Emerging New Patterns in Social Security in the Informal Economy in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Workers in the informal economy have been identified to be at a higher risk of experiencing poverty as they growth old in developing countries. Due to their attitudes to saving, planning for old age and eroding family support. Well-designed social security programmes can help reduce both the risk by building resilience to shocks – safety nets. Although these exist there are still some challenges considering the rate of enrolment unto the formal social security available. Increasingly it is being regarded as important for the society to consider the importance of a universal formal Social Security. However this has been wrought with many challenges for many developing countries especially. To reduce the incidence of poverty and with the eroding family support, it has become necessary for countries to be concerned about how individuals are planning towards retirement in their old age or in the event that there is stoppage of work abruptly. In this thesis, I describe the trends in Social Security in Accra with my respondents for the study chosen from Madina. The objectives of the study were to; to find out how sources of knowledge about the SSNIT Informal Sector Fund (SISF) affected attitudes, study the nature of informal Social Security arrangements that Informal Economy workers participate in, determine how pricing, benefits, services and other factors affects the workers choice of social security systems available, and make recommendations that will help increase awareness in the informal economy about social security. The results show that although there are Social Security Systems available to the Workers in the Informal Economy, subscription was low.