Coordination of social security in European Union: Analysis of family benefits in Turkey

The European Union follows a method aimed at coordinating the social security systems of the countries without intervening in the social security systems. This method refers to the coordination of social security, which starts with regulation 3/58 and continues to be implemented with regulation 883/2004. Coordination regulations determine which country legislation will be applied in order to prevent any loss of entitlement in terms of social security right in case of residence, employment during free movement. It also includes who the coordination will cover, and which social risks will be secured by the coordination. Family benefit consists one of the material scopes of the coordination regulations of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which includes the social security risks enshrined in the Minimum Norms of Social Security Convention 102. Family benefits, which are used in contemporary social security systems, are applied as social insurance branches in some countries and in the form of social benefits in some other countries. Although Turkey does not include the ILO Conventions No. 102 and 883/2004 in the number of statutes adopted by the social security system to help the family insurance arm, but has been trying to help the family with some applications. Family benefits, which are tried to be provided as in-kind income or in cash, is largely covered by social assistance in our country. The coordination regulations are a guide in the issuing of the social security rights that are devoted to the family benefits of the countries that are members of the European Union, while the means that Turkey, who is not a member, resorted to are the bilateral social security treaties. In our endeavor in this direction, the family benefits in Turkey, in the present case, are addressed within the frame of the bilateral social security treaties, as for a situation of possible membership, they are addressed within the scope of Regulation No 883/2004 in which the social security coordination in the European Union is provided.