Social Security

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the narrower sense, social security is the protection against the consequences of various events that are characterized as “social risks”. The social policies aimed at social protection measures and strives to design a legally structured social security system.

Social security serve the social and welfare . The social security agencies coordinate their work in the International Social Security Association (ISSA) at the International Labor Office in Geneva ( Switzerland ).

Basics

Social risks

A state that wants to ratify Convention No. 102 of the International Labor Organization must cover at least three of the nine risks, with minimum requirements being set for a certain number.

  1. In the event of illness through health insurance, compensation through medical care and nursing
  2. Sick pay as financial compensation for the loss of income suffered
  3. Unemployment benefit in the event of unemployment
  4. Statutory pension insurance, for example in old age
  5. Statutory accident insurance in the event of an accident at work or occupational disease
  6. Maternity benefit in the event of maternity
  7. Occupational disability insurance in the event of occupational disability
  8. Death pension
  9. Family benefits, for example through child benefit

The shaping of social security through social policy

The social policy is based on the design of the social security system at a specific idea of social justice . Michael Opielka differentiates between needs-based justice, performance-based justice, distributive justice and equity-sharing.

“Social security” in a narrower sense is given when all members of a society are granted a decent standard of living . This is based on the average conditions. The prevention and elimination of economic hardship aims at more than securing the “bare” existence. These objectives are achieved primarily through social insurance and social compensation systems and, on a subsidiary basis, through social assistance. In this way, dependency and poverty should be avoided or eliminated immediately after they occur. A uniform basic security for the most important social and economic risks should be guaranteed.

But social security in a broader sense means more: For economically and educationally disadvantaged people, further measures beyond social insurance, social compensation and social assistance are taken as part of social policy: an active labor market policy , social housing , a strong public education system , a compensatory tax policy , etc. Thus, social security can be understood as the entirety of all legislative measures of the state which are intended to achieve social policy objectives. They go from the alleviation of need and poverty and the guarantee of a humane minimum of well-being to the striving for social conditions of equality and freedom , however these goals may be defined in detail.

Term “social security” in the community

With the use of the term social security in the name of a community, the purpose or the product should be brought into focus. In execution, as a task to be carried out in practice, the term has a three-part meaning:

  • “Security” stands for the distribution of financial resources to needy people without sufficient income.
  • “Social” means that the financial resources necessary for income distribution are raised by the working population, be it in the form of premiums to statutory, compulsory social insurance schemes or through the taxation of private households and legal entities.
  • The institutionalized distribution of financial resources is carried out and administered by the public sector or by social institutions commissioned by them.

History of origin

The French Revolution (1789-1799) gave everyone the right to support. In the early days of industrialization in Europe, the social question was raised. In addition to individual savings for foreseeable emergencies, the obligation of the employer, family allowances in crisis situations by the state ( le sursalaire familial in Belgium in 1939 and France in 1932), social security systems were also established. Social legislation in the German Reich in 1883 and 1889 under Bismarck was a pioneer . The same was taken over in 1901 and 1911 by Luxembourg , which belonged to the German Customs Union from 1842 to 1919 .

As part of the New Deal , the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935 , which provides for measures against unemployment and poverty as well as old-age pension insurance for employees.

In the United Kingdom , the Beveridge Report was presented in 1941 , a milestone on the way to the creation of a social security system in the sense of a welfare state .

Institutions

European Union

  • Prohibition of differentiation according to nationality .
  • Retention of acquired entitlements: entitlements acquired through contribution payments in one country are retained when employment is taken up in another country.
  • Cash benefits (in particular: pensions ) are to be exported in full to the Member States. (Obligation for the respective insurance system!)
  • Insurance periods that have been completed in several Member States are added together.
  • In the area of ​​health insurance, insured persons who are temporarily staying in the non-competent state (in particular tourists ) receive benefits in kind that prove to be medically necessary, taking into account the type of benefits and the expected length of stay; They present the European Health Insurance Card as a certificate of entitlement.
  • Pensioners who live in the non-responsible state receive all health insurance benefits there as if they were insured there.

These regulations apply in the 27 EU member states and in Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Germany

In Germany the welfare state principle , which is formulated in Article 20 of the Basic Law , has the status of a constitutional principle.

The concept of social security embodies the idea of ​​social solidarity behind social security . The three principles and basic elements of social security in Germany are:

  1. the subsidiarity and solidarity principle ,
  2. the welfare , supply and insurance principle ,
  3. the social network .

Social security is a complex system that has to meet the complex requirements of modern societies. This gives rise to the various branches of social insurance , supplementary social assistance and other measures taken by the state and civil society . In addition, in a broader sense, there are war victims' benefits and social benefits within the framework of housing, family and training subsidies .

The Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs , but also the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (training funding ) and the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (family funding ) are responsible for government policy in these areas .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Social Security  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ministère de la Sécurité sociale. Inspection Générale de la Sécurité sociale: Aperçu sur la Législation de la Sécurité sociale au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg . Luxembourg, Nov. 2000. p. 3.
  2. ^ Social security. ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ilo.org
  3. ↑ Michael Opielka: Social security is feasible. The daily newspaper , 29./30. November 2003. p. 11. (long version in slash . Journal for Alliance Green Politics, 4/2003.)
  4. ↑ Fear of losing a job affects wellbeing much more than previously thought. DIW, press release of March 26, 2010
  5. ↑ See collection of sources on the history of German social policy 1867 to 1914 by Wolfgang Ayaß , Florian Tennstedt and others, 40 volumes, 1966 to 2016