Social security benefits, reimbursements (D.6311)

These benefits consist of reimbursement by social security funds of approved expenditures made by households on specified goods or services.

When a household purchases a good or service for which it is subsequently reimbursed, in part or in whole, by a social security fund, the household can be regarded as if it were acting on behalf of the social security fund. In effect, the household provides a short-term credit to the social security fund that is liquidated as soon as the household is reimbursed.

The amount of the expenditure reimbursed is recorded as being incurred directly by the social security fund at the time the household makes the purchase, while the only expenditure recorded for the household is the difference, if any, between the purchaser's price paid and the amount reimbursed. Thus, the amount of the expenditure reimbursed is not treated as a current transfer in cash from the social security funds to households.