Turkey: Social protection expenses reach $105B in 2017

By Gokhan Ergocun</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – The social protection expenditures reached to 382.6 billion Turkish liras ($104.8 billion) in 2017, Turkey's statistical authority announced on Wednesday.</p> <p>The social protection expenditures rose by 13.7 percent year-on-year in 2017, according to TurkStat's figures. </p> <p>It noted 98.1 percent of all of the social protection expenditures were consisted of social protection benefits — 375.5 billion Turkish liras ($102.9 billion).</p> <p>The biggest share from the social protection benefits was taken by old age group with 185.4 billion Turkish liras ($50.8 billion), followed by the sickness/health care function with 103.8 billion ($28.4 billion).</p> <p>&quot;The social protection benefits are the sum of the social benefits provided within the 8 risks/needs (sickness/health care, disability, old age, survivors, family/children, unemployment, housing, and social exclusion),&quot; TurkStat said.</p> <p>The social protection expenses were 12.3 percent of Turkey's GDP, which was 3.1 trillion Turkish liras (nearly $850.7 billion), in 2017.</p> <p>&quot;Government contributions accounted for 38.1 percent of social protection receipts. Social contributions by employers' represented 28.9 percent and protected people social contributions constituted 26.3 percent of social protection receipts,&quot; TurkStat said.</p> <p>In 2017, the country has 13.26 million people, who receive pensions — old age, survivors or disability person — these figures were 12.9 million in 2016.</p> <p>TurkStat will release the next bulletin on this subject on Dec. 2019.