Social Security
What this domain tests
This domain asks how India organises income protection across the life cycle: contributory social insurance (EPF, ESI, NPS, APY), tax-funded social assistance (NSAP pensions, Ayushman Bharat), and welfare for unorganised and gig workers (e-Shram, BOCW boards, the Code on Social Security 2020).
Concepts to anchor
- ILO framing: social security is protection against life's contingencies - sickness, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, old age, disability and death - delivered through social insurance, social assistance and universal schemes.
- Insurance vs assistance: insurance is contribution-linked and claimable as a right; assistance is means-tested and tax-funded.
- Code on Social Security 2020 consolidates nine central laws, including the EPF & MP Act 1952, ESI Act 1948, Employees' Compensation Act 1923, Maternity Benefit Act 1961, Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 and the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act 2008. It defines gig worker, platform worker and aggregator for the first time and provides for a Social Security Fund.
- EPF split: of the employer's 12%, 8.33% of wages (on a basic ceiling of ₹15,000) goes to the pension fund; the balance goes to the PF.
Worked example
An employee has basic + DA of ₹20,000. What are the monthly EPF contributions? Employee: 12% of 20,000 = ₹2,400. Employer: 12% = ₹2,400, of which EPS receives 8.33% of the ₹15,000 ceiling = ₹1,250, leaving ₹1,150 for the PF. Total credited to the PF account = 2,400 + 1,150 = ₹3,550 a month. Note that the ceiling, not the actual salary, drives the pension share.
Traps
Treating the wage ceiling as the base for every component; confusing EPS, EPF and NPS; assuming the 2020 Code has fully replaced the old Acts in practice when rules are notified progressively; and mixing Atal Pension Yojana's 18–40 entry band with the NPS entry conditions.