With the dawn of democracy, the South African social security system was in dire need of change. The right of access to social security was for the first time entrenched as a fundamental right in the 1995 Constitution. Since then, many changes have been effected to the present formal social security system, but these were mostly ad hoc and lacked a comprehensive approach. The past history of the country led to the exclusion of the majority of the population from formal social security protection. The excluded and marginalised had to rely on informal social security measures to provide social protection. This resulted in a system of co-existence between formal and informal social security. Although informal social security is increasingly recognised as part of the social security landscape, the role and importance of informal social security have largely been ignored in all reforms to improve the protective scope of the present social security system. The thesis aims to change this. Informal social security has been denied a rightful place in the South African social security landscape. The thesis recommends a model as to how the divide between formal and informal social security can be bridged. This model will, it is hoped, serve as a baseline for stimulating debate and generating new innovative ideas as to how to improve the present social security system in South Africa. / Jurisprudence / LLD

With the dawn of democracy, the South African social security system was in dire need of change. The right of access to social security was for the first time entrenched as a fundamental right in the 1995 Constitution. Since then, many changes have been effected to the present formal social security system, but these were mostly ad hoc and lacked a comprehensive approach. The past history of the country led to the exclusion of the majority of the population from formal social security protection. The excluded and marginalised had to rely on informal social security measures to provide social protection. This resulted in a system of co-existence between formal and informal social security. Although informal social security is increasingly recognised as part of the social security landscape, the role and importance of informal social security have largely been ignored in all reforms to improve the protective scope of the present social security system. The thesis aims to change this. Informal social security has been denied a rightful place in the South African social security landscape. The thesis recommends a model as to how the divide between formal and informal social security can be bridged. This model will, it is hoped, serve as a baseline for stimulating debate and generating new innovative ideas as to how to improve the present social security system in South Africa. / Jurisprudence / LLD

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the social protection of handicapped persons and its legal regulations in the social law of Czech Republic, the evaluation of the actuality and quality of the current settings of the social benefits and their valuation, with the focus on the benefit for care. This thesis is divided to three chapters. First chapter is introductory and defines the social security system itself. Furthermore, the first chapter introduces the history of the social security law in Europe and Czech Republic as well. The second chapter is focused on the specific benefits for physically and mentally disabled persons in accordance with the law 329/2011 Sb., of administration of the social security benefits for handicapped persons, which modulates the benefits to two parts; mobility benefit and benefit for the medical instruments. This law also includes the specification of the different levels of the identification cards for the handicapped persons. This part also concludes the current legal regulations, entitlement for benefits, the hearings and height of the allotted benefits. Along is in this chapter described the division and specification of the different levels of the special identification cards for handicapped, as described above, however with detailed benefits connected with...

Social security and legal protection connected to maternity in the Czech Republic and the European Union The purpose of this master's degree thesis is to give a comprehensive overview of the current situation for pregnant women, women on maternity leave and parents on parental leave, including the protection of their rights provided by the employment laws in the Czech Republic and the European Union. The thesis is composed of an introduction, the main text and a general summary. The main text is divided into two parts. The first part deals with Czech legislation, covering all of its aspects related to maternity. It starts with development of maternity and parental benefits in Czechoslovakia and in the Czech Republic, but then focuses on the current legislation, mainly on the Sickness Insurance Act (maternity benefits, compensation benefits in pregnancy and maternity), State Social Support Act (parental benefits, maternity grants) and the Labour Code (maternity and parental leave, protection of women at work, etc.). The second part deals with European law and its impact on the national laws of the member states. It also compares national legislation of member states regarding these matters. This part covers the development of social policy issues at the European level and continues discussing current...

LL.D. / In hierdie studie word ondersoek ingestel na die beregbaarheid van sosiale sekerheidsregte as 'n fundamentele reg wat deur die Grondwet verskans word. Die konsep "sosiale sekerheid" is as fundamentele reg bekend gestel in die Suid- Afrikaanse regsisteem deur die insluiting van die reg op toegang tot sosiale sekerheid in artikel 27(1)(c) van die Grondwet van die Republiek van Suid-Afrika 108 van 1996. Artikel 27(1)(c) bepaal soos voig: Elkeen het die reg op toegang tot sosiale sekerheid, met inbegrip van gepaste sosiale bystand indien hulle nie in staat is om hulself en hul afhanklikes te onderhou nie. Artikel 27(2) bepaal soos voig: Die staat moet redelike wetgewende en ander maatreels tref om binne sy beskikbare middele elk van hierdie regte in toenemende mate te verwesenlik. Alhoewel die reg op sosiale sekerheid spesifieke vermeiding in artikel 27(1)(c) geniet, bestaan daar ook ander regte in die Handves van Regte wat as vertakkings of bepaalde risiko's van 'n sosiale sekerheidstelsel beskou kan word. Dit is die reg op toegang tot mediese sorg, die reg op voedsel en water, die reg op toegang tot geskikte behuising, die regte van kinders op sorg, basiese voeding, skuiling, basiese gesondheidsorg- en maatskaplike dienste. Wanneer daar dus na sosiale sekerheidsregte verwys word, sal dit al bogenoemde bepalings insluit. Die term "sosiale sekerheid" in plaas van "maatskaplike sekerheid" sal ook gebruik word omdat eersgenoemde 'n wyer aanwending as Iaasgenoemde het.

ABSTRACT South Africa has a sophisticated and developed retirement fund industry and an extensive social security system. While the objective of the latter is wider, both are concerned with financial security: particularly in the face of risks of death, disability and old age. It is widely recognised that there are many gaps in coverage. The chapters in this thesis address these gaps and administrative and benefit structures that could be developed to provide a truly comprehensive social security system. In particular, the thesis discusses the retirement and old age recommendations of the Taylor Committee, on which the author served. The vision is of universal coverage for the current state benefits augmented by mandatory employer based group schemes that offer disability, retirement and orphans' pensions. Means tests, the Road Accident Fund and workers' compensation arrangements would be abolished. The chapters of the thesis are each self-contained, having all been published in – or submitted to – journals, books or conferences. In each, an attempt has been made to review a broader literature than is normally used to discover the impact of some element of the benefit structure, governance or investment policies of retirement schemes on their members. In this context, it is considered to be particularly appropriate to test policies and governance against the standard of justice

Thesis advisor: Alicia Munnell / Since 1975, Social Security retirement benefits have been tied to the Consumer Price Index to adjust for inflation. The CPI measures price changes for a market basket of goods and services designed to replicate the average consumer's expenditures. The elderly, however, consume a market basket different from that of the typical person. In particular, the elderly tend to purchase more medical services than other consumers. Because the price of medical care increases more rapidly than other prices, the inflation rate experienced by the elderly is greater than the inflation rate for the general population, even when controlling for the upward quality bias in the medical care component of pricing data. However, given that this difference in inflation rates is less than the size of the total measurement error in the CPI, recipients of Social Security retirement benefits are actually overcompensated for increases in inflation. Over the course of a beneficiary's retirement, this overcompensation results in a total benefit that is 5.4 – 6.6% greater than what the total benefit would have been under an ideal inflation indexing scheme. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program.

Children are part of the vulnerable population and mostly affected by poverty. The main policy response to children living in poverty in South Africa is the Child Support Grant (CSG). It is payable to a needy primary caregiver of a child for the benefit of that child. The aim of the CSG is to alleviate poverty among children. Although the grant is meant to benefit children, some of the caregivers misuse the grant resulting in children living in poverty. The study explored how caregivers in Ba-Phalaborwa sub-district in Limpopo Province utilise the CSG in the best interest of children. The researcher was motivated to conduct the study due to the reported cases of misuse of the CSG. It came to the researcher s attention that many caregivers do not utilise CSG in the best interest of children. Instead, caregivers use the grant for their own needs, leaving children s needs unmet. The study adopted a qualitative approach and it was exploratory in nature. The sample of the study was drawn from a population of 27 945 recipients of the CSG in the sub-district. A non-purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 20 caregivers aged between 21 and 50 who were also the beneficiaries of poor relief. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data. The researcher conducted face-to-face individual interviews with 20 CSG recipients in Ba-Phalaborwa. The researcher also observed the participants home circumstances which further assisted her in data analysis. Thematic content analysis was used in analysing the data. The findings revealed that the CSG is mostly utilised to buy food, clothes and school necessities for children. This is a reflection that the grant does benefit children directly. Indirectly, the children benefit through contribution to burial societies with the grant. However, the findings further revealed that, there were perceptions that some recipients did not utilise the grant in the best interest of children. The misuse was through gambling and purchasing alcohol with grant. This disadvantages children. Suggestions were proposed on how those who misuse the grant can be dealt with. The suggestions included; initiating food vouchers, changing the recipient, monitoring, and punishing those who misuse the grant. In addition to the money being utilised to purchase food, clothes and school necessities for children, the findings also revealed that the participants were of the view that a slight amount of the grant need to be saved on a monthly basis so that it will help the children in future, especially when they go to tertiary institutions. However, participants complained about the inadequacy of the grant. VI Based on the research findings, it was recommended that if it is found that the recipients misuse the grant, someone should be appointed to receive the grant on behalf of the child and to use it for the benefit of that child. This should be done in collaboration with social workers and SASSA officials. Social workers should monitor the utilisation of CSG in order to ensure that the grant benefits children. Given the fact that the caseload for social workers is high, hiring other personnel (e.g. Auxiliary Social Workers) to deal specifically with the monitoring of the grant was recommended. The Auxiliary Social Workers can also assist families who are unable to manage their finances in drawing budgets with the CSG. It was further recommended that there is a need for South Africa to develop a comprehensive system of social protection which will enable caregivers to receive support in their own right. This would serve to ensure that the CSG is used specifically to meet the needs of children.

Thesis advisor: Mathis Wagner / The essays that comprise my dissertation analyze the interactions among old age labor supply, health, and Social Security system in the United States. In the first chapter of my dissertation, I provide estimate of the causal effect of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application on employment of denied applicants. Using exogenous variations of SSDI application decision, I find that the employment rate is 36 percentage points lower for the denied applicants than that of comparable non-applicants in the short-run. In the second chapter (with Matthew Rutledge and April Wu) we explore the relationship between individuals’ expectation on longevity and their plans for retirement in a quasi-experimental setting. The estimates in this paper suggest a large and statistically significant relationship between subjective life expectancy and retirement expectations: an individual who is one standard deviation more optimistic about living to age 75 has a greater probability of planning to work fulltime at 62 and 65 by 10 percent and 21 percent, respectively. In the third chapter of my dissertation (with Norma Coe and Matthew Rutledge) we identify the contribution of Medicare in explaining the retirement behavior of workers. We find individuals without access to retiree health insurance from work are 7.5 percentage points more likely to retire soon after their 65th birthdays and are 5.8 percentage points less likely to delay retirement until the Full Retirement Age (FRA) than those with that insurance. We interpret this finding as evidence that Medicare eligibility persuades more people to retire, because they can begin receiving federal health coverage. The findings of the research in my dissertation provide important insights in making the Social Security system more welfare enhancing for the older workers and the disabled as well as keeping it sustainable in the long-run. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.