main concern was with the explanation of motives for specific measures, without anyone feeling the need for systematic reappraisal of the whole system, obviously a highly complex enterprise full of political dangers. Nevertheless, if social security planning is to get off to a reasonably good start, the necessity of an over-all definition of social security objectives must be squarely faced.
a
It follows from what we have said before that this effort should result in
assigning an appropriate weight to different social security functions, making it quite plain that social security is primarily designed, not for redistributing income, nor for constituting capital reserves, however important these economic side effects may be, but in order to guarantee to all citizens a certain level of living based on a certain concept of social justice. It is absolutely essential for the future of social security planning to keep this in mind, for only if social aspects of development are determined in the light of social imperatives and not of economic constraints, will it be possible to change present planning practice and approach this task with greater realism. This means that not much progress will be achieved as long as planning in the social security sector begins
with statements such as "given the present state of the national economy, allocations to the social security sector must be fixed at this or that level". The change which is required implies that the first premise of the planning exercise will be as follows: "there is an imperative social need for the introduction ΟΙ improvement of certain social security measures; consequently, the necessary resources must be provided".
Social security objectives will be defined not only in relation to the basic needs of members of society, i.e.
from the point of view of the guarantee of a minimum level of living, but also in relation to their aspirations, both with regard to the level of benefits and the contingencies covered. It will thus be possible to avoid the present illogical situation when important qualitative changes take place within a social security system through a series of piece-meal reforms without the main body of citizens being aware of them.
A thorough analysis of social security functions in society will easily reveal that monetary compensation accorded to victims of social accidents and benefits paid to members of certain disadvantaged groups, while they may deal with the immediate needs of the people concerned, will do nothing about the causes or long-term consequences of these social ills. A forward-looking social policy Dust therefore include the prevention of social risks as one of its major preoccupations, for it is obvious that, through investment in prevention, society is gaining both from the social as well as from the economic point of view. Furthermore, as has been shown in the course of recent years, cash benefits may not be the most effective way of helping people in need. A strong trend has appeared in social security development throughout the world over the past fifteen years towards complementing income maintenance measures by social services. While, in some cases, cash benefits may te sufficient to deal with critical situations of short duration, they may clearly be insufficient in other cases, particularly when a social accident results, for the victim and his family, in a nore or less prolonged, if not permanent, social While cash benefits constitute a mechanical device released cn the occurrence of a contingency, social services are able to deal with individual situations of stress; their obvious objective is not only to provide the people in need with a certain amount of material help but also, as far as possible, to bring them back to normal life in society.
declassification.
In the a bove
perspective, the essential function of social security in an industrialised society will, hence, consist of three tasks: prevention of social risks, income compensation for losses caused by social accidents and social reintegration of victims. Meaningful planning of social security will have to consider as one of its primary tasks the integration of these three main elements of the fundamental social function of the institution; clearly, the demographic, economic and other functions will also be taken into account but they can represent secondary objectives if sccial security is to fulfil its purpose.
coly
E-1195-2G: 5
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