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Provident fund schemes
13.
Ghana,
In recent years some developing countries of the world, such as India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, introduced a provident fund scheme, which is essentially a system of compulsory savings. Employees and their employers pay regular contributions to a central fund, in which a separate account is maintained for each worker. In the case of prescribed contingencies, such as old age, invalidity or death, the worker or his survivors receive in a lump SUB the amount in the account, including accrued interest. In Some cases it is
pa id in the case of sickness or prolonged
unemployment. It may be noted that there is no pooling of financial resources and no sharing risks, accordingly no use of the insurance principles.
II. Contingencies covered by social security
in
14. The contingencies normally dealt with by social security are listed paragraph 1 above. The three major categories of such contingencies are notably (1) the need for medical care, (2) suspension, loss or substantial reduction of income and (3) responsibility for maintaining children.
It may be seen that all such contingencies are alike in that they cause the workers' earned income to be insufficient to maintain his subsistence and that of his dependants. All of them except unemployment are of a physiological nature. The contingency of responsi- bility for the maintenance of children is distinct from others. When this contingency was added to those already covered, on the initiative of French and Belgian employers soon after the First World War, it seemed strange at first to associate it with such misfortunes as sickness or unemployment. The present section attempts to discuss certain problems relating to some of the contingencies covered by social security, with a view to showing the dynamic nature of social security reflected in the evolving concepts of contingencies.
Need for medical care
15. Previously, many social security schemes provided medical care only in the case of a morbid condition. The Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), thus provides in Article 8 that the contingency in which medical care should be provided should include any morbid condition, whatever its cause, and pregnancy and confinement and their consequences. Even now some social insurance schemes cover only the case which is considered as a morbid condition, but an increasing number of countries consider that the contingency in which medical care is granted should be simply the need for it, because the health of the person protected should be safeguarded. Preventive health services provided on a community basis are usually the responsibility of the public health authorities, but preventive medical care is frequently provided by social security schemes.
personal
16. Reflecting the trend to include in the scope of the contingency the need for prevention, the Medical Care and Sickness Benefits Convention, 1969 (No. 130), prescribes in Article 7 that the contingencies should include the need for medical care of a curative nature and, under prescribed conditions, need for medical care of a preventive nature.
17.
Furthermore, the need for medical care does not confine itself to preventive and curative aspects of medical care, and it is extended to cover the third aspect; na mely the need for restorative measures, including medical which are intended to help the individual to return to full physical capacity. Thus, contemporary social security attempts to provide comprehensive medical care ranging from prevention to rehabilitation, whenever the need for such care exists.
rehabilitation
Old Age or retirement _Age_or_retirement
18.
The contingency in which old-age (or retirement) pension is granted was, particularly before the Second World War, mere attainment of a special age. However, many present-day social security schemes providing old-age benefits contain provisions to the effect that benefit is payable at or after the attainment of the prescribed age, only if a protected person retires from gainful activity (or from
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