An Assessment Of Social Insurance And Quality Of Life Of Non Gazetted Civil Pensioners In Punjab, Pakistan
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Date
2017-05
Authors
Jafar, Muhammad
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study was designed to measure level of Quality of Life (QOL) and relationship between social insurance and QOL of the non-gazetted civil pensioners in the Punjab, Pakistan. Social insurance is contributory and state sponsored social security provided against various economic risks faced by individuals due to death, disability and/or old age. The study adopted a mix method approach to investigate the linkages between the social insurance and QOL of non gazetted civil pensioners. A five point Likert scale was constructed for quantitative data collection from 358 participants who were non-gazetted civil pensioners. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS (version 20). Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed for analysing this data. The findings of the study reveal that 64.5% of the respondents were able to buy staple food, whereas only 26.5% of them could afford to buy nutrition rich food. Simil1arly, 39.4% of the respondents were satisfied with health services available to them and 35.2% were able to pay from pocket for using services of qualified doctor. Regarding housing, 41.1% and 51.4% respondents were satisfied with number of rooms and privacy in their house respectively. Only 30.2% respondents reported having access to safe drinking water. 25.8% of respondents reported having financial resources to educate their children up to the master’s level. Similarly, 32.2% of them were able to spend on the arrangements of marriage of their children. 47.7 % respondents reported they were experiencing happiness and 64.1% had a some say in domestic decision making. Results of correlation analysis disclosed that all the domains of QOL including food, health, housing, safe drinking water, family and social obligations and life satisfaction were strongly correlated with social insurance. Similarly, results of multiple regression analysis showed that there is significance of social insurance in maintaining QOL of the non-gazetted civil pensioners. Qualitative data were collected through semi structured interview from 12 non gazetted civil pensioners living with good QOL. Based on preferences adopted by respondents living with good QOL, the study proposed a model for non gazetted civil pensioners for living with fair QOL. The study concludes that overall QOL of the non gazetted civil pensioners was poor because their basic needs remained under fulfilled. Based on findings, the proposed model that covers three aspects of life of the pensioners; social, economic and psychological and requires them to adopt proposed ways in all three aspects for achieving level of fair QOL. The study provides an insight for social workers, policy makers and stakeholders for influencing policy making and social planning for revisiting and redesigning social insurance programmes in Pakistan.
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Keywords
Level of Quality of Life and relationship , of the non-gazetted civil pensioners in the Punjab