The institution attaches great importance to electronic payment, and uses the most appropriate methods for and frequency of contribution payments in light of the needs and capacities of targeted groups.
Guideline code
EXT_01900
Mechanism
Mechanism
- Subject to the type of social security programme, specific groups and national circumstances, contributions could be paid either monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually (based on a certain percentage of the previous year’s average local income, for example).
- For those who are insured through their employer, the latter should be obliged to withhold the employees’ contributions from the payroll and pay both the employees’ and employers’ contributions directly to the designated collection agency.
- For people insured directly with the social security institutions, a range of solutions should be made available so as to deliver more convenient, efficient and effective support for those people most in need and provide them greater flexibility and choice in dealing with the institution. For example, they may choose to pay contributions through the nearest front-line office of the social security institution, designated collaborators (such as a government-operated network of community-level labour and social security service organizations), automatic bank transfer, automatic teller machines/self-service payment facilities and online or mobile payment.
- With the help of ICT tools, the board and management should consider putting in place a system of common registry of contributors. Such a practice can play a role in detecting irregularities such as contribution evasion and multi-registration, while the electronic payment system of the social security institution can facilitate the payment of contributions by both employers and self-employed workers.
- The measures which can be taken by the management to address the issues of low administrative and technical capabilities may include:
- Pre-calculating contribution amounts and simplifying administrative requirements for contributors;
- Combining income tax and social security contributions into one payment (such reforms are often driven by social security institutions and require negotiations between social security and tax authorities);
- Fixing different scales of contribution for target groups with different incomes;
- Using an average notional income.
- Electronic payment mechanism for collecting contributions may be based on the following models:
- Mobile money, based on mobile technologies;
- Debit/pre-paid credit card account, mainly based on smart cards;
- Electronic banking and identity, using Internet and mobile technologies to perform the collection of contributions interacting with banking systems.
Structure
Structure
- The management formulates practical plans to implement electronic payment of contributions and to maximize the benefit of e-services through effective partnership programmes (see Guideline 6, Establishing adequate ICT capacity; and Guideline 19, Making optimal use of electronic payment and e-services).
- The management may consider introducing flexible frequency of payments and a variety of ways of contribution payment so as to maximize efficiency in the collection of contributions.
Title HTML
Guideline 14. Adopting appropriate methods for and frequency of contribution payments
Type
Guideline_1
Weight
21