Contributory social protection, transitional income and access to basic social services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the case of pensioners affiliated to the National Social Security Fund

Abstract

This article studies the relationship between contributory social protection, transitory income and access to basic social services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the case of retirees affiliated to the National
Social Security Fund. The study used the technique of ordinary least squares (OLS). The results of the selected model show that not all the variables are statistically significant. This explains why social protection systems are still incomplete, inefficient, and unable to cover social expenditure. Social protection is not able to properly play its main role, that of financially coping with social risks. As the disposable income of retired households does not match their consumption expenditure, retired households must probably resort to borrowing or non– market solutions such as transfers between households in order to meet consumption.

On the other hand, we can deduce a positive impact of retirement pension with a coefficient of +1.056894. If the retirement pension increases by 1%, consumption expenditure increases by 1.056894%. This result is consistent with the fundamental starting idea developed by Keynes in the consumption function: the disposable income available to a household during a given period influences its level of consumption during the same period. On the other hand, transitory income exerts a negative effect, although moderate with a coefficient of –0.9824771. This result confirms the difficulty of establishing with certainty the direction, nature and scope of the impact of transitory income on consumption.