Committee on Economic Security (CES)
Volume II. Old Age Security
Other Staff Reports
Foreign Systems
Central Departments Supervising the Administration
of Foreign Compulsory Contributory Old Age Insurance Laws
by
Matha D. Ring
The attached summary shows that in majority of foreign countries the labor department supervises the administration of old age insurance laws. In a number of these countries the departments of social affairs, of social welfare, or, as in Italy, the ministry of corporations perform the function of a department of labor, though they are not called by that name.
There are three countries which have placed the administration of old age insurance in other departments. They are:
(1) Great Britain, whose old age insurance law is administered by the Ministry of Health.
(2) Luxemburg, which has an independent social insurance institution.
(3) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics where the central council of the trade unions has taken over all functions of the old Commissariat of Labor, including that of administering old age insurance.
It is interesting to note that the German old age insurance law was administered by an independent insurance institute from its beginning in 1891 until 1924, when it was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Labor.
| Survey Showing the Departments Administering Foreign Old Age Insurance Laws (1) | |
| Austria: | Ministry of Social Administration. |
| Belgium: | Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. |
| Bulgaria: | Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labor |
| Chile: | General Directorate Of Labor. |
| Czechoslovakia: | Ministry of Social Welfare. |
| France: | Ministry of Labor. |
| Germany: | Ministry of Labor. |
| Great Britain: | Ministry of Health in England; Welsh Board of Health in Wales; Department of Health in Scotland; Ministry of Labour on Northern Ireland. |
| Hungary: | Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor. |
| Italy: | Ministry of Corporations. |
| Luxemburg: | Social Insurance Institution. |
| Netherlands: | Ministry of Labor, Commerce and Industry. |
| Poland: | Ministry of Social Welfare. |
| Rumania: | Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Welfare. |
| Spain: | Ministry of Labor and Welfare. |
| Sweden: | Ministry of Social Affairs. |
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: | Central council of Trade Unions. |
| Yugoslavia: | Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Health. |
| (1) International Labor Office, Compulsory Pension Insurance (Geneva, 1955) pp. 594-595, 606-7. | |
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