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:

These guidelines are part of the ISSA project on Coverage Extension and Compliance and Contribution Collection. One of the goals of the project is to address the complexities of implementing an effective and efficient contribution collection and compliance system with a view to identifying solutions and sharing the lessons learnt. The aim of these guidelines is to provide a high-level reference point for the management of contribution collection and compliance activities in institutions that carry out social security functions.

Contribution collection and compliance constitutes a core function within social security systems. It plays a key role in attaining the financial sustainability of the overall system. The timely and full payment of contributions by and on behalf of insured persons is necessary if they are to achieve the benefits to which they are legally entitled. The sustainability of social security is more than a simple issue of financial sustainability, however, and involves ensuring its social and political sustainability.

The ISSA Guidelines for Social Security Administration were prepared by the ISSA General Secretariat with the ISSA technical commissions.