SENATE BILL: Comprehensive Social Security Reform Act (Thread #2) (law'd)

[bgwah]

By popular demand, this is getting a new thread. Old thread: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=131056.0

Comprehensive Social Security Reform Act

1. Any statutory act (law, section or article) relative to Social Security in Atlasia, i.e. to the intervention of the Federal Government aimed to protect its citizens from social risks, prior to this Act is hereby repealed. Any previously established tax aimed to fund said activities is hereby abolished.
2. The National Social Security Agency (NSSA) is hereby established.
3. Any responsibility and authority in the domain of Social Security shall be vested in the NSSA. Said domains may be further specified by appropriate legislation.
4. The NSSA shall be under the responsibility of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Section 1: Administration

1. The NSSA shall be administered by a deliberative body called Superior Council.
2. The Superior Council of the NSSA shall be composed of 12 members, of which:    
    a) Four members shall be delegates of workers. They shall be democratically elected by every working or actively unemployed (see below) person. Labor Unions shall be responsible of organizing fair elections regularly.
    b) Four members shall be delegates of employers, designed by the organizations representing them.
    c) Four members shall be representatives of the Federal Government, designed by the Department of Internal Affairs.
3. The Superior Council of the NSSA shall elect a presiding officer, adopt an internal ruling, and decide the frequency and the duration of their sessions.
4. The NSSA shall be divided into five separate Administrations, called:    
    a) The Health Insurance Administration
    b) The Unemployment Insurance Administration
    c) The Parenthood Insurance Administration
    d) The Old Age Insurance Administration
    e) The Minor Insurances Administration
5. The institutions administering each of previously cited Administration shall be designed by the Superior Council of the NSSA through procedures specified by it.

Section 2: Budget

1. The NSSA shall have its proper budget, independent from the Federal budget.
2. The budget of the NSSA shall serve to ensure the proper functioning of the Agency and the fulfillment of the tasks devolved to it through proper legislation.
3. The budget of the NSSA shall be managed by the Superior Council provided that its administration respects subsection 2. The Department of Internal Affairs is in charge of ensuring the respect of subsection 2.
4. Each of the five Administrations of the NSSA shall have its proper budget, which shall be a part of the global NSSA budget.
5. The budget of an Administration of the NSSA shall serve exclusively to fulfill the Administration's social task, by ensuring the compensation of persons as specified by legislation. The budget of an Administration of the NSSA shall be financed through the contributions of people eligible to the insurance program each Administration is responsible of.
6. The budget of the NSSA shall also comprise its Functioning funds. Said funds shall serve to ensure the proper functioning of the NSSA, by paying for the necessary infrastructures and remunerating its employees. Said funds shall be managed by the Superior Council of the NSSA.
7. The Federal Government shall be responsible for providing the Functioning funds to the NSSA. The Department of Internal Affairs shall be able to decide the amount of those funds. The Functioning funds devolved to the NSSA shall be subject to a vote in the Senate.
8. If the budget of one or more of the five administrations of the NSSA present a surplus, such surplus shall be attributed to a Balanced Budget Fund managed by the Superior Council of the NSSA.
9. If the budget of one or more of the five administrations of the NSSA presents a deficit, the Balanced Budget Fund shall be used to fill such deficit.
10. If the Balanced Budget Fund isn't sufficient to ensure a balanced budget in every administration, the Federal Government shall lend to the NSSA the money necessary for that. In such case, the Balanced Budget Funds shall be used to reimburse such loan as soon as possible.

Section 3: Tasks

1. The role of the NSSA is to compensate the victims of the social risks specified by legislation, through mechanisms and for an amount specified by legislation.
2. The social risks recognized by Atlasia are: illness, unemployment, parenthood, old age, handicap, working incidents, death of the spouse or the parent, catastrophe and excessive debt.
3. Each of the five Administrations of the NSSA shall be responsible to cover one or more of previously specified social risks.

Section 4: Health Insurance

1. The Atlasian National Healthcare Act shall be maintained in its present form.

Section 5: Unemployment Insurance

1. The Unemployment Insurance Administration shall be responsible to compensate the victims of unemployment, to help them recovering a job and to ensure that recovering a job is economically beneficial to them.
2. Any employee or actively unemployed person shall be mandatorily registered to the Unemployment Insurance Administration.
3. To be deemed as "actively unemployed", a person shall meet the following requirements:    
    a) Not exercising any remunerated job.
    b) Actively researching a job, as defined under subsection 9.
    c) Being enrolled in or scheduled to be enrolled in a vocational education course or program as laid out in subsection 11.
4. The Unemployment Insurance Administration shall receive contributions, amounting to 6% of a registered employee's salary. Such contributions shall be paid monthly, by half by concerned employee, and by half by the business employing it.
5. Any registered employee losing its job shall receive from the Unemployment Insurance Administration a monthly revenue amounting to :
    a) 90% of the individual's previous salary during the first year following the loss of its job
    b) 80% of the individual's previous salary during the second year following the loss of its job
    c) 70% of the individual's previous salary during the third year following the loss of its job
    d) 60% of the individual's previous salary during the fourth year following the loss of its job
    e) 50% of the individual's previous salary after four years of unemployment
6. Notwithstanding subsection 5, no registered unemployed individual shall receive less than $600 per month, neither more than $4000 per month.
7. Any actively unemployed individual registered to the Unemployment Insurance Administration who had never been previously employed shall receive from the Unemployment Insurance Administration monthly revenue of $600 per month.
8. The Unemployment Insurance Administration shall provide registered unemployed individual with reasonable employment proposals. To be considered as reasonable, those proposals shall meet following requirements:    
    a) A salary equivalent to at least 90% of the individual's current revenue provided by the Unemployment Insurance Administration.
    b) A time necessary to reach workplace from the individual's home inferior to 1 hour. The Unemployment Insurance Administration shall be able to set inferior time limits on a local and case-by case basis.
    c) A domain corresponding to the individual's qualifications.
9. Any registered unemployed individual refusing three successive reasonable employment proposals shall be considered as inactive and deregistered from the Unemployment Insurance Administration.
10. Any registered individual previously unemployed recovering a job with net income inferior to 110% of the total benefits he received as an "actively unemployed" worker, as defined in Section 5, Clause 3, shall receive an allowance for the difference between his new employment's net income and 110% of total benefits last received as an "actively unemployed" worker.
11. For the purposes of this act, a vocational education course shall be defined as any course college or career training that seeks to improve one skills in their current occupation or train them for a new occupation entirely. Courses must be taught either online in connection with, or onsite of, an accredited university, community college, junior college, technical institute or other accredited institution offering continuing education courses.

[bgwah]

Section 6: Elderly Insurance

1. The Elderly Insurance Administration shall be responsible to guarantee elderly people decent standards of living.
2. Any adult shall be mandatorily registered to the Elderly Insurance Administration.
3. The Elderly Insurance Administration shall receive contributions, amounting to the same levels as the income tax established by the Social Security Taxation Act of 2009.
4. Actively unemployed individuals registered to the Elderly Insurance Administration shall not pay any contribution.
5. Any household in which no individual is concerned by subsections 3 and 4 shall pay a contribution equivalent to one twentieth of its income tax. Said contributions shall be paid concurrently with the income tax.
6. Any person retiring at the age of 60 or older shall receive a monthly pension from the Elderly Insurance administration.
7. The full old age penion shall be based on marginal percentages of a person's average annual earnings in the last 10 working years prior to their retirement.
      a) A working year is defined as a year in which the person worked more than six months.

8. A person will receive of the following percentages of marginal income earned as described in subsection 7:
                a) 0-14,999        90%     
                b) 15,000-34,999   65%           
                C) 35,000-74,999   40%       
                d) 75,000-and up   0%   

9. The minimum monthy income of a full old age pension shall be $1,500 a month. The maximum monthy income of a full old age pension shall be $3,000.
10. Any person retiring who is age 60 to 65 shall receive 75% of their full old age pension.  Any person retiring who is age 65 to 69 shall receive 85% of their full old age pension. Any person who is 70 or older, retiring shall receive their full old aged pension.
11. Age limits mentioned on section 11 shall be lower for individuals having exercised particularly hard jobs. The administration of the Elderly Insurance Administration shall be responsible to establish a list of particularly hard jobs and the retirement ages corresponding to each. Those limits shall not be lower than 55 years old for a 75% pension, and 60 years for a full pension.
12. All people 55 years and older will be handled under the previous social security laws. Those people under 55 will fall under the terms decribed in the above section 7.

Section 7: Minor Insurances

1. The Minor Insurances Administration shall be responsible to compensate the victims of social risks not covered by previously cited administrations. That is handicap, working incidents, death of the spouse or the parent, catastrophe and excessive debt.
2. Any household shall be mandatorily registered to the Minor Insurances Administration.
3.  Any household registered to the Minor Insurances Administration shall pay a contribution amounting to 2% of its salary and 5% of its other incomes.
4. Contributions shall be received by the Minor Insurances Administration, monthly for salaries an annually for other incomes.
5. Any adult officially deemed as handicapped by legitimate medical authorities who is not actively unemployed shall receive from the Minor Insurances Administration a monthly allowance amounting to $600.
6. Any adult officially deemed as handicapped by legitimate medical authorities who is actively unemployed shall receive from the Minor Insurances Administration a monthly allowance amounting to $300, which can be drawn concurrently with the allowance from the Unemployment Insurance Administration established in section 5.
7. Any household with one or more child officially deemed as handicapped by legitimate medical authorities shall receive from the Minor Insurances Administration a monthly allowance amounting to $100 per child, which can be drawn concurrently with the allowance from the Parenthood Insurance Administration established in section 6.
8. Any individual suffering from invalidity, illness or any injury caused by his work shall receive from the Minor Insurances Administration an indemnity proportional to the gravity of said injury. Said indemnity shall be comprised between $500 and $50,000. The Minor Insurances Administration shall be responsible to establish the appropriate levels of compensation relative to a specific injury.
9. Any household suffering from the death of an employed or actively unemployed member shall receive from the Minor Insurances Administration an indemnity equivalent to the expected financial loss caused by said death. Said indemnity shall be comprised between $5000 and $1,000,000. The Minor Insurances Administration shall be responsible to estimate the amount of the financial loss caused by the death of the member of a household, based on their potential income and life expectancy.
10. Any household suffering from the consequence of a natural or man-caused catastrophe shall receive from the Minor Insurances Administration an indemnity equivalent to the expected financial loss caused by said catastrophe. Said indemnity shall be comprised between $1000 and $1,000,000. The Minor Insurances Administration shall be responsible to estimate the amount of the financial loss caused by the catastrophe based on the direct and indirect damages caused by the catastrophe on the household's property.
11. Any household in a situation of excessive debt may ask for an exemption from the Minor Insurances Administration. The Minor Insurances Administration shall examine said household's financial situation and determine whether the amount of the debt might represent a threat for the household's economic security. In such case, the Minor Insurances Administration shall provide such household a loan without interest permitting them to reimburse their debt.

Section 8: Limitation of the tax burden

1. In order to avoid an excessive raise of government taxes, it is the will of the legislator that the passage of this bill doesn't result in an augmentation of the total amount of money collected by the government and its agencies of more than 10%.
2. This goal shall in priority be pursued through the repeal of any legislation regarding Social Security prior to this bill, thus nullifying the taxes established under this legislation.
3. One year after the passage of this bill, an independent commission shall be nominated by the Department of Internal Affairs, in order to calculate the amount of money collected by the government and its agencies in the previous year and what it would have been without the passage of this bill. The conclusions of said commission shall be published by the Game Moderator.
4. If the commission determines that the raise in the tax burden due to the passage of this bill has exceeded 10%, the Senate shall implement legislation in order to reduce its amount so that the raise in the tax burden doesn't exceed 10%.


Sponsor: Antonio V, North Carolina Yankee

[bgwah]

Hopefully I've correctly updated it. Please point out any errors if you see them.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It appears to be so. Page 19 was fairly accurate. The only real change was Napoleon's amendment getting rid of the minor insurance thing which occured on page 21 or 22. Between the 20's and page 35 or 36 when I offered 44:41 and 45:3, nothing really changed.

[Napoleon]

Get rid of 5-5c-e

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Oh yes, back to the UI stuff again. We spent a month going in circles on that, while the pension issue got resolved over a period of five days.


We need to find something that can garner support, instead of voting on different amendments only to see them all fail at the end like before.

c-e need to go for sure, but do we leave the percentages at 90 and 80 for a and b, or should they be dropped to say 75-80 and 60-65? 

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thank God. That last thread was a mess.

[bgwah]

I'm personally very tired of this bill taking taking up a slot, seemingly forever... We have a huge queue and I would like to move forward.

[Napoleon]

Get rid of 5-5c-e

As an amendment.

[bgwah]

Get rid of 5-5c-e

As an amendment.

Awaiting the sponsor's response now

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I accept the amendment as friendly since we definately need fewer brackets in the UI section.


I might offer an amendment later to the two remaining brackets, to reduce the percentages slightly.

[bgwah]

Get rid of 5-5c-e

The amendment has been accepted as friendly. Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

We have dealt with most of the issues raised in Marokai's late July review of this bill. We reduced Section 4 to just preserve the current health care structure, we have made some changes to Section 5 (underlying amendment which is waiting declaration of passage), but some more might be necessary. The parenthood section was removed prior to MB's review. The Pension section was improved both to deal with costs and to include an implementation strategy.

The current items remaining, is dealing with the Health care underfundeness (we are waiting for a response from the GM on potential tax increases, their size etc etc), and any further changes to the UI section that are necessary.

If I were to propose another amendment to UI it would be by the end of tomorrow.


I can't give an exact date on the health care funding issue, b/c I don't know when I will get a response.  I hope it will be soon, because the sooner we get this bill done and gone, the better.

[bgwah]

Get rid of 5-5c-e

The amendment has been accepted as friendly. Senators have 24 hours to object.

The amendment has passed.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I offer the following amendment to modify the current text

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I am willing to negotiate somewhat in the up direction here, if necessary.

[bgwah]

I offer the following amendment to modify the current text

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I am willing to negotiate somewhat in the up direction here, if necessary.

Senators have 24 hours to object to the sponsor's amendment.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Oh yes, back to the UI stuff again. We spent a month going in circles on that, while the pension issue got resolved over a period of five days.


We need to find something that can garner support, instead of voting on different amendments only to see them all fail at the end like before.

c-e need to go for sure, but do we leave the percentages at 90 and 80 for a and b, or should they be dropped to say 75-80 and 60-65? 

I hope you might consider these percentages that I proposed before I withdrew them and Antonio expressed some support for, even if you bump them up a little. https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=131056.msg2992676#msg2992676

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[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Not an amendment yet, but what do people think of these percentages? They are lower then the current text, somewhat higher then shua's and a fairly decent bump up both from RL and current Atlasian levels. 

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[Fuzzybigfoot]

I offer the following amendment to modify the current text

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I am willing to negotiate somewhat in the up direction here, if necessary.

Senators have 24 hours to object to the sponsor's amendment.

Object.  I would be willing to go with $3000 as a compromise. 

[bgwah]

I offer the following amendment to modify the current text

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I am willing to negotiate somewhat in the up direction here, if necessary.

Senators have 24 hours to object to the sponsor's amendment.

I'm sorry, but you missed the 24 hour window by about 20 minutes. So the amendment has passed. You could theoretically offer a new amendment to undo it, I guess.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

$3,000 is within my range (actually I think it's the highest end of it )

I wouldn't object Fuzzy's amendment, thus.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

I offer the following amendment:

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[bgwah]

So I take it the sponsor will accept Fuzzy's amendment as friendly, then?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I reckon it has.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Bgwah? That was a yes if you are confused.



After this, I will offer an amendment on the UI percentages.