First, the main contents of the German social security system
Germany's social security system has a clear hierarchy and is becoming more and more perfect, forming four complete components based on social insurance.
(1) social insurance
1, medical insurance. The task of German medical insurance is to maintain, restore or improve the health status of the insured. The insured should avoid and overcome diseases and disabilities through conscious healthy lifestyle, disease prevention and rehabilitation. Medical insurance institutions support the insured by explaining, guiding and providing benefits, so that the insured can maintain a healthy living condition. Almost all German nationals have participated in medical insurance, and the uninsured rate is only about 0.3%. Medical insurance can be divided into two parts. About 90% citizens participate in the statutory medical insurance, and less than 65,438+00% people participate in private medical insurance. Among them, statutory medical insurance is the foundation, and a variety of private commercial medical insurance is an organic supplement. The members of compulsory insurance are: all workers and staff whose annual income is below the prescribed limit; Persons receiving unemployment insurance benefits, unemployment benefits and living allowances; Pensioners; Persons with disabilities who work in workshops and charities for the disabled and those who participate in rehabilitation measures; College students who have not participated in family insurance; Agricultural business households and their family members who work together as stipulated in the Farmers' Medical Insurance Law; Independent artists and journalists. The proportion of medical insurance varies from state to state, generally between11.5%-15.5%. Employees bear 50% of the insurance premium, which is directly deducted from their wages by the employer to pay on their behalf, and the remaining half is made up by the employer. Medical insurance has the function of social redistribution. Nationals whose monthly income is less than DM 620 can be exempted, and unemployed women, unemployed men and children can also be exempted from participating in insurance. They are guaranteed as family members, that is, "one person insured to protect the family".
2. Unemployment insurance. The coverage of unemployment insurance is very wide and compulsory, and all those who take part in paid jobs and are receiving vocational skills training are obliged to participate in insurance. Labor promotion and unemployment insurance benefits mainly include: employment guidance, introduction training and introduction work, vocational training subsidies, disabled people's participation in vocational treatment, unemployment insurance and unemployment benefits. In terms of employers, there are: labor market guidance, introduction training and introduction work, wage subsidies for employees with reduced labor ability, training subsidies, etc. The insured who is willing to work under the arrangement of the Federal Labor Bureau and has not found a job can receive 60% of his past natural annual income. If they have more than one child, the insurance rate can rise to 67%. The payment period of unemployment insurance is generally 12 months, and it can be extended to 32 months for older people who are difficult to re-employment. If unemployment continues, the unemployed can apply for unemployment benefits. If you need to work for more than half a year and pay unemployment insurance again, you can resume enjoying the above benefits.
3. Industrial accident insurance. Its task is to prevent industrial accidents and occupational diseases, restore the health and working ability of the insured through treatment and career promotion, and compensate the injured and their survivors by providing cash treatment. The insured are all employees, primary and secondary school students, college students, kindergarten children and people engaged in public welfare undertakings. All expenses of industrial accident insurance shall be borne by the employer. The insurance provides compensation for the necessary expenses of treatment, medical treatment and rehabilitation for victims, and also provides victims' allowance and old-age security when the insured can't work without pay after injury. If the insured dies unfortunately due to work-related injuries or occupational diseases, the insurance money will provide funeral expenses, survivors' pensions and orphans' pensions to the survivors.
4. Nursing insurance. The aging population in Germany has changed the family structure, and the care and nursing of the elderly population has risen from the family level to the social level. Therefore, in 1994, Germany promulgated the nursing insurance law, which stipulated that if the insured's income was below DM 6525, he had to pay the nursing insurance premium of 65438+ 0.7% of the employee's monthly income, which was shared equally by the employer and the employee. If the insured is over 65 years old and needs the care of nursing staff or enters an old-age care institution, most of the expenses can be paid by insurance through relevant procedures.
5. Endowment insurance. Germany's pension insurance is mainly based on statutory pension insurance, supplemented by other forms of pension insurance. The statutory pension insurance covers all workers in Germany, including freelancers and artists. If the monthly income is less than DM 8,700, the statutory pension tax shall be paid at 19.5% of the income, and the employer and employee shall bear 50% respectively. Germany's statutory pension operation adopts the pay-as-you-go model. The pension age is 65, and you can receive a pension equivalent to 70% of your pre-retirement salary. If the insured dies and the spouse has no fixed income, he can receive a certain survivor's pension.
(2) Social support and compensation
1, support war victims. Due to historical reasons, Germany suffered many victims in World War I and World War II. In order to help the victims, the German government provided support for the physical victims in World War I and World War II, and the support funds were paid by taxes. Support benefits include medical rehabilitation, disease treatment, job change allowance, health damage pension when working ability is reduced by at least 25%, nursing allowance, hardship allowance under special circumstances, funeral expenses and survivors' pension.
2. Compensation for victims of violence. Since1May 1976 15, the Law on Compensation for War Damage has provided relief to people who have suffered violence and their families. The treatment of the injured is the same as that of the damage caused by the war, but it does not compensate the property losses. For those who suffered violence from May 23rd 1949 to May 4th 1976, relief was also given under difficult circumstances.
(3) Social relief
Social relief is the lowest level of social security and is regarded as the last line of defense to ensure people's normal life. Social relief is aimed at those who can't get benefits from social insurance, and the benefits they get are not enough to support their lives. By providing social relief benefits, they can live a life in line with human dignity. Social assistance in Germany is paid to people whose income or pension is not enough to maintain the minimum living, or people with special difficulties, such as severely disabled people or widowed elderly people. The standard of social relief is to pay according to "demand as usual", that is, to maintain the minimum living standard of the parties as the baseline. Accordingly, social relief funds are also divided into daily living allowance and special care. The funds needed for social relief come from the national financial revenue. The Welfare Bureau is responsible for this work, with the assistance of church organizations, non-governmental charities and the Red Cross. The daily management and distribution of specific relief funds are managed and distributed by the lowest administrative agency in Germany: the town government.
Social promotion
Social promotion is divided into family promotion, education promotion and housing subsidy. The purpose of family promotion is to help families reduce the burden of raising children after their children are born, and it is paid to families living in Germany with more than one child (including one). Generally speaking, most of the expenses of schools at all levels in Germany do not need to be paid by students themselves. However, if students still have difficulties in paying living expenses or other expenses under this background, they can apply for education promotion. The government provides subsidies to primary and secondary school students, and college students can get half of the subsidies and interest-free loans. Housing subsidy is a kind of subsidy, which aims to reduce the economic burden of renting or buying a house for low-income families. To obtain housing subsidies, it is necessary to make a special application to the city and county administrative organs, and the general period is one year.
Second, the problems faced by the German social security system
Germany's social security system has always been praised, but it has been criticized more and more in recent years for the following reasons: (1) Personal inertia. Long-term high welfare leads to upside-down income. Sometimes the income of the unemployed benefits from various subsidies and benefits, but it is more than that of low-income workers. It has caused the breeding of people's ideas of getting something for nothing and pushed up the unemployment rate. (2) It is not conducive to the healthy development of enterprises. Wages in Germany are at a high level all over the world, and enterprises have to bear all kinds of insurance for their employees, which leads to high labor costs and the inability of enterprises to hire workers. At the same time, due to strict labor protection measures, enterprises are not allowed to lay off employees at will, and layoffs require high compensation for employees, which leads to cautious employees and rigid labor market, which is not conducive to enterprises adjusting their human resources allocation according to the market. (3) a burden on the country. Social welfare expenditure has greatly increased, the government is overwhelmed and the deficit has widened, which needs to be alleviated by issuing bonds and raising tax rates. A large amount of social security funds also squeezed the capital needed for the development of social productive forces.
Thirdly, the enlightenment of German social security system to China.
The social security system in Germany provides us with a good example. We can take its essence and discard its dross, and build a social security system with China characteristics as soon as possible.
First, the construction of social security system should adapt to the development of productive forces and economic level. Since the end of 1990s, social welfare expenditure in Germany has been about 30%-40% of GDP in that year, which has brought a heavy burden to economic development. The lesson of Germany's heavy economic burden shows that social security expenditure will inevitably occupy the accumulated funds of the country. If social security investment grows too fast, it may lead to inflation and weak economic growth. Therefore, the scale and level of social security system construction should adapt to China's national conditions in the primary stage of socialism, handle the relationship between the state, enterprises and individuals, and handle the overall balance among regions, and develop steadily step by step, so as not to rush for success and rush headlong into it.
Second, vigorously establish and improve the legal and regulatory system to maintain the benign operation of the social security system. The social security work in Germany can be carried out well without the perfect social security legal system in Germany. To establish a country ruled by law, the premise of governing the country according to law is that there are laws to follow. However, China's social security laws and regulations at this stage are still relatively imperfect, and the level and level of legislation still have room for improvement. Since 1980s, China has successively established unemployment insurance for employees, endowment insurance for enterprise employees, basic medical insurance for urban employees, and industrial injury insurance for employees. However, the implementation of these systems has no formal legal provisions, and only depends on the laws and regulations or documents issued by the State Council. Therefore, it is reasonable to regard social security legislation as an important part of building socialist economic law in the future, as the legislative focus of the next stage, and pay close attention to the formulation and implementation.
Third, China's social security system should be multi-participative. The government is the main body of social security management and implementation, and at the same time, it should also bring non-governmental charities, unofficial Red Cross Societies and commercial insurance companies into the social security system. At present, the proportion of the elderly population in China is rising, and there has been a situation of "getting old before getting rich". If China's social insurance fund still adopts the pay-as-you-go distribution mode, there will be a fund gap, and the whole society needs to form a joint force to solve various problems encountered in the social security system, including fund raising.