Social Security (Portugal)
The social insurance in Portugal , the Segurança Social ( Portuguese for: social security), is the state institution for social security in Portugal .
It has existed in its current form since 1979 and includes the basic social security systems for employees and self-employed in Portugal, in particular the pension system, but also unemployment benefits, social assistance, child benefits, disability benefits, etc.
In addition to the Segurança Social, there are also other social insurances, such as professional pension systems , but they only play a subordinate role in the social security of Portugal.
Tasks and organization
Tasks
The Segurança Social is defined according to the currently valid legal basis (Law No. 4/2007 of January 16, 2007) as a system for safeguarding basic rights and equal opportunities , which also promotes well-being ( Bem-estar ) and social cohesion ( Coesão social ) promotes, for all domestic and foreign citizens who work or live in Portugal.
To ensure these rights, the social security organizes, in particular, old-age provision, livelihood security, further improvement of social security, etc.
Organizational and support structure
The Segurança Social is divided into various bodies, most of them as independent public-law institutions ( Instituto Público , IP):
- Direção-Geral da Segurança Social , General Directorate: it designs, coordinates and supports all areas of social security, in addition to pensions and social benefits, also the areas of occupational health and safety and prevention, international agreements and collaborations, and research and development.
- Instituto de Gestão de Fundos de Capitalização da Segurança Social, IP , the capital management and investment company of the public social security systems
- Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Segurança Social, IP , the social security institute responsible for financial movements and the budget
- Instituto de Informática, IP , the institute responsible for all IT areas in social security
- Instituto da Segurança Social IP , the institution defends the social security of the citizens and controls and documents compliance with the applicable regulations of all parties involved
- Instituto da Segurança Social da Madeira, IP-RAM , the social insurance of the Autonomous Region of Madeira
- Instituto da Segurança Social dos Açores, IP-RA , the social security of the Autonomous Region of the Azores
The Segurança Social has branches (officially Serviço Local de Atendimento da Segurança Social , mostly just Segurança Social ) to support the insured . They are centrally set up in all district towns ( Municípios ) and larger localities in the country, and in the urban agglomerations there are also several, each in the most populous districts.
In addition, social security maintains telephone contact channels and online services and cooperates with other public institutions and companies in various areas, such as information and first contact points.
history
Until 1974
The first institution for systematic social and especially health help was the Santa Casa de Misericórdia , which from 1498 expanded its activity to the whole country.
In the course of industrialization in the 19th century, mutual aid associations , such as unemployment, health and death benefit insurances , emerged within the workforce . The first pension funds were also established at the end of the 19th century.
With the growing social pressure and the subsequent growing demands of the socialist and above all anarcho-syndicalist organized workers, especially after the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic in 1910, the state also turned to social security.
On May 10, 1919, the republic laid the first legal basis for compulsory social insurance. The law provided for the creation of a superordinate statutory insurance, the Instituto de Seguros Sociais Obrigatórios . As a result of the increasing domestic political crises, however, the project was not implemented.
After the right-wing coup d'état of May 28, 1926 and the further development towards the Estado Novo regime established in 1932 , the semi- fascist dictatorship set up the first compulsory insurance with the law of March 16, 1935, based on the example of other European countries and with reference to the self-formulated ones social goals in the constitution of 1933. This previdência social (social welfare) was organized in an authoritarian-corporate manner in accordance with the state philosophy and should apply to all workers and employees in industry, trade and services. It included the first regulations on health care and benefits in the event of illness, disability, old age and death. With the Casas do Povo and the Casas do Pescador, separate social institutions were introduced for those employed in agriculture and fishing .
While the scope and scope of this institution were very limited for a long time, the reforms of social legislation that took place in 1962 and 1963 in particular increased the effectiveness of the social security systems, in the course of the growing economy in Portugal and the associated increase in employment and rising state revenues (through the state program of public works and general economic growth in Europe, with EFTA co-founded by Portugal in 1961 ). The financial basis was expanded beyond pure contribution financing to mixed financing through contributions and tax revenues, and family benefits (mothers' benefits, child benefit, etc.) were introduced for the first time. For the first time, the self-employed and freelancers were also included, and regional social security offices were set up to bring them closer to the population. The newly established Caixa Nacional das Pensões now took over the administration and payment of old-age and disability pensions and death benefits, and with the Caixa Nacional de Seguros de Doenças Profissionais , a public insurance fund for occupational diseases was created for the first time.
The parallel increasing employment of Portuguese guest workers in other countries increasingly integrated Portugal's social security system internationally, in particular through social security agreements , so that a separate central migration social security system was created and integrated, the Caixa Central de Segurança Social dos Trabalhadores Migrantes . In 1965 there was a reform and expansion of labor protection law.
From 1970 a far-reaching reform followed, with the creation of old-age, illness, disability and death benefits, which was completed in 1972, now also for all those working in agriculture. For a country like Portugal, which was still strongly rural at the time, this was of some importance, as the smallholders usually operated subsistence farming and could not pay any social contributions and therefore increasingly began to migrate to the cities with the increasing prosperity of workers and employees.
With the fall of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime as a result of the left-wing Carnation Revolution in 1974, social policy in Portugal then experienced a profound change and an enormous revaluation, which was enshrined in a large number of articles in the Portuguese constitution, which was passed in 1976 . In addition to the national health system Serviço Nacional de Saúde and other social goals, it also established the right to social security (Article 63).
Since 1974
From 1974 onwards, a large number of social changes within the meaning of Article 63 of the constitution finally enshrined in 1976 were made, including the general pension from the age of 65 introduced in 1977, including for all those who were not insured in existing pension funds. The first trial introduction of unemployment insurance in 1975 is one of them.
With law no. 513-L of December 26, 1979, the Esquema mínimo de proteção social laid down the basic principle and a minimum range of services of the Segurança Social. Together with the various social laws between 1977 and 1980, Portugal's new social insurance was created. In 1980, a new regulation of the social security contributions changed the income situation towards a more effective collection of contributions and the regulation of the social security outstanding amounts accrued up to then.
With Law No. 28/84 of August 14, 1984, a comprehensive basic law was passed for the first time under the title Lei de bases da Segurança Social . The three principles of the Segurança Social are laid down in it:
- Protection for employees and their families in the event of total or partial loss of work or job, and in the event of death.
- Compensation for family expenses
- Protection in the event of a lack of or dwindling livelihood
In 1985 unemployment benefits were reintroduced; after Portugal joined the EU in 1986, a large number of other social laws and adjustments to the regulations in other EU countries followed. With the introduction of the single social tax taxa social única the financing of the social security scheme was revised 1986th
In the course of the 1990s, a large number of new laws ensured that services were expanded, specified and increased efficiency, through which the welfare state was further expanded.
Law no. 17/2000 of August 8, 2000 passed the second basic law on social security of Portugal ( Lei de bases da Segurança Social ), which was superseded by law no. 32/2002 on December 20, 2002. Social security was anchored in three pillars:
- the actual Segurança Social, itself subdivided into three sub-systems
- Subsistema previdencial , the precautionary system
- Subsistema de solidariedade , the solidarity system
- Subsistima de proteção familiar , the family support system
- Sistema de ação social , the system with purely social measures
- Sistema complementar as a complementary system of further measures
Law No. 4/2007 of January 4, 2007 reformed and updated the social security. These regulations have been in effect since April 2020 and again divide social insurance into three areas of activity:
- Sistema de proteção social de cidadania , social security for the citizens
- Sistema de previdência , social security system
- Sistema complementar , complementary system
In the 2000s, social security benefits were further expanded in terms of quantity and quality. In 2003, general social assistance in the form of minimum income , the Rendimento social de inserção, was introduced for the first time . These include the increased expansion of social institutions from 2006, the promotion of inclusion , and the measures to prevent fraud in social benefits and social contributions.
Finances
financing
Essentially, the Segurança Social is financed by the general social security tax in Portugal, the Taxa Social Única (TSU, Portuguese for: Uniform Social Insurance ).
The TSU is the contribution rate that is paid by the employee at 11% and the employer at 23.75% with each monthly wage. The employer pays the entire TSU, i.e. both shares, directly to Segurança Social.
In addition, strengthening measures for social security were resolved in the 2017 state budget. They stipulate that the Segurança Social will participate in tax revenue. A small portion of the municipal property tax IMI ( Imposto Municipal sobre Imóveis ) and a portion of 1.5% (2% from 2021) of the corporate income tax IRC ( Imposto sobre o Rendimento de Pessoas Coletivas ) go to social security.
earnings and expenses
Balance sheets
The 2018 state budget provided for the Segurança Social with total revenues of EUR 28,095.7 million; the actual revenues then amounted to EUR 28,373.7 million. Of this, 16,509.9 million were premium income and 8,106.7 million were income from other taxes; state compensation payments were no longer necessary.
On the other hand, the budget budgeted expenditure of 27,166.9 million euros, which actually amounted to only 26,387.5 million euros in the end. Pension expenses were by far the largest item at 16,619 million, followed by unemployment benefits, social assistance, disability benefits, sick pay and, as the last item, administration with a total of 309.7 million.
This resulted in a balance sheet surplus of almost 2,000 million for 2018.
The state budget for 2019 then provided for income of 29,482.5 million euros, which was offset by 27,818 million expenditure. Despite the declining social expenditure due to the ongoing economic development, higher expenditure was planned, above all through pension adjustments and other measures to reverse social cuts during the economic crisis.
deficit
Particularly in the severe economic crisis that followed the euro crisis from 2010 onwards, subsidies from the state budget for social security were necessary to compensate for their deficit as a result of the sharp rise in social spending. They then fell again in the course of the economic recovery. In 2013 the state compensated for a deficit of the Segurança Social of 1,430.3 million euros, while the deficit fell in the following years to 429.6 million in 2017. No compensation payments have been necessary since 2018.
literature
A large number of books on social security have been published in Portugal, dealing with topics such as legal bases, history, scope of benefits, future prospects or criticism of the Segurança Social . A small selection follows:
- Miguel Teixeira Coelho: Segurança Social - Passado, presente e futuro. Vida Económica, Porto 2019, ISBN 978-989-768-644-3 .
- Francisco Louçã , João Ramos de Almeida, José Luís Albuquerque, Vítor Junqueira: Segurança Social. Editora Bertrand , Lisbon 2016, ISBN 978-972-25-3244-0 .
- Raquel Varela (Coord.): Quem paga o Estado Social em Portugal? 3. Edition. Editora Bertrand, Lisbon 2013, ISBN 978-972-25-2513-8 .
- Apelles Conceição: Legislação da Segurança Social. 7th edition. Edições Almedina, Coimbra 2019, ISBN 978-972-40-8162-5 .
- Ana Cecília Sena Simões: Segurança Social. Edições Almedina, Coimbra 2009, ISBN 978-972-40-3682-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Aims and principles of the Segurança Social , official website, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ Overview of the organs of the Segurança Social , official website, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ List of Segurança Social Offices , official website, accessed April 6, 2020
- ↑ AH de Oliveira Marques : History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire. , Kröner Verlag , Stuttgart 2001, p. 592ff ( ISBN 3-520-38501-5 )
- ↑ AH de Oliveira Marques: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire. , Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, p. 599 ( ISBN 3-520-38501-5 )
- ↑ a b Website on the historical development of social security in Portugal , website of the Segurança Social, accessed on April 12, 2020
- ↑ Explanation of the Taxa Social Única in the business portal www.economias.pt, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ Social affairs in the 2019 state budget (PDF access, p. 6), website of the Portuguese Parliament , accessed on 6 April 2020
- ^ Social affairs section in the 2019 national budget (PDF, p. 7), website of the Portuguese Parliament, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ Social affairs in the 2019 state budget (PDF download, p. 5), website of the Portuguese Parliament, accessed on 6 April 2020