Glossary:Social security fund
In national accounts (including government finance statistics and EDP), the social security funds subsector forms part of general government.
According to ESA 2010, paragraph 20.67, it is defined as: The social security funds subsector (S.1314) consists of all social security units, regardless of the level of government that operates or manages the schemes. If a social security scheme does not meet the requirements to be an institutional unit, it would be classified with its parent unit in one of the other subsectors of the general government sector. If public hospitals provide a non-market service to the community as a whole and if they are controlled by social security schemes, they are classified to the social security funds subsector.
Not all reporting countries have entities meeting the definition of social security funds. This is not the case for Ireland, Malta, the United Kingdom and Norway. For these countries, the entities involved in social security schemes are subsumed in other subsectors of general government.
In ESSPROS, a social security fund is a central, state or local institutional unit whose main activity is to provide social benefits. It fulfils the two following criteria:
- by law or regulation (except those about government employees), certain population groups must take part in the scheme and have to pay contributions;
- general government is responsible for the management of the institutional unit, for the payment or approval of the level of the contributions and of the benefits, independent of its role as a supervisory body or employer.
Further information
Sustainable development indicators