SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR THE ELDERLY : EVIDENCE FROM ASIAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

Social security is an economic lifeline. Practised in many industrialized countries like the United States, the system has rescued many generations of the disadvantaged and elderly from poverty, neglect and sickness. Similarly, social protection, a term used interchangeably with social security, has helped increase the welfare of the aged in the European Community. The two systems have their similarities and differences; each with its fair share of problems. While the West is experiencing increasingly high expenditure and coverage on its elderly, one cannot yet see similar trends in Asian countries in the near fututre, but in distant periods. In the West, although the family has remained an important provider, with the advent of industrialization and changes in social structure, the state has increasingly supplemented family care or substituted for the family in caring for the elderly. Instead of succumbing to similar pressures, governments in Asia may have chosen a minimal role. Indeed, Asian countries have their unique systems, quite unlike those of the developed countries. Though some Asian countries have attempted to copy the systems from their developed counterparts, many have yet to introduce an universal social security system. This thesis will take a closer look at how Asian countries might have managed to protect the welfare of their elderly, even without a formal intergenerational transfer system.