Caixa Andorrana de Seguretat Social
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The Caixa Andorrana de Seguretat Social (CASS) is the public institution in charge of the Social Security system in Andorra.[1] It was established in April 1968. Since the Constitution of Andorra was approved in 1993, the objective of the Andorran system is to implement Article 30: «The right to health protection and to receive benefits to meet other personal needs is recognized. To these ends, the State will guarantee a Social Security system ». That is to say, guarantee protection, in its contributory and non-contributory modality, of insured persons, direct or indirect, through the appropriate benefits.[1] It is compulsory for salaried workers and also for those who develop an economic activity.
Social security is made up of two different branches or strands of protection:[1]
- General branch covers reimbursement, temporary disability, maternity, paternity, risk during pregnancy, disability, capital death benefits and orphan's pensions.
- Retirement branch covers the situation of loss of income due to cessation of work or economic activity derived from age and is made up of the retirement pension and temporary and lifetime widow's pensions.
Social Security contributions
Salaried workers' contributions
The Andorran law establishes that for salaried employees the CASS must collect the 22% of their gross monthly salary. The amount collected is divided between worker and employer:[1]
- Workers must allocate 6.5% of gross monthly salary to the coffers of the CASS 3% to the general branch and 3.5% in the retirement branch
- The company must contribute 15.5% salary (7% for the general branch and 8.5% for retirement)
The company is responsible for paying monthly amounts directly to the CASS, so some companies decide to assume a higher percentage of contributions in order to partially release their workers.
Self-employed worker contributions
Self-employed workers also have to contribute to the CASS. There is a minimum contribution base for a self-employed person within the average Andorran salary of all workers affiliated with social security in the past year as established by law.[1] And then, over that minimum contribution base is applied the rate of 22%. Usually this minimum contribution is about €450 monthly (Average salary is used to be around €2000–€21000 per month).Of this total amount[1] 10% is for the general branch and 12% for retirement.