ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intended and unintended inter-relationships between social security on one hand and the family, social class and work on the other. The extension of social security benefits to cover the needs of the whole family was both logical and inevitable. It reflected society's greater stress on the social service aspects of social security as distinct from its actuarial and narrowly defined economic aspects. Social security has been linked in a variety of ways with fertility rates and the size of the family. Social security involves the collection and payment of vast sums of money every year and can, therefore, have important effects on the distribution of income and possibly on the stratification system of the country. It also involves a great deal of income redistribution from one generation to another since retirement pensions are financed largely by the working population in direct and indirect ways.
