Good Practices in Social Security Good practice in operation since: 2015 Supporting the registered employment of women through home-based child-care services A case of the Social Security Institution Social Security Institution Turkey Published 2030 www.issa.int
1 Summary The good practice is mainly about promoting the registered employment of women by facilitating the integration into the labour market of women with small children who are at risk of withdrawal from the labour market and by supporting the formal work of women who provide home-based child-care services. The good practice supports mothers with small children in targeted provinces who employ a child caregiver and who return to work by granting 300 for a period of up to 24 months to promote directly their registered employment and indirectly those of the child caregivers they recruited. This has been implemented in Antalya, Bursa and #zmir provinces which were chosen according to mainly socio-economic development levels and the number of insured women in those provinces. The target groups are women with children up to 2 years of age who are working or about to start/return to working in a registered job and also women providing or about to start providing home-based child care services as a registered job. 5,000 mothers, 5,000 caregivers and 5,000 children are expected to benefit from the financial support. CRITERIA 1 What was the issue/problem/challenge addressed by your good practice? Almost half of the Turkish working-age population does not enter into the labour market. Overall low participation rates prevail due to the low labour force participation rate of women, which is just below 30%, less than half the OECD average of 65%. It is a well-known fact that women suffer from unregistered employment in Turkey. For example, in 2013, unregistered employment was 36.74 % in total while unregistered employment among men was around 30%, it was around 52% for women. On the other hand, studies on employment of home-based workers with respect to their social security registration status show that in 2011, 96% of female home-based workers are unregistered. Child-care workers constitute an important element among the home-based workers who are predominantly women (92% in 2009), particularly in large cities. High social security contributions to be paid both by the employer (who is, in most of the cases, also a wage-earner) and the worker are cited among the most important factor leading to informal employment.
2 CRITERIA 2 What were the main objectives and the expected outcomes? The main objective of this operation is to increase women's formal employment. The purpose is to promote registered employment of women by facilitating the labour market integration of women with small children who are at risk of withdrawal from the labour market and supporting the formal work of women providing home-based child-care services. Within this scope, a financial support programme was designed and put into practice to: Increase the number of registered workers. Diminish the challenges of domestic workers. Support women who are working in precarious work with a view to promote the decent work agenda. Support job creation for women. Diminish obstacles hindering women's participation into the labour market. Support women who have disadvantaged children. Implement national schemes such as financial incentives with the aim of reducing burden of employing women. The expected outcomes of the operation are to: Promote the formal employment of 5,000 mothers and 5,000 caregivers. Provide quality caring for 5,000 children. Design and put in to practice a computer programme for operation. Analyze the impact of the promotion programme by impact analysis. Prepare a strategy paper for the formal employment of domestic workers.
3 CRITERIA 3 What is the innovative approach/strategy followed to achieve the objectives? The innovative approaches of the operation is a win-win strategy through which the registered employment of both women returning to work and caregivers recruited by them is assured with financial support programme. The strategies of the operation to achieve the objectives are as follows to: Give financial support of 300. Develop a unique computer programme for beneficiary registrations, monthly evaluations, and grant payments. Employ project support teams in Ankara, Antalya, Bursa and #zmir provinces. Establish registration desks in Antalya, Bursa and #zmir provinces. Establish public relations systems such as webpage, hotlines and SMS services. Prepare promotion materials such as brochures, banners, leaflets. Organize awareness-raising activities such as conferences and informative seminars for the beneficiaries. Implement home visits to control the actual working conditions of domestic workers. CRITERIA 4 Have the resources and inputs been used in an optimal way to achieve the set objectives and the expected outcomes? Please specify what internal or external evaluations of the practice have taken place and what impact/results have been identified/achieved so far. The budget of the operation is around 40 million. The operation is co-financed by the EU and the Republic of Turkey by granting 300 to women who are formally employed. As a result, 1,200 Turkish Liras of premiums (contributions) and taxes are collected and both the woman worker and the child caregiver that the woman employs are saved from the unemployment benefit and social assistance systems. The amount of income from the tax and premiums (contributions) to be collected by the Social Security Institution and Revenue Administration from the financial support programme is
4 around the amount of the operation s budget. Futhermore, the economic and social multiplier effects are expected to improve the affirmative impact of the operation when the amount of tax and premiums collected and the salaries of the beneficiary women entering into the labour market are considered. In addition, 20 per cent of the registered domestic workers declared under the new provision on domestic workers are supported by the operation. This indicator shows a higher level of registered employment among domestic workers in the targeted provinces than in the other provinces. An impact analysis will be made by academicians at the end of the project to show the impact of the operation on the return to work of women. In addition, a strategy paper is to be elaborated to introduce new ways of improving registered employment of domestic workers. Here are some of the major results achieved in eleven months: 11,758 applications have been received (Antalya 3,546, Bursa 3,921, #zmir 4,291). Around 4,000 mothers and child caregivers have been registered in the system instead of 5,000. By 08.02.2016, 3,643,680.00 Euro has been paid to mothers as financial support covering a payment period of five months. CRITERIA 5 What lessons have been learned? To what extent would your good practice be appropriate for replication by other social security institutions? The operation increases labour force participation and the registered employment of women, especially among vulnerable groups such as domestic workers and women returning to work. If it is improved in such a way that it includes day care centres, it would be more effective and inclusive. Considering the win-win strategy of the project and the multiplier effects expected, such a financial support programme promoted by the Government would improve the decent work of women in the labour market especially in developing countries. EU, IBRD or other international organizations would contribute to the balanced and socially inclusive growth of developing countries. That is why the operation can be replicated by developing countries.