Innovations in extending social insurance coverage to independent workers
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activities with independent workers, INPS officials have been working with children and youths in education centres, across the country‘s different islands.
In order to get closer to independent workers, the Institute opened service centres in locations where the flow of independent workers is higher. These centres are characterized
by Social Welfare Units and provisional service desks. In these centres, in addition to being able to access information on the range of benefits on offer, independent workers
may register, pay their social contributions, and withdraw benefits, among other services.
A factor in the scheme‘s success is that all service centres are equipped with an integrated computer system allowing them to perform about 80 per cent of all administrative
procedures on site
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. The opening of such centres has allowed, among other things, a reduction in the
implicit registration costs borne by such workers through a lowering of the contribution amounts. The first provisional service desk was opened in 2010, in the capitals largest
popular market. By 2011, INPS had opened about nine service centres around the country.
The INPS abandoned a strategy in which all initiatives rested with the worker, and adopted an
―active intervention strategy‖, through which the Institute approaches the target group, and develops close ties with the workers organizations and the community, aiming
to educate, raise awareness, promote and facilitate registrations.
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The computer system is called Social Welfare Integrated System.
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Brazil - The extension of the General Social Insurance Scheme
4. Brazil - The extension of the General
Social Insurance Scheme
Brazil is a country committed to its social expenditure, and particularly committed to the extension of social security. A proof of such a commitment is
the country‘s well- structured social security scheme and the innovations made in expanding coverage.
The Brazilian social security system Previdência Social - Social Security is divided into three essential schemes, briefly explained below
1
: 1 General Social Insurance Scheme RGPS: together with the social insurance scheme
for civil servants, it is Brazils main social security scheme, ensuring the coverage of private sector workers, covering employers, employed workers, domestic workers,
independent workers, and rural workers. It is characterized by being a compulsory registration scheme, and by its public management.
2 General Social Insurance Scheme for Civil Servants RPPS: this scheme has many features in common with the general scheme, such as mandatory registration, and
public management. The main difference is the fact that it is specifically for civil servants.
3 Supplementary Insurance Scheme: this scheme stands out for being a supplementary private management and voluntary registration scheme aimed at workers with a
higher income. Through this scheme, beneficiaries may have access to increases in their retirement pension
―aposentadoria‖, among other benefits which surpass the limits of the other two schemes.
There are also further types of voluntary personal saving, as well as social assistance programmes targeted at the most vulnerable social groups. Nevertheless, for the purposes
of this document, we shall focus our analysis on the General Scheme, and on the coverage expansion options it offers independent workers.
4.1. Social security coverage situation
According to the data of the Brazilian Social Welfare Ministry 2008a, in 2007, 64 per cent of the working population was registered in one of the social protection schemes
as contributors. The remainder non-contributory 36 per cent represent approximately 29.87 million people. However, of the total number of non-contributors, around 1.22 million
people access social security services as beneficiaries, which is why the percentage of the socially unprotected working population corresponds to 35 per cent.
Figure 2 shows the distribution of the working population benefitting from social protection in the year 2007. The first to stand out are the contributors of the Social
Insurance General Scheme 72 per cent, followed by Special Insurance contributors 15 per cent, by the contributors of Civil Servant and Military specific Schemes 11 per cent,
and lastly by those who have access to social protection as beneficiaries 2 per cent.
1
For a more detailed analysis of Brazils Social Welfare System, see document «Panorama da Previdência Social Brasileira» - «Overview of Brazilian Social Welfare» Ministério da Previdência
Social, 2008a - Ministry of Social Welfare.
