Social Security in France PART I
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01711.x |
| Date | 01 December 1953 |
| Published date | 01 December 1953 |
| Author | Barbara Rodgers |
Social Security
in
France
PART
I
By BARBARA RODGERS
The
first
part
of
this survey deals
with
the organisation and finance
of
Social
Security in France. The second part mill analyse and discuss
problems
arising
from
the need to co-ordinate the various cash payments
and services available.
Mrs.
Rodgers
is
Lecturer in Social Administration
in
the University
of
Manchestel.
INTRODUCTION
T
the International Labour Conference in Philadelphia
in
1944
social
A
security
was
given a new interpretati0n.l
It
was agreed that
it
had
come to mean not only that all should enjoy security of income, but that
medical services should be available or within the means of all who need
them, that the sick or injured worker should be helped back to work as soon
as possible and if necessary retrained for suitable employment, and that
parents should be aided
in
meeting their responsibilities. Moreover, social
security
in
this broader sense seeks not only to maintain and restore working
capacity, but to ensure that the opportunity to work
is
there-it implies
some kind of full employment policy. The Beveridge plan for the reform
of our social insurances assumed an adequate health service, an employment
policy and family allowances, and was to be completed by reorganised schemes
of assistance and voluntary insurance.2
The implication of
this
is that comparative studies of social security
systems must deal not only with cash benefits, but with their relation to
other vital health and welfare services. Moreover, it is not only the existing
pattern
of
social administration which is of interest. What incentive
is
given to those administering the different services to look to the future and
to see what they are doing as part
of
a wider plan, what opportunities exist
for appreciating how far the total impact of the social services is positive
and preventive, tackling the causes of insecurity and not just stopping the
gaps
?
In this country Lord Beveridge may have given eloquent expression to
this wider conception of social security, to the interdependence of the income
maintenance and health and welfare services, but in the event we have
organised our social services on strictly functional lines. The system is
mercifully simple
to
describe. But whether the meeting of each
“
need
”
by a separate administration (in a manner so complete as to out-Webb the
Webbs) helps either beneficiaries or administrators to appreciate the common
aim of all these services is another matter. In France, this interdependence
is part of the pattern of social administration, and the three organisations
’‘‘
Post-War Trends in Social Security,”
I.L.O.
Review,
Vols.
LIX
and
LX,.,
?.See also
“
From Social Insurance
to
Social Security
:
Evolution in France,
Pierre
Laroque, Director General
of
Social Security
at
the
Ministry
of
Labour,
I.L.O.
Review,
Vol.
LVII,
1948.
377
PURLIC ADMINISTRATION
concerned with cash benefits (social insurance, family allowance and public
assistance authorities) are also concerned with a wide range of curative,
preventive and welfare services, which they aid financially or administer
directly.
Much emphasis has been given to the demographic considerations which
are said to have shaped French social policy. In the nineteen-thirties the
demographic situation came to be regarded as the fundamental cause
of
France’s decline and a conscious effort was made to reverse the trends of
over a hundred and fifty years. Today the generous treatment of foreign
workers and their families and the large maternity grants are a direct en-
couragement to population increases. But the family allowance proper and
the rest of the social security scheme are all part
of
a family policy which
is more concerned with securing social justice than with increasing the birth
rate. In a country in which wages are relatively low and the principle
of
equal pay generally accepted, the health and happiness of young families
would be seriously jeopardised without some such action. What is interesting
about the French system of redistribution
in
favour of the family man is
its extent. Half the total expenditure on social services is paid out in direct
money allowances to families. Under certain conditions they may double
the income of the lowest paid
worker^.^
Family allowances have a longer history in France than in any other
country. Special allowances for large families were a feature of public
assistance before 1914, and the first family allowance schemes were introduced
by some employers in heavy industry around Paris in 1918. They financed
them by paying part of their wages bill into equalisation funds
(caisses de
compensation)
which paid out the allowances. In 1932 every employer in
industry and commerce was obliged by law to pay family allowances and
to belong to an equalisation fund. In 1939 the
Code de
la
Famille
extended
family allowances to the whole population, introduced the maternity grant
and single wage allowance (which will be described later) and dealt
with
other aspects of maternity and child welfare, which have had some effect
in reducing abortion and the infant riortality rate. (Since 1936-38 the infant
mortality rate in France has been r:duced by 30 per cent., but in 1952 was
still
42
per thousand births.)
Another element which has had a profound effect on the social security
system is the tradition of mutual aid and trade unionism. This was greatly
strengthened by the Act of 1930, which introduced social insurance for the
lower paid industrial workers, administered by numerous Funds
(caisses)
run
mainly by employers and workers, and by mutual aid societies which, like
the British Approved Societies, came to dispense statutory benefits along
with their friendly society activities. The state played very little part in all
this. The scheme was financed wholly by statutory contributions from
employers and workers. Family allowances, as we have seen, were financed
entirely by the employers. In both cases the Funds tended to give not only
cash benefits, but services in kind. The social insurance Funds were primarily
interested in medical services (to support their sickness benefits), the family
3Gertrude
Willoughby,
“
Population Problems and Family
Policy
in
France,”
Eugemics
Review,
Vol.
XLV,
No.
2.
378
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