The Turkish Statistical Institute announced on Thursday that Türkiye's expenditure on social protection reached 2 trillion 693 billion 497 million TRY in 2023, marking a 108.6% increase compared to the previous year.

Social protection benefits accounted for 98.2% of this expenditure, totaling 2 trillion 645 billion 267 million TRY.

The largest portion of social protection spending was allocated to old age benefits, amounting to 1 trillion 175 billion 190 million TRY, followed by sickness and health care benefits, which received 809 billion 343 million TRY.

In 2023, social protection expenditure constituted 10.1% of Türkiye's gross domestic product (GDP), with social protection benefits alone accounting for 10.0% of GDP. Expenditure on old age benefits represented the largest share at 4.4% of GDP, followed by sickness and health care benefits at 3.0% of GDP and survivors' benefits at 1.0% of GDP.

Means-tested benefits comprised 13.3% of total social protection benefits, with the majority provided under the family/children function (51.2%), followed by disability (17.7%) and sickness/health care (13.4%). Cash benefits made up 63.0% of total social protection benefits, with old age benefits constituting 70.1%, survivors' benefits 15.4%, and family/children benefits 5.4%.

Government contributions accounted for 39.6% of social protection receipts, while social contributions by employers represented 29.7%, and protected people's social contributions made up 23.9%.

The number of old age, survivors, and disability pension beneficiaries increased by 13.8% in 2023, reaching 16 million 893 thousand people, compared to 14 million 851 thousand in 2022. The total number of pension benefits rose to 17 million 719 thousand in 2023 from 15 million 630 thousand in the previous year. (ILKHA)