Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0112/01123.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 20KB | 333 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01123}
$Pretitle{254}
$Title{Dominican Republic
Chapter 5B.   Welfare}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil, Jan Knippers Black, Harold I. Blutstein, Kathryn T. Johnson, David S. McNorris, Frederick P. Munson}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
santo
day
domingo
families
food
programs
country
covered
income}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Country:     Dominican Republic
Book:        Dominican Republic
Author:      Thomas E. Weil, Jan Knippers Black, Harold I. Blutstein, Kathryn T. Johnson, David S. McNorris, Frederick P. Munson
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 5B.   Welfare

     The government's social security programs provide old-age, disability,
sickness and maternity, survivor, and work accident and occupational disease
coverage. The programs are administered by the Dominican Social Security
Institute (Instituto Dominicano de Seguro Social-IDSS), which maintained
twenty-eight regional offices during the late 1960s. The social security
system had been established in 1948, but during the Trujillo era there had
been few beneficiaries, and in 1962 it was extensively restructured.

     The IDSS system is a unitary one that does not make the distinction
between blue-collar manual workers and white-collar employees that is made in
the programs of many Latin American countries. Compulsory or optional coverage
is extended in theory to most of the economically active population between
the ages of fourteen and sixty employed in the private sector. The scope of
mandatory coverage includes regularly employed wage and salary earners in
industry and services, farmworkers, sharecroppers, temporary workers, some
apprentices and unpaid family workers, and manual workers in enterprises owned
or operated by the government. Optional enrollment is available to the
self-employed.

     Salaried personnel employed by the government are covered by separate
noncontributory systems paid out of the national treasury. In the late 1960s
persons in the private sector earning more than RD$46 a week, persons employed
by their spouses, minors under the age of fourteen, disability pensioners,
domestic servants, and apprentices earning less than RD$3 a week were
excluded. In late 1971, however, it was reported that extension of coverage to
higher paid workers and employees was being studied.

     The system is financed by contributions from the insured person, the
employer, and the government. The amounts are computed on the basis of the
averages at the rate of 4 percent of the basic wage from each person insured,
7 percent from each employer, and 2.5 percent from the government. Persons
covered at their own option contribute 7.5 percent.

     In 1967 about 140,000 persons (12 percent of the labor force) had
sickness-maternity, disability, and old-age coverage. More than 161,000
persons were covered for work accidents and occupational illness.

     Old-age beneficiaries must have made at least 800 weekly contributions
and must have retired from an occupation covered by the program. The monthly
stipend, payable at the age of sixty to both men and women, amounts to 70
percent of the average earnings during the last four years of employment.
Reduced payments are made to pensioners having between 400 and 799 covered
weeks of employment, and contributions plus interest at the annual rate of 5
percent are returnable to workers having fewer than 400 covered weeks. The
number of old-age annuitants increased from 883 in 1964 to 4,060 in 1970; the
average amount paid during 1970 was RD$365.

     Disability pensions are payable to beneficiaries whose earning capacity
has been reduced by at least two-thirds. The full pension is payable to those
who have made at least 250 weekly contributions and amounts to 40 percent of
average earnings for the last two years of employment plus 2 percent for every
100 weeks of contribution beyond 200. A reduced pension is available for
persons having less than 250 weeks of covered employment, and supplemental
benefits are payable for dependents. Between 1964 and 1970 the number of
disability pensioners increased from 1,038 to 1,432. During the latter year
the average disability pension paid was RD$356.

     Dependent survivors of insured personnel are entitled to a lump-sum
payment amounting to one-third of the insured person's earnings during his
last year of work. In addition, a funeral grant is paid, based on wage class
of the deceased.

     Sickness benefits include medical services and cash payments. A single
week's contribution is necessary to qualify for medical services, and six
weeks are required for establishment of eligibility for cash payments. Medical
services include hospitalization for a maximum of twenty-six weeks. The cash
benefits are payable for a maximum of twenty-six weeks after a six-day waiting
period. They amount to 50 percent of average earnings if the beneficiary is
ambulatory or 25 percent if he is hospitalized. Maternity benefits are
comparable in amount and scope to those for sickness. Wives of insured workers
are eligible, and the benefits include free pediatric service for the first
eight months of the infant's life.

     Private social insurance programs maintained by business firms consist
principally of supplementary payments in the contingencies covered by the IDSS
schedule. The most widespread is paid leave for the six-day waiting period in
connection with illness. Some enterprises supplement the IDSS old-age pension
with a lump sum or additional small periodic payments, provide small grants to
survivors, or contribute to payment of insurance premiums. These programs
exist principally in large enterprises and are usually secured by collective
contract.

     During most of the country's history private welfare was largely an
interest of the Roman Catholic Church, but programs were limited and for the
most part were concerned with education and individual charitable works by
parish priests. In the 1950s the church began to play a more important role,
and by the mid-1960s the church operated twelve small hospitals and fifteen
other charitable institutions, such as homes for orphans and the aged.
Catholic lay groups, such as Catholic Action and the Daughters of Mary, were
engaged in advancing self-help programs.

     The Catholic Relief Services of the National Catholic Welfare Conference
of the United States became active during the 1960s. By the middle of the
decade this program was providing food for more than 250,000 persons through
various local outlets and drugs and equipment to hospitals and clinics. The
Sisters of Saint Dominic, a North American order, worked with the needy near
the Haitian border in teaching food preparation and personal hygiene. The
Redemptionist Fathers, also a North American order, maintained a community
development project in the San Juan area.

     Protestant welfare programs, local as well as overseas, are operated
largely through the Church World Service, a part of the Christian Rural
Overseas Program with headquarters in New York. Projects include training in
agricultural practices, distribution of donated food, training in health and
hygiene, and supplementary feeding for school-children.

     The United States economic assistance program and the Peace Corps have
been active in various welfare undertakings, and activities of the Cooperative
for American Relief Everywhere (CARE) have frequently been carried out by
members of the Peace Corps. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and
Israel have contributed to development of cooperatives and programs designed
to raise the living standards of workers.

     Upper class women engage in a variety of charitable undertakings, a
majority of them sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church. Welfare-connected
activities of voluntary groups, such as local rotary clubs and chambers of
commerce, are also of significant importance, and the Dominican Red Cross
provides important welfare services in emergencies.

Patterns of Livi