It is a system of a social and legal nature that includes social care for the destitute and provides an alternative source of income lost due to illness, old age, and voluntary retirement when the eligibility conditions are met.
Social security in terms of language means guarantee or safeguarding, while its procedural concept means the system that seeks to achieve social justice by establishing rigid legal rights to ensure a better life for beneficiaries.
Features of this system:
- Comprehensive system of coverage for all categories of secured– whether they were employees or not – that includes benefits and services.
- Unified system of procedures.
- Permanent pension system.
- Easy periods of service calculation and inclusion for the secured whether they were of social security, insurance, or retirement.
- Consistency between contributions paid by the contributors and the benefits they receive.
- Protection of the family members (survivors) of the secured who are entitled on his/her behalf upon his/her death, whether at the time of his/her death, he/she was a contributor or a beneficiary.
The legal nature of this system:
Legislation:
Since the benefits in cash provided by social security, the methods of providing them and the conditions for their entitlement have no mediator or collaborator, they pose specific obligatory legislations that are implemented according to the text of Law No. (13) of 1980 and its executing regulations and international agreements.
Obligation:
The Social Security Fund is obliged to provide all contributors with Social Security benefits in accordance with the terms and aspects of the agreement.
Regulation:
The Fund is based on a legal floor that involves responsibilities and rights of all parties related to Social Security.
The role of state in the institution:
The social security system is committed to the international agreements ratified – by the state – as the law stipulates that the state is responsible and guarantor of this system, and it is the one who issues its laws and regulations. Moreover, it supports the institution when a deficit occurs.
Independence:
The Social Security Law enjoys legal personality and independent financial liability, defining its punitive powers and competencies for those who are late in paying contributions and the Fund’s employees who fail to provide adequate services.
Legal protection of this system:
Protecting the secured and their rights and determining the responsibility of the employers and committing them to responsibilities and holding them accountable for evasion or defect.
Regulating the method and value of contribution and distributing it among the designated parties to ensure that fraud and exploitation does not occur.
Determining the procedures for collection and fines resulting from late payment of contributions. In the text of Law No. 13 of 1980 regarding penalties, which are taken against the secured in cases of forgery and fraud in the data. The law also specified the method of inspection and follow-up to ensure the integrity of procedures and to avoid making mistakes.
The institution’s funds have the right of legal priority over all other debts, and the law has given the institution the right to collect its money and seize the funds of the entities and companies that are obligated to register in order to collect its revenues in case of default from the other party.