Day 1_Session 2_Singapore and Malaysia

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Singapore and Malaysia:

Data on Social Protection IndexSuman K Sharma

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

[email protected]

Capacity Development Workshop on MeasuringSocial Protection

1416 May 2013BPS Statistics, Jakarta, Indonesia

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper/presentation are the views of the author and do not

necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or

the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper

and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be

consistent with ADB official terms.


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Presentation Outline

Singapore:

- Socio-economic overview

- SP Program/activities (CPF-asset-based, health, retirement)

- Corresponding SP Expenditure- Data Collection (on SP programs?)

- Issues / Recommendations (on SP related data and analysis?)

Malaysia:

- Socio-eco overview; SP Programs/activities

- SP Expenditure / Data Collection (on SP programs?)

- Issues / Recommendations (on SP related data and analysis?)

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Singapore: Socio-economic Overview

(2010/11)Statistic Value

GDP (at 2005 market prices) (millions of SGD) 299,625

GDP per capita (The Wealth Report 2012) S$70,450 (US$56,532 )

Resident Population (Citizens + PermanentResidents) (millions)

3.9

Labour Force (millions) 3.24

Population aged 60 years and over(000) 560.8 (14.4% of resident popn)

Unemployment Rate (%) 2.1

Population living in poverty (estimate) (000) 350

Disabled population (000) 150Children aged 0-14 years (000) 636.9 (16.3% of resident popn)

Per capita poverty line income (annual) (estimatebased on income/mo of sgd1000 or less )

12,000 (8,300US$)

Average household size 3.5

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Singapore: SP Programs/Activities

Social Security Programs - CPF ModelCentral Provident Fund (CPF) model: Fully funded mandatory- based

on individual accounts: both employers & employees contribute-averts issue regarding financial sustainability

Savings deposited into 3 accounts, can be utilized to purchase housing,healthcare, investment, and (childrens) education, retirement benefits

Social Assistance: No Formal welfare system! - people are encouragedto rely on work- Still some SA prgms designed as interim provisionsw/ strict eligibility criteria / means testing

Public Assistance Scheme: longterm scheme -old, ill, disabled..

ComCare Fund Integrated Care System w/ urgent temporary

assistance of cash, food, pre-schooling- a final safety net Workfare- encourages work and assists those whore working!

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Singapore Social Insurance:

CPF for Healthcare FinancingAn integrated system of a compulsory Medisave account, a

catastrophic medical insurance scheme (Medishield) and ameans-tested Medifund scheme

Medisave:hospitalization/approved out-patient expenses;

Medisave- lacks risk pooling across individualsMedishield -catastrophic health ins scheme against largehospital bills; 85yr age limit; Children can pay for parents

Medifund govt set-up as a means-tested safety net; acts as alast resort if cant pay for medical expenses despite Medisave

and Medishield - Use is subject to meanstesting07- Medifund for the Elderly to cater to healthcare needs of65+ yrs- as demand for elderly will grow as population ages

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Singapore

Fig 1. SP Expenditure by SP Category

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93%

5%

2%

SP EXPENDITURE

ALL Social Insurance

ALL Social Assistance

Labour Market Programs


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Singapore SPI

: Data Collection & Analysis (1)1) Definition of Social Protection (SP): NO Formal definition! Limited information onSocial Protection programs in household survey!

2) Definition/Classification of SP programs by SP category

i) Unemployment Insurance: no unemployment insurance specifically dedicated ..

(ii)Underemployed population: not defined officially no official data available

ii) Poverty Line (PL): No official poverty line exists! Estimate based on Workfare &those earning less than sgd1000 (2012: half a million)

But no disaggregated data by gender.

-How many women earned such amount?

-lack of poverty disaggregated figures leading to difficulty in professional estimate

(iv) Elderly employment: employment among 60+ significant, but not clear howmany work at say, 67? Or older? Due to part-time working arrangements

(iii)Total coverage/beneficiary data are largely lumped:

disaggregated estimates of program beneficiary difficult to obtain/overlapping

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Singapore SPI

: Data Collection & Analysis (2)3) Data Collection: -multiple agencies handle SP programs & all data used arepublicly available on respective publications/websites

No single data collection body for all Social Protection programs!

(i) Dept of Statistics (DOS): collects/publishes data on basic statistics,macroeconomy, Census data, Budget Highlights of major Programs, etc.

(ii) CPF Board: -collects data on social security systems (CPF related)(iii) Data on Social Assistance: published by various ministries/departments,

-Ministry of Community, Youth & Sports (MCYS)- publishes EXP &Coverage data on various Social Assistance programs

-Min of Health publishes health related data on social assistance programs

-Ministry of Manpower Workfare program & Work Injury Compensation

-Ministry of Home Affairs- Treatment of Offenders program

iv) Pension: - small no of key civil servants and officeholders are eligible

- data are not disclosed publicly

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Singapore SPI

: Data Collection & Analysis (3)4) Data Analysis Challenges?

(i) Social Insurance (SI) Data:

-involves multiple Social Insurance components & not all programs qualify associal protection under ADB definition

-CPF data in most cases not disaggregated by gender

(ii) Social Assistance Data: Most programs highly integrated, eg, a single programComcare targets children, elderly, poor, women

-difficult to identify budget allocation to individual target groups thus leading togaps/overlaps in expenditure as well as coverage

-similarly, published SP expenditure figures largely aggregated

(iii) Data on Labor Market Program- Workfare covers only those whore working thuscontribute to CPF. So overlapping possible in identifying coverage

All above leading to difficulties in identifying disaggregated figures in terms ofExpenditure, Coverage & also regarding the inclusion-exclusion of SP programs!

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Singapore SP Data:

Recommendations / Remarksi) A Single Data Collection body for SP programs perhaps more timely

ii) Data on Social Insurance Programs: (largely published by CPF)

-need to exhibit greater transparency (Asher 2009)

- disaggregated data (by gender & income group) should be made public so as to

-have precise estimate for gender/poverty targeted rate

-comprehend SP program implication (due to varying CPF contribution rates)

iii) Definitions:

- clear definition on Underemployed needed to understand labor marketsituation & thus to devise appropriate targeted SP programs

- Data on employment among elderly is crucial and needs to be publicly available

- Poverty Line: how many people are poor? In absence, hard to estimate PTR

iv) Data on Social Assistance Programs: easier in availability but more disaggregatedfigures needed to fully comprehend the SP situation; for instance, given a higherfemale life expectancy of 85yr (vs. 82 yr among males), disaggregated data willhelp understand the long-term female healthcare needs better

v) Lesson for other countries: can learn from good governance/monitoring ; stricteligiblity criteria for all Social Assistance Programs resolving issue of mistargeting

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Malaysia

: Socio-economic Overview2010

Total Population (million) 28.25

Ethnic Distribution: Malaya

Chinese

Indigenous people

Indian

53%

26%

11.8%

7.7%

GDP (current prices) (RM millions) 679,938

GDP per capita (at current prices) 24,370 RM (US$ 7000)

Labor Force (million) 12.22 (43% of total pop)

Unemployment rate (%) 3.6 percent

Population aged 60+ years (million) 2.1 (7.4% of total pop)

Population below poverty line (million) 1.1 (3.9% of total pop)

Disabled population (million) 0.3(1.1% of total pop)

Children aged 0-14 years (million) 8.6 (30% of total pop)

Per capita poverty line (annual) (RM) 9,600 (US$ 3000)

Average household size 4.427/05/2013 11


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Malaysia: Social Insurance Programs

(public sector) (1)Social Security and Social Insurance Programs:

- Foundation of SP in MAL; employed citizens protected thrupublic sector schemes & for pvt formal sector- mixture ofschemessupplemented by religious schemes

Public Sector Pensions: Civil servants are members of DB pension scheme financed

from annual govt budget (currently non-contributory)

Overall, public sector employees covered by a number ofsocial security schemes- The laws designed to provide such

benefits: Pension Act 80, Pension Act Statutory Authorities1980, Pension Adjustment Act 1980 & provision of option

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(private sector) (2)Employees Provident Fund (EPF)-Pvt sector relies on mandatory savings scheme covering pvt sectoremployees, self-employed & non-pensioner employees in public sector(certain %); due to lump-sum withdrawal at retirement, longevity,inflation & survivors risks not addressed adequately

Benefits provided by EPF are: Lump Sum payment of savings and all dividends to be paid after

retirement

Withdrawal provision upon reaching age 55 years

Withdrawal for housing, education and mortgage repayments

Withdrawal for medical purpose Death Benefit in the event of death before age 60 years

Disability Benefit (if permanently disabled due to disease or injury)

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(3)i) The Employees Social Security Act 1969

Provides thru SS organization (SOCSO) coverage tocompany/industry employees (who earn


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Malaysia SPI:

SP Expenditure by SP Category

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ALL Social

Insurance

93.3%

ALL Social

Assistance

6.4%

.Labour Market

Programs

0.3%

Malaysia SPI: Expenditure on SP Programs


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Malaysia SPI:

Coverage/Beneficiary by SP Category

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ALL Social

Insurance

27%

ALL Social Assistance

47%

Labour Market

Programs

26%

Malaysia SPI: Beneficiaries of SP Programs


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Malaysia SPI:

Data Collection & Analysis Issues (1)1) Definition: NO Formal definition of SP!

2) Data on Coverage/SP in Informal Sector?: substantialpopulation in informal sector (almost 3.6mil) (Ong & Tengku2009)- various supports exist to vulnerable individuals(underemployed, low-wage earners, elderly, disabled,homemakers) but data not always available (Nair 2009; Ongand others 2010; Tengku and Majid 2009)

3) Data on Public Service Pension:

- Data on civil service and military pensions are the least

transparent (governance structure has conflict of interestsince beneficiaries are designing, implementing, andassessing their own pension benefits!)

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Malaysia SPI:

Data Collection (sources) (2)Data Source

Basic Statistics Bank Negara Malaysia; Department of Statistics

Malaysia (2008-10); 10th Malaysian Plan Document

Social Insurance Programs Bank Negara Malaysia; LTAT (Armed Forces Trust

Fund); Employees Provident Fund; Ministry of Human

Resources; Social Security Organization of Malaysia

Annual Report, 2008, 2009, 2010

Social Assistance Programs Department of Social Welfare Statistical Report, 2008,

2009, 2010; various Ministries/Departments of govt

Labor Market Programs Ministry of Human Resources

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Malaysia SPI Issue

: Data Collection & Analysis (3)4) Data Issues caused by Lack of coordination in Social assistance:

fragmentations across programs at federal & state levels; andpublic/private sectors, leading to lack of coordination and gaps(overlaps)?

At times, single program targeting multiple groups- children,

elderly, poor, womendifficult to identify budgetary allocation to(& identifying coverage of) individual target group

5) Mistargeting?: In some cases not so clear definition of target group,eg, policy makers seem to use Single Mothers (ibu tunggal)broadly- confusion as to who exactly belong under this category?

thus leading to problem of poor definition of risks/poor design &

possibly mistargeting of SP interventions (more likely in SA)!moral hazard?

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Malaysia SPI Issue

: Data Collection & Analysis (4)(6) Omission of other prgm? Social Insurance covers onlyprograms at public sector (federal) excluding other supportsystems: (Zakatprovided through Islamic institutions), trustfund, state (government) support, others) thus might beunderestimation of true extent of SP prgms

(7) (Lack of?) complete data on support in Poor regions

Some Poverty alleviation supports exist in poorer regions/targeted at marginalized groups but due to uncoordinatednature, data issues (collection/analysis) exist on

expenditure, beneficiaries, identification of target group.-At times, leading to mistargeting and/or duplication ofbenefits, and others gaps likely to occur

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Malaysia SPI : Data collection/analysis in

Informal sector? (5)

8) Classification of SP programs by categoryi) Underemployed population: not defined officially; estimate tricky dueto large number of informal workers / marginalized groups

ii) Unemployment benefit: none specifically targeting to unemployed..

9) Difficult to comprehend the true extent of SPprograms?Due to diversities across population groups (demographic/social- economicstrata, formal/informal), program executing agency, program beneficiaries,public/private sector, true extent of SP programs not clear

10) Can true SP situation of Malaysia be adequately represented,say, through a single national social protection index?regional level indexes might be more revealing to understand true extent ofSocial Protection situation in Malaysia!!!

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Malaysia Data on SPI: Recommendations (1)

1) Maintain/Publish data on extent of Informal Workers andcorresponding SP targeted interventions

-maintain disaggregated data to facilitate true SPI

2) Disclose Data on civil service pension scheme publicly

3) Data on existing SI schemes under the EPF/Pension system-Ensure greater transparency: financing details of civil servicesystem be disclosed publicly to comply with the interest andneeds of the general public (Asher 2009; Asher 2011)

4) Ensure effective monitoring and evaluation

-coordinating with & active participation of state governmentsand local level organizations

5) maintain detailed disaggregated data to facilitate SPI

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Malaysia Data on SPI: Recommendations (2)

6) Data Across multiple institutions: greater coordination needed

-Strengthen coordination across SP program executing agencies

Currently, regulations across Ministries/agencies (government levels)involved in SP program can differ widely in terms of targetingmechanisms, benefits & administrative arrangements!

-Little coordination exists between national level support systems &those through state level supports leading to inefficiencies?

- Maintain data consistency reducing fragmentation of SP schemes-between national & state government plus between public/privatesector, eg, regarding healthcare service deliveries- regulationsneeded to encourage better coordination

- the Social Security Organization can act as an intermediary tostrengthen link between diverse program implementers

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Thank you!

Documents

Day 1_Session 2_Singapore and Malaysia