ABSTRACT
THE nature of the social security scheme depends a great deal on the character of the national economy in which it operates. One of the main reasons for the present government's difficulties in implementing all its pre-election pledges on social security is the failure of the economy to grow at the rate it was envisaged in the National Plan. A growing economy is necessary to provide the wealth to meet the cost of social security as well as of the other government services. It is not only as a financier that the nature of the economy is important to social security. It also affects people's expectations of the standards of social security benefits. The rise in incomes which has been evident for some years will continue in the future though the rate of growth is much in doubt. As incomes rise, people's expectations of the standards of social security benefits will also rise. There is an automatic in-built interrelationship between rising standards of life and rising expectations. Improved standards do not satisfy expectations for ever; they merely prod them on to demand even better standards.
