Formal Informal Social Support Systems Health And Social Care Essay

dress In carcassal cordial Support Systems health And Social C be analyzeRealising that it is the natural right that all those who do work should enjoy to the fullest extent the fruits of their labour the Colonial organisation of the Gold Coast initiated a package for common service thespians who went on retreat after serving in the usual service for over 30 historic period, passed an ordinance as part of the reforms in the colony. That ordinance came to be seen as CAP 30. The following folk of workers were entitled to enjoy this package, gold coast Armed Forces, Police Service, Fire Service, gold coast Education Service, Ghana Health Service, polished Service etc. even so, by 1972 the law was amended to allow an different body, SSNIT to take responsibility of round category of workers portion towards their loneliness. After 1972, employees of the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, and Judiciary Service amongst another(prenominal)s were directly beneath the SSNIT aid Scheme with the expulsion of the tribute Services. The Social Security Pension Scheme was established under the PNDC Law 247 of 1991. The Scheme is administered by the Social Security and National damages Trust (SSNIT) to cater for Civil and Public Servants, Employees in the private welkin, Professionals, Traders, Artisans, Farmers and similarly the self-employed. The Social Security Scheme is the only basic Social Security Scheme that insures a worker against the following contingencies Old Age, Invalidity and Death.The worker contributes 5% of his/her basic salary and the employer adds 12.5% of the workers basic salary, making a center of 17.5% which is paid to SSNIT. The rate of Contribution for Self-Employed or Voluntary ratifier is 17.5% of decl bed in execute. It would interest you to shed sex that Government Pension or large(p) letter 30 attracts a huge sum of m geniusy than the SSNIT pension which is comparatively lower. This disparity in the pensi on administration has brought slightly workers agitation for fair-mindedness in their retirement benefits. In the human beings sector a soulfulness qualifies for full pension at the age of 60 days and you must have make a minimum contribution of 240 months in inbuiltty but sack up voluntarily go on retirement at age 55 eld for reduce pension and must have made a minimum contribution of 240 months. As a result of ill-health one qualifies for invalidity pension. In that encase you must have made contributions for not less than 12months in aggregate at heart the last(a) 36 months and you must have been decl atomic number 18d for good invalid and incapable of any normal gainful employment by a qualified and recognized medical officer and certified by a Regional medical Board on which a SSNIT Medical Officer is represented.Since 1957 when the country gained independence expatriate officers in the Ghana Civil Service opted to retire and many va backsidecies occurred. This cre ated the opportunity for Ghanaians who were on pension to be re-eng fourth-year in the Civil Service on contract. These officers enjoyed their pension in growth to their remuneration as contract officers. However, in 1968, the Government of Ghana distinguished the cessation of the payment of the pension package in addition to the salaries attached to the contract appointment. This heartbeat obviously did not go down come up with the bear upon pensioners who considered it a stab at the back and a good luck of faith. ( Tachie-Menson, 2003).In Accra, a group of pensioners engaged the services of lawyers to fight their take in for them. They succeeded and thus the emergence of the Ghana Government Pensioners Association for Accra which in any case assumed a national status. The way was then(prenominal) opened for branches in all the regional capitals to register members and make payment of part of their periodic dues to Accra. In Wa the pensions Association was formed in 198 6 to cater for retired workers in the municipality. Pensioners under the Government Pensions Association argon over six carbon as the number keep dwindling due to death. Pensioner with the SSNIT, as at February, 2010 stood at one nose tail assemblydy thousand four hundred and fifty eight with a retirement rate of 0.65%.It was my doubt that many retired public service workers would live uncomfortable lives after long days of contributing meaning richly to mother Ghana as those kinds of assumptions, suggestions, and my personal puzzle of my aged p arnts that prompted me to undertake this proposal in this area.STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMthither is a general perception out there that retirement from dynamical service in Ghana renders one jobless and with nothing to do which often leads to frustration and early death in life if one does not plan life properly. This is attributed to the fact that people on retirement who do not plan well use their benefits to scrape protection for t hemselves after which they end up living on their meager monthly allowance. It is claimed because most workers are not able to put up nurse during their working lives before they go on retirement. This has been the situation over the last decade and more and has rather impoverished retirees. Such claims are not hard to find in the municipality if one visits these retired workers at their homes. Therefore retired workers whose family members are not there to withstand them are left to their fate or are forced to put up with neighbours. It is also worrying to find frail looking pensioners go to their banks e very fortnight to struggle for their allowances. In some situations those incapacitated to the extent that they roll in the haynot make the journey to the bank would not have access to their money unless they prepare an authority note to be endorsed by the Association and countersigned by the Accountant Generals representative for the bank to resultant role payment, a exercis e quite laborious.Calculation of retirement benefits of Government Pension which was originally based on the pension constant of 1/960th of ones storehouse salary multiplied by the number of years served in months was reviewed in 1946 by the Harragin Salary Commission to 1/600th and has since been increased to 1/480th. The bar arrived at is spilt for 25% to be paid as gratuity and the stay 75% as pension which is spread over 20 years and is payable monthly. On the death of a pensioner what is due him/her from the be period out of the twenty years is paid to his/her beneficiaries as commuted pension. (Tachie-Menson, 2003)For beneficiaries of a deceased pensioner to claim the unexpected portion of the twenty years pension there are three blastes towards that end-(a)The nomination form filed with his Department while a civil servant in which he indicated his beneficiaries is the premier to be utilise as authority for disbursement. However, the nomination forms can be revised at a ny time that the person wishes.(b)The go outinging is the next authority to be used for disbursement, if it super cedes the nomination form.(c)In the absence of the two above, Letters of Administration prepared jointly by the interrogative of the pensioners family on one side and the wife and children on the other, must be obtained from the Law Courts with which to claim the commuted pension.As the years roll by for swelling to set in adjustments are made to salaries by the grant of allowances in divers(a) forms to the basic salaries of Civil Servants. However, when allowances are added to the basic salaries to mitigate the piece of the rising constitute of living, it does not reflect in the pension calculation. This prompts the Ghana Government Pensioners Association to enter into serious negotiations with the Government for pension to be increase.When the consolidated salary was introduced pensioners were left in the lurch. The Associations negotiating machinery was put t o the test with the talk terms power of the Public Services Workers Union of which the Association is a segmentation Government then consented to the grant of 50%.Therefore to address the publicise of cordial declare for the retired public sector workers in the municipality, it is important to k now that the enormous concern of this essay is revolve arounded on the poor bridal of measures on the part of local authorities and fraternity members to forget special offbeat re reference books and other societal interventions to nutrition the retired.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDYThis expect would give an in-depth knowledge of the formal and snug companionable support musical arrangements of retired workers and to know the plight of retired workers so as to come out with remedies to assist these aged citizens. It would also contribute to prepare would- be retirees to adequately plan for their hereafter retirement. Furthermore, before a inquiry of this nature is meaningful ly carried out in the municipality of Wa, it is imperative to have some knowledge about what the area under pick up is made up of.OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYThe objectives of the say are as followsSpecific objectiveA. To evaluate the adequacy of available formal and inner support and welfare resources to the retired persons at the fraternity level. The clotheigation entrust be directed toward the identification of kind support systems that would meet the growing and ever-changing involve of the retired.GENERAL OBJECTIVES1. To correct, in some Ghanaian communities, kind support systems for elderly persons.2. To meditate both support providers and the beneficiaries comprehensively in battle array to understand how exiguity and the fills of the retired are distributed, and how they are dealt with in practice.3. To determine the stop of success of formal interventions of support provision to the elderly.4. To ascertain the social pattern of relief and support, and to draw the social implications of the active and changing patterns so that appropriate and adequate social policies may be formulated.RESEARCH QUESTIONSThese particular proposition objectives above leave alone be framed round the following specific and general questionsHow adequate are the formal and informal social support and welfare resources of retired public sector workers?GENERAL QUESTIONS1. What are the general ethnic expectations about the retired person in the community and how are these changing?2. What resources are available to them?3. To what extent do retired persons avail themselves of the community resources and at what cost?4. What factors encourage or discourage utilization of such resources?5. To what extent do the resources available complement one some other to meet the needs of the retired and what needs are left unmet?6. What are the principles of reciprocity involved in these various support arrangements in the family and the community?LITERATURE REVIEWIn reviewi ng literature, the study provide triangulate conceptual and theoretical frame work of the affair understudy. The operational definition of key concepts imply the terms formal, informal, social support systems and public sector workers. I am interested in formation formal as the official government situation in the grade of events. Informal means private and unofficial initiative. Social support system means social interventions to the vulnerable. My construct of these concepts is similar to other concepts that are in use. However, in the pastSocial welfare protection, in the form of amends and assistance programmes, emerged in Europe in the 1800s in order to provide citizens with an economic safety net during periods of illness, economic hardship, and other shocks as discussed (Palacios Sluchynsky, 2006). Today, nigh every country has some form of social protection developed to provide economic support in times of need (International Social Security Association, 2005). Assi stance comes in the form of old-age pensions, survivor benefits, family allowances or other supports. In Africa, the author suggests that social welfare programmes were originally developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a safety net for snowy workers (Dixon, 1987). Employer-based contributory pensions were the dominant set.Still today, these pensions primarily serve the wealthiest workers who live in urban areas and have secure careers in the public sector (Palacios Sluchynsky, 2006). Those who are excluded from these benefits are left to rely upon the traditional safety net of family aid, coarse support, and communal living. For example, in Kenya, the clan system has operated as a labour union world, pooling resources and providing extra support during vulnerable periods (Dixon, 1987). This informal system has eroded. However, as countries have developed and urbanized, sources of livelihoods have diversified, family sizes shrunk, and the state aged. Moreover,throughout sub-Saharan Africa, impoverishment has further destabilized households, changed demographic patterns and orphaned enormous numbers of children (UNICEF, 2006).Vulnerable existences impertinence a social protection vacuum when both formal programmes and informal practices fail to provide the safety nets that families need to survive, even though social protection is a proven component in fighting poverty and responding to families overwhelmed by disease or other shocks (Barrientos DeJong, 2004 Bourguignon, Ferreira, Leite, 2002 Chronic Poverty look Centre, 2005 Skoufias di Maro, 2006). Throughout Africa, social protection programmes could well be mechanisms that enable families to economically survive and help children reach their potential.The reality that social welfare inclinations in Africa exclude more people than they cover, has been established (Dixon, 1987 Fultz Pieris, 1999 Taylor, 2001) and however there are important reasons to revisit this depicted object. He argues that in the last decade, a growing number of countries have expanded or developed new programmes in an labor to reduce poverty as well as to invest in human and economic development. Evidence of the growing momentum around social protection schemes include the Livingstone Call For Action (2006) where thirteen eastern and Southern African governments pledged to draft costed national social move out plans within two to three years. In a related situation, the African Union is driving and supporting efforts to promote the development of cave in social welfare systems while heads of states throughout the world, have committed to building, where needed, and supporting the social security systems that protects the aged ( unit of measuremented Nations General Assembly, 2006).The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of existing social welfare policies in Ghana and countries throughout Africa. These policies are describe and the characteristics of existing social welfar e schemes are analyzed in order to facilitate dialogue on how governments, supported by the international community, can improve current welfare schemes and build new systems that are better aligned with the needs of vulnerable populations, in order to provide a meaningful social safety net.METHODOLOGYIn order to go steady the characteristics of government and employer provided social support schemes to retired workers, the investigate must conduct an interrogatory aimed at increasing knowledge based on facts. Therefore to light upon this, a systematic method and instruments of collating and collecting data should be used since the appropriateness of these methods and instruments to a large extent determine the validity and dependability of the data.Also the sample used should be a true office of the population as well as the instrument utilized in the research.STUDY AREAThe Wa Municipality is one of the oldest districts in the region, and the biggest of the nine districts. I t is the capital town of the region. The estimated population of Wa Municipality for 2008 is 124,476 as against 105,065 in 2000, an increase of about19%. The population density of the area is 38 persons per square kilometers. It has about 32 communities. Because Wa doubles as the Municipal and Regional capital, it has a high population growth rate of 4% per annum with a greater proportion of the be population of the Municipality and the Region concentrated in it.Wa Municipality covers the Southwestern split of the region. It stretches from longitude 140N to 2 45N and from latitude 9 32W to 10 20W. It covers an area of more or less 5899.30 square kilometers, which is about 32% and 2.56%of the region and the nation respectively. To the South, Southwest and Southeast, Wa Municipality shares common boundaries with Wa West/Wa East, Wa West and Wa East Districts respectively. To the north, Wa Municipality is bordered by Nadwoli District.It has more retired civil and public servants and also suitable in terms of providing sufficient sample sizes of retired persons. site POPULATIONThe target population for this research is the retired civil and public sector workers in the municipality and their families. Retired civil and public sector workers are of two categories. The first category is made up of pensioners under Government Pension scheme and the second category is made up of pensioners under SSNIT Pension scheme. exemplificationA number of samples get out be drawn for the study. Unlike Census, where the entire population is covered by the study, sampling enables a researcher to study a relatively small part of the target population and yet obtain accurate and circumstantial data that are representative of the social unit at a lower cost (Sarantakos, 2005). . The first sample of respondents will be made up of community members who are 60 years and above. The second respondents will be made up of family members, kin alliance and local authorities.SAMPLING PRO CEDUREA snowball sampling performance will be used. By this method a retired public sector worker is identified within the community and interviewed. This first respondent then leads the researcher to the next respondent who also falls with the target group. The process is continued until the required number of respondents is interviewed.CHOICE OF RESEARCH METHOD gigantic interest is shown in the choice of research methods to use in this research proposal. There is the duodecimal data and method approach which often is associated with positivism, the general paradigm in new-made times. Under this approach scientific methods can more or less readily represent and measure concepts which anticipate to predict and explain causal relations among key variables. However, some critics are of the view that positivistic methods reduce the contextual meanings in the process of growing quantified measures of phenomena. Though the issue of empirical approach to research has been justified by its success in measuring quantitative research, in more recent years, scientists have been challenged to explain phenomena that defy measurement and their inability to quantitatively measure some phenomena, and the dissatisfaction with which the results of measurement of other phenomena have led to an intense search for other approaches to study human phenomena.A modern approach, which came to be cognise as post positivism, is a recent evolution of positivism which concentrate on has been on soft methods, and is modeled on positivistic methods and experimental designs (Miles and Huberman, 1993). This approach has led to the acceptance of qualitative research approach which does not need empirical data to discover knowledge. However, one cannot help but to stuck by the success of qualitative research methods in themarket place of academic ideas (Atkinson, 1995, p. 117). The tradition of using qualitative methods to study human phenomena is grounded in the social sciences. The t radition came about because aspects of human values, culture, and relationships were unable to be described fully using quantitative research methods. More recently, the practice of qualitative research has expanded to clinical settings because empirical approaches have proven to be of trammel service in answering some of the challenges and pressing clinical questions, oddly where human subjectivity and interpretation are involved (Thorne, 1997, p. 28).However, the use of qualitative research has its own flaws as well. It is unable to study relationships mingled with variables with the degree of accuracy that is required to establish social trends.For the purpose of this proposal a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methodology would be used to analyse data. However qualitative method has a more flexible approach in pr ocedure to construction of research design in the sampling, data accruement and processing and reporting.DATA COLLECTIONData will be pile up from a var iety of sources within the selected community, from families, kin, neighbours, educationists, legal and health practitioners, from neighbourhood and community associations, religious groups, welfare agencies, specialised groups such as trade unions, from local councils and other organised groups. Further tuition gathered will come from retired persons themselves, from their families/kin, extra familial networks, neighbourhood, their community and from state agencies. The material gathered from these levels will be in a complementary relationship to one another in order to approximate a high degree of reliability and validity.The principal data that will be gathered include the followings(a) society profile geographic, demographic, historical, political-social and economic conditions of the community, placed within the national context.(b) Prevailing ethnic norms and the expectations concerning the retired persons and their care, conceptions about reciprocity and exchange, family and kinship relationship etc.(c) Inventory and detailed descriptions of indigenous informal support systems and of formal support systems available within the community.Another source of data collection will be a historical review of formal and informal support systems available in the community and local levels. At the formal level, data will include the public services and programmes instituted by the government at different levels. At the informal level, data will include information on the traditional supporting roles played by family, kin, patrons and others.Data collection will progress by means of primary sources of data such as interviews, questionnaire, and focus group discussions. Secondary data through existing literature will be used by the researcher. In terms of priorities, it is expected that questionnaires will be constructed and pretested.INTERVIEWSThe interview is a face to face meeting between a questioner and a respondent, or an oral presentation of an perspica city or attitude scale (Zikmund, 1994). Structured interview will be used for meeting the respondents. It will however be inter blank with unstructured interviews when interacting with non pensioners.QUESTIONNAIRESA questionnaire is a written instrument that contains a serial of questions or statements called items that attempts to collect information on a particular topic. It is usable for large scale surveys that involve collection of data from literate respondents. Questionnaire will be administered to pensioners as well.FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONAnother source of data collection will be focus group discussions. This trey phase about 9-12 pensioners will be grouped for discussions about their personal experience before and after active service. The selection of participant will be balance in terms of sex to give it a fair representation.DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONIn recording the information or data gathered, I will employ both quantitative and qualitative epitome. Data wi ll be described and in other cases subjected to quantitative analysis regarding trends in each dimension of the topic. Correlations between aspects of the topic and a series of other variables to establish more detailed results will be conducted. Beyond this, the researcher is expected to explain behaviours more extensively and more accurately. Where data needs empirical analysis quantitative model will be used and where it needs description and collection and analysis occur simultaneously, qualitative model will be suitable.INTENDED BENEFITSThe Government under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare is seriously considering the development of a national policy for the aged. Local authorities should compliment government effort by initiating social and community activities to engage the elderly in the community as well as supplement government efforts of finding welfare resources for them. The results of this study should identify and address gaps in existing interventions.My contribution to the study is to draw to attention that every worker dreams of going on retirement one day. Therefore adequate preparations should be made for the aged who have live most of their life working to develop the country so that they dont retire and still wallow in poverty.My motivation stern from the very experience of having to handle my aged parents who were once public servants and are now on retirement and in addition to relations and friends who are affected in one way or another of their aged relatives.The intention of spending time and money on this exercise is to bring about an improvement of the status quo.TIME PLAN degree 1PHASE 2PHASE 3FROM TOFROM TOFROM TODATA GATHERINGMETHOD1 use of questions2 interviews3Focus grp Dis.June-July. Pre testDecem.-Jan. Retired workers.June-July Cap 30 Retired WorkersOct. Nov. dread-September Commty. profileFeb-Mar. Families Kin. Commty mmb August Sept. SSNIT Retired WorkersOctob.- Novem. Prevailng cul. NormApril.-May edu, L eg., Health workrsANALYSISMETHODS1 Qualitative in the first place descriptive analysis of data. Often collection and analysis will occur simultaneously.METHODS 2QuantitativeMainly statistical analysis of data. Correlation between aspects of the topic and a series of variables will be established.BUDGET.ActivityQuantity/numberFrequencyUnit CostTotal CostGHInternet BrowsingBrowsing and feeling20.00Documents acquired40.00Travel expensesFuel for local movement20.00Feeding accommodation learn for two years and foodGH 120.00240.00Printing and photo copying questionnaires15 pages 100 respondents100.00Printing80 pages 8 copies60GP384.00Binding of books8 copiesGH10.0080.00 destine TotalGH884.00