First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
This article proposes a “Swedish” type actuarial balance sheet (ABS) for a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme with disability and minimum pension benefits. The proposed ABS splits the pension system in two parts: the pure NDC part and the redistributive part, which includes the assets and liabilities originating from non-contributory rights. The article contains a numerical example that sheds light on the real applicability of our proposal. The model has practical implications that could be of interest to policy-makers, given that it integrates actuarial and social aspects of public pensions and discloses the real cost of redistribution through minimum pensions.
This article assesses the effectiveness of pension provision and health insurance in preventing ill health among older people in developing countries. It argues that, until recently, social protection agendas devoted insufficient attention to health risk prevention, instead focusing on the reduction of income poverty through cash transfers. The article shows that there is little reliable evidence to indicate that providing older people with pension benefits enhances their health status and that these effects should not be taken for granted by policy‐makers. The article then focuses on the effect of inclusion in health insurance schemes on health outcomes for older people, with specific reference to outcomes related to hypertension. Drawing on newly‐available data from the World Health Organization for Ghana, Mexico and South Africa, it shows that older people with health insurance are marginally more likely to be aware of health conditions such as hypertension and more likely to have them under control. Nevertheless, the great majority of hypertensive older people, insured or uninsured, are not effectively treated. The chief barriers to treatment are shown to be mainly related to awareness and service provision, rather than financial ones. Consequently, the capacity of pensions or health insurance to enhance health outcomes for older people in such countries, including in rural areas, is heavily contingent upon health education, health screening and adequate health service provision. These interventions should be viewed as an integral element of mainstream social protection strategies, rather than adjuncts to them. Yet, in practice, social protection and health promotion continue to be treated as almost entirely separate spheres, thus presenting substantial institutional barriers to developing combined interventions.
This article analyses the risk of disability facing workers who contribute to the Argentinian Integrated Social Security System (Sistema Integrado Previsional Argentino— SIPA). Using administrative records as our source of data for the period 2000‐2006, the results indicate that 1.46 workers per 1,000 became disabled annually during that period. The risk of disability rates were higher for men than for women, but increased with age for both sexes. The risk of disability rates have also been broken down by pathology and social security scheme, taking the effects of age and sex into account. To conclude, international comparisons are presented.