New Forms of Employment and the Social Security System: The Case of Germany

The aim of the study is to analyse the consequences of the changing structure of the labour market for the social security system. It will be shown that in the future the restructuring of the labour force will yield a main challenge for social policy and will have much bigger consequences for the social security system than the demographic changes. Numerous new forms of employment were caused by the economic process of tertiarization. Furthermore, these kinds of employment were politically demanded and financially supported. However, those forms of employment have their shortcomings. From an individualistic point of view there is a shortage in the protection against the financial consequences of social risks (e.g. unemployment, invalidity, illness, or the possibility to save for an adequate pension) within the social security system. From an institutionalistic point of view the financial basis of the social security systems becomes weaker and weaker as the reduction of the number of employees with a compulsory membership within the social security systems will inevitable reduce the contribution revenue of the institutions. As a preliminary conclusion it may be said that if the development continues we will not be confronted with the expected costs of the demographic changes but with a growing number of people with no or a low coverage against social risks. These people will depend on a basic system of poverty prevention.