» Introduction
» Concept of Social Insurance
» Meaning of Social Assistance
» Features of Social Assistance
Social Assistance and Social Insurance
Introduction
Social Security provides a self-balancing different schemes of social Insurance or social assistance from public funds or proper combination of both. In any contingency. Leading to physical incapacity to work during that contingency, any effective scheme of social protections must take care of worker’s income and medical care.
The coverage of social security is very dynamic and wide. Scope of social security programs vary from country to country. In some countries social security is applied to all governmental programs planned to maintain income. In some countries it covers health and welfare services and in some other countries it applies to all the social insurance programmes.
Indian government has adopted a dual strategy for providing social security in different organized and unorganized sector. In India 8% of workforce engaged in the organized sector for which government introduced variety of social security through different labour laws and acts.
In these different schemes employers and employees contribute to provide assistance for running the schemes. The government also makes a small contribution in different schemes like employer’s provident pension scheme. Employee Insurance scheme. Maternity benefit. The coal Mines provident Fund and Bonus schemes under which employees are compensated under the concept of social insurance.
Concept of Social Insurance
The main aim of social security that they provide some form of cash payments to individuals to replace some part of the lost income that may take place due to any type of contingency like work injury , sickness, maturity, unemployment, old age and death. Social security in India is provided in broadly from two point of view:
(i) Social Insurance
(ii) Social Assistance
In social insurance is ‘giving” in return for contribution for meeting different contingencies of life. Social insurance schemes are funded entirely by central government or from common finance contribution made regularly by the employer as well as employee.
The fund so crated takes care of all benefits paid in cash or kind. Under this major contributions are made by the central/ state government and employers, while the employee pay only a nominal amount according to their capacity to pay.
Definitions of Social Insurance
(i) “Social insurance is a giving return for contribution benefits up to subsistence level as of rights and without means and tests so that individual may build freely up to it.”
-Sir William Beveridge
(ii) “Social Insurance is a group idea of helping the needy people who are not able to work due to certain risks.”
(iii) “Social Insurance is social co-operative derive which aims at granting adequate benefits to the insured on the compulsory basis at times of unemployment, sickness and other emergencies.”
(iv) “Social Insurance is derive to prevent individual from falling to the depths of poverty and misery and help him in times of emergencies. Insurance involves the setting aside of sums of money in order to provide compensation against loss resulting from a particular emergencies.”
-Prof. S.C. Sexena
In fact social insurance is group idea of helping needy people who are not able to work due to certain risks. In this workers are benefited against different contingencies of life in case of any mishappening. Here the risk of one is distributed among many on the principles of insurance. Its contribution is small but benefits are very high in case of happening of event.
Social Insurance system in India has spread due to obedience of worker’s due to impact of globalization and the modern urbanized industrial system.
Features of Social Insurance
From the analysis of the above mentioned definition the following features of social insurance are identified:
(i) Schemes of Social Insurance is financed by the small contribution made by the employees and major portion by the employers.
(ii) In all the schemes of social insurance Participation is compulsory with only few exceptions.
(iii) Under these schemes contributions are accumulated in special funds out of which benefits are paid.
(iv) If there happen to be surplus funds not needed to pay current benefits are invested to earn further future income.
(v) Under social Insurance schemes benefits are so planned to cover on a compulsory bases all those who should be covered.
(vi) The contribution and benefit rates are often related to what the person is or has earning.
(vii) These schemes protect the employees and reduce their suffering arising out of the contingencies which cannot be prevented.
(viii) Social insurance helps the employees to maintain their minimum living standard when there is total or partial loss of income.
(ix) The benefits under this are provided to worker without an examination of individual needs and without affecting one’s self- respect.
Scope of Social Insurance
The scope of social insurance is very wide covering
(i) Worker state insurance schemes 1948.
(ii) Maternity benefits act, 1961.
(iii) Coal Mines provident fund and bonus schemes 1948.
(iv) Seamen’s provident Fund Act 1966.
(v) Medical schemes and Facilities under their central and state govt employees who make monthly contribution to the Health schemes.
(vi) The Indian Railway too runs hospital and dispensaries for the employees and their family.
Meaning of Social Assistance
In India 92% workforce is employed in unorganized the initiative to introduce different social assistance schemes from different states in India like Kerala, West Bengal , Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra where good number poor employees are working in different unorganized sectors.
In social assistance grants are given to the needy by the state or community. It is provided a supplement to social insurance for those needy persons who cannot get social insurance payment. Under this the general revenue of the respective government provides finance for the social assistance payment which is made available as a legal right to those workers who fulfill given condition. Social insurance and assistance side by side supplement to each other.
Definition of Social Assistance
These are some of the important definitions:
(i) “Social Assistance is a service or a scheme which provides benefits to persons of small means as of right in amount sufficient to meet minimum standards of need and financial from taxation".---international labour officer.
(ii) “The Social Assistance schemes are designed to help people who are in financial difficulties.”
(iii) “In social Assistance schemes conditions of entitlement are prescribed by Laws and require that applicants have limited incomes and assets.”
(iv) “Social assistance represents the unilateral obligation of the community towards its dependent groups. It is provided by the society or the government to the poor and needy individuals.”
(v) “Social Assistance may be defined as a device to provide benefit for persons of small mans granted as of right and in amounts sufficient to meet a minimum standards of need and financed from taxation or general revenues.”
In simple words we can say that
Social assistance is kind of help which depends upon certain conditions and legalities between the workers and the stat. social assistance is given as a voluntary help while social insurance is granted to those persons only who pay a contribution.
In social Insurance there is no requirement for any type of financial mean or need and benefits are granted without it, while social assistance is granted only if certain conditions prescribed by the government are fulfilled.
Features of Social Assistance
From the analysis of these definitions the following features of social assistance are identified.
(i) Social assistance is a kind of help which depends upon certain conditions and legalities between workers and the state.
(ii) Social assistance is given as voluntary help while social insurance is granted only persons who only pay a contributions.
(iii) The social assistance has an objective to cover poor sections of people in the society who cannot effectively protects risks and contingencies to which are exposed.
(iv) Social assistance is the unilateral obligation of the community towards members who are really in need.
(v) Social assistance is an expression of social responsibility of stat towards its needy person.
(vi) Social assistance is financed wholly or for a very large measures from the general revenues of the state.
(vii) Social assistance does not provide any legal obligation to its members to give monthly contributions towards its schemes for getting the benefits.
(viii) In all schemes of social assistance like social insurance there is no relationship of any sort in risks and premiums paid.
(ix) Social assistance schemes are more applicable where the workers are too poor to contribute, too illiterate to follow the formalities of insurance.
(x) Social assistance requires the fulfilment of certain prescribed conditions before the benefit can be granted under such scheme.
Public Service Programmes as Another Measures of Social Security.
Public service is another third measures for providing social security. These are in fact directly financed by the government from its general revenues in the form of cash payments or services to every member of the community falling within a prescribed category.
Public service is very popular in number of European countries in for medical health service providing old age pension and survivor’s benefits pension for invalidism, pension to every widow or orphan and even providing a family allowance to every family having a given number of children.
In countries like U.K. Germany, Sweden different schemes of public services are prevalent like old age person, full medical care unemployment insurance and survivor’s benefits. Japan was the first come out with a highly comprehensive social national Health scheme and there are Pension programmes for different categories of employees like Agricultural workers, seamen, private school teachers and civil servants.
In New Zealand, ‘The New Zealand Act” made a whole claims of coverage of contingencies which almost guaranteed different sorts of benefits to all citizens from cradle to grave. In 1974 “Universal No fault accident insurance” was introduced giving full compensation in case of any type of accident. In Japan unemployment insurance was amended and it made it compulsory for all industrial and commercial firms employing more than five employees.