TNAG-0531-FCO40-626-Application-of-International-Labour-Convention-to-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 49

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that this trend greatly weakens the protection afforded on the occurrence of the relevant contingency. It is

therefore of considerable significance that some countries are considering fundamental changes in their provident funds. In this connection, India has taken an important step in applying the Family Pension Scheme to all new entrants to the Employees' and the Coal Mines Provident Funds respectively, as well as giving the existing members the option to join. AS a general rule, statutory provident funds allow exemptions to members of existing of equivalent private schemes (India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka). This practice may hamper the task of consolidating or improving the protection given by the provident

fund systems.

Non-contributory benefit schemes

The

Non-contributory benefit schemes of one type or another may be found in many Asian countries. Public health services, for example, exist in Burma, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and the USSR, and also other countries. They provide medical care free ΟΙ for nominal charges. Comprehensive social security systems financed from general revenues are in force in Australia and New Zealand. Australian scheme covers all of the contingencies of sickness, maternity, invalidity, survivorship, old age, family responsibility and unemployment. A corollary of the method of financing is the principle of need which is applied to cash benefits for sickness, unemployment, widowhood, old a ge and invalidity. Maternity allowance and child endowment are non-means tested. The innovation by New Zealand in the field of employment injury protection (financed by employers) has been mentioned earlier. The non-contributory schemes provide the full range of social security cash benefits except that for maternity. Only family and superannuation benefits are free of income tests. Further information about cash benefit measures is given in Appendices II to VI. Mention may also be made of Hong Hong's non-contributory and non-means tested allowances for the severely disabled and infirm. Hong Kong also provides an example of public assistance measures, another type of non-contributory benefit scheme, in its payments to persons with incomes below specified levels and its emergency relief programmes. India, Sri Lanka, and Singapore also have special public assistance schemes for certain vulnerable groups in the community.

Distribution of social security expenditure

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In order to perceive the relative importance of the different types of scheme described above, and to gain an over-all appreciation of the distribution of social security expenditure, it is necessary to study the data given in Appendix XI (Part A). It is obvious that there are marked differences between countries in the expenditure under the heading "Social Insurance and Assimilated Schemes" (column 3) for the periods concerned. It is the highest proportion in Australia, Japan, Nev Zealand and the USSR, but the lowest or the lowest after public assistance (column 7) in all of the countries listed India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Taiwan. This is in contrast to the approach of some other developing countries (Part B) which have high proportions of expenditure in columns 3 or 4. An appraisal of the figures for each year relating to Asian countries (Part A) shows that there is a general tendency for expenditure under this heading to increase as a proportion of the over-a ll expenditure. Apart from some contraction of employer liability programmes for maternity there has been a subsequent pronounced expansion of the schemes in this group which may by now be reflected in a relatively higher proportion of expenditure (but this will depend also upon trends in expenditure on other programnes, such as public health). Another significant feature of the analysis in Appendix XI is the prominence of public health services. They were the largest element in social security expenditure in India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, and of high comparative importance in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and the USSR. The relative importance of separate schemes for public employees varied widely between countries but vas of some significance in India, Malaysia and Pakistan. The outstanding feature of the public assistance expenditure is the dominance of this type of programme in Taiwan, its fairly large role in Japan and its comparative insignificance in the other countries listed. The general over-all conclusion from the data on distribution of expenditure is that in countries with developed economies (Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the USSR) social insurance in its various forms is the main means for social security protection, whilst in the other countries in the region the emphasis is more on the public health services and on schemes for public employees.

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