EXTENDED SUMMARY

In this study, which examines the evolution between the two components of the social security system in the context of the development of the lower limit application in social security pensions, the historical change in the application of the lower limit in social transfers has been examined. The monthly lower limits of the Turkish social security system in the historical process of more than 70 years have been compared with the current values of the insurance premium base, minimum wage and per capita national income valid in the relevant period over the years. The data obtained as a result of the comparison made regarding the development of the monthly lower limits against the determined variables; The general framework of each period has been tried to be formed by separating it into four different periods as crawling period, maturation period, market period and social aid period.

The crawling period covers the 15-year period between 1950-1964, in which institutionalization in the field of social security has not yet been fully achieved, legal regulations have not become standard, scattered and include the first experiences. In this period, monthly lower limits and earnings subject to premium were determined as fixed. In its infancy, the development of monthly lower limits against bases of earnings subject to premium fluctuated between 30% and 70%.

The maturation period covers the 35-year period between 1965 and 1999. During the maturation period, when the social insurance approach approached universal standards, monthly lower limits reached their highest levels in history against all three variables. Since 1976, monthly lower limits have been fixed at 70% of the lower limit of earnings subject to premium.

The market period covers the year 2000 and onwards, when the relatively high rates in the maturation period were sharply reduced. Lowering the monthly lower limits was made with the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447 enacted in 1999. With the law, sharp changes were made in many areas such as lowering the monthly lower limits, lowering the pension rates to close the financial deficits of the system, establishing additional premiums, and changing the monthly calculation method. With these changes, monthly lower limits were reduced from 70% of the lower limit of earnings subject to premium to 35% in the market period. Thus, in the market period, compared to all three variables, the monthly lower limits resulted in a decrease by half of the previous period.

The most important or even the only difference that distinguishes the social aid period covering the year 2019 and the following period from the previous period, the market period; It includes the application of completing the inadequacy in the market period with social assistance. With an additional article added to the Law during the social aid period, the lower limits were tied to the amounts determined according to the period, depending on the political developments. Thus, in the social assistance period, two lower limits were implemented, one proportional and the other lump sum price.

The application of the second lower limit for the social assistance period, which includes the illusion that individuals are in favor, has revealed the term “root pension”, which was not previously used in the social security terminology. Root pension refers to the actual pension amount before the amount paid within the scope of social assistance. If the root pension amount connected by the system is below the second lower limit determined within the scope of social assistance, the amount to be paid is equal to the second lower limit.

Application of the second lower limit for the social assistance period;The second lower limit in the social assistance period, which includes the practice of substitution of social security pensions with social assistance, has the function of eliminating the deficiency and completing the deficiency, but also includes the irony of equalizing the social security pensions at the lower limit. Because the second lower limit amounts are getting closer to the average of the pensions provided by the social security system.

Application of the second lower limit for the social assistance period; It is a kind of donation based on “grace”, far from a rights-based approach, which empties the essence of the social security system based on the premium regime and thus on the active individual and social insurance technique. The second lower limit application, which includes the illusion that it is ostensibly for the benefit of individuals, has led to the dysfunction of the classical social security system based on the premium regime, the priority of the social assistance approach, and thus the individuals’ becoming dependent on social assistance. Thus, the classical social security system, shaped by the principles of participation in the system, self-help, solidarity and collective savings, has become open to discussion.