|
The first state-run social insurance program paying retirement benefits was
implemented in Germany in 1889 by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck sought
to hold back the historical wave that was building in support of socialism
across Europe at the time. His system was funded with payroll taxes paid by the
employee and the employer, along with contributions from the government. It also
included a disability benefit. Today such programs are common, though not
universal, among developed countries. They often include features of the initial
German system.
The Beveridge report of 1942 offered the main alternative model. Beveridge
attempted to make insurance the basis for a comprehensive, universal scheme
covering all the main social needs.
Social security is seen as providing assistance to retired workers, often in
the form of a superannuation system that provides a pension from a fund to which
workers have contributed throughout their working lives. Workers may also
contribute to some form of insurance scheme that provides income and assistance
in the event of injury or illness for them and their families. While the scheme
may be compulsory, the contributions or historic income often determine the
level of support provided, once basic elegibility criteria such as age or
inability to work are established. In most of the developed "first world"
countries, social security also includes a system of publicly funded medicine.
|
