The institution establishes a strategy to ensure that contributions always fulfil the requirements of the corresponding benefits and that members’ rights are respected.

To carry out its mandate and mission on contribution collection and compliance, the institution establishes a strategic plan covering at least a medium-term period.

These four guidelines address strategies to carry out the mission and goals on contribution collection and compliance in line with social security laws, regulations and implementation approaches. Some of the main aspects are:

The institution establishes organizational structures that promote the good governance of the overall system and foster effectiveness and efficiency in achieving contribution collection and compliance goals, in line with national social security regulations and administrative principles.

Social security institutions are concerned not only with collecting contributions but also with keeping information about contribution periods and other matters related to social security benefits.

The institution clearly defines its mandate, mission and internal governance mechanism concerning the contribution collection and compliance system, in line with national regulations.

If applicable, the institution participates in defining the governance mechanism for the inter-institutional level through its position on governing committees.

The ISSA defines governance as the manner in which the vested authority uses its powers to achieve the institution’s objectives, including its powers to design, implement and innovate the organization’s policies, rules, systems and processes, and to engage and involve its stakeholders.

• Relevant legislation and regulations are taken into account when developing the services under all guidelines. This includes, especially:
• Regulations on administrative procedures, especially concerning contribution collection and compliance;
• Regulations on data privacy and protection;
• Financial regulations involving bank transfers;
• Authentication of operations and documents.

The following guidelines are organized in seven parts:

Part A, Governance, covers definition of the mandate, mission and organizational structure of the contribution collection and compliance system.

Part B, Strategy, assists in defining aspects that are strategic for accomplishing the mission on contribution collection and compliance.

Contribution collection and compliance systems comprise different activities. Some concern matters of institutional organization, policy and strategy, while others focus on contribution collection operations and compliance enforcement. In turn, the involved actors consist mainly of the institutions responsible for collecting social security contributions and of different categories of contributors.

These guidelines are intended to cover all the key components of a contribution collection and compliance system. Some are necessarily general, such as those covering the mission, strategy, communication, etc., and could be applied to other social security contexts. But others are quite specific to contribution collection and compliance: