社会保障の費用負担問題

概要

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Social risks are perpetually arising under, any social organisation, whatever the measures taken to palliate their effects. The purpose of Social Security is 'to prevent contingencies occurring wherever possible, to provide protection against the consequences of a contingency or a situation in which standards of living are seriously threatened and to share out the cost of this protection in an equitable and rational manner. All social security operations are effected by financial operations; a social security organization fulfils its purpose by collecting money (receipts) and transferring it to others (expenses). It is therefore only logical that one of the major concerns of all the parties interested in a social security scheme, either as beneficiaries or as direct or indirect contributors, should be its financial aspects. Financial .and economic considerations are of the highest importance in. the examination of any question relating to social security schemes and their functioning, adaptation or reform. The original, and still by far the most common, means of affording social security is compulsory social insurance, which is characterised by its contributory nature; almost always there is a contribution from the employer, and often a contribution from the insured person or the State or from both, while the right to benefit and its amount are closely dependent on the amount of contributions paid. Social Security is sometimes provided directly by the State for the citizenry at large, either irrespective of proved need (public service) or subject to a means test (social assistance). The financial resources of social insurance or other social security schemes consist of contributions from insured persons, their employers and the public authorities. Only these three sources can, in fact, provide a direct and regularly flowing income for social security schemes. They can therefore be designated as primary sources of finance. The other sources are of a secondary nature, either because, as in the case of interest on capital, they derive indirectly from funds arising from the differences between the primary income and the annual expenditures, or because, as in the case of other receipts, they can only be of a sporadic nature. This paper examines first of all the arguments for and against the participation of insured persons, employers and the public authorities in the financing of social security. In the practice of European countries as regards the shares of the three parties in the financing of each of the main branches of social security, some schemes are financed from all three sources, others from two, and others- again from one source, namely employers' contributions or those of the public authorities. The justice or expediency of each of these types of contributions has long been the subject of controversy. The principle of contributions from the insured persons is based on the conception that the remuneration of the workers has a part to play in the provision of cover for their risks, and that it offers the soundest basis for the right to benefits which distinguishes social insurance from assistance, and justifies the right of the insured person to share in the management of social security institutions. The principle of contributions from insured persons, although now applied in most schemes, is not universally accepted. But, as a fundamental proposition, the remuneration of employees is generally inadequate, and particularly so in the case of manual workers. The worker's wages, being barely sufficient for his immediate daily needs, do not enable him, except in rare cases, to build up an individual reserve or to bear the cost of social security contributions. Therefore it should be the duty of the employers or the State to provide workers with the means of subsistence, not only during their working days, but also during periods of incapacity resulting from sickness, maternity, invalidity, old age or the premature death of the breadwinner, and during periods of unemployment. Social security benefits have the character of a social element of wages. It appears, therefore, justified for these benefits to be financed by the employers or by the public authorities or both, but not by the workers themselves. If it is true that the existence of a sound social security scheme is essential for the improvement of the relationships between capital and labour and the maintenance of social peace, then the employers and the State should obviously contribute to social security. The rights of workers to social security benefits and their right to participate in the management of social security institutions derive from their work and not from their contributions.
慶應義塾大学の論文
1960-10-25

著者

藤澤益夫
慶應義塾大学商学部

社会保障の費用負担問題

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