The Impact of Social Assistance on Social Security of Elders: An Empirical Study of Elders in Matara District in Sri Lanka

This study investigates the impact of social assistance on the social security of elders in Sri Lanka applying the convergent parallel mixed method. The quantitative data collected from 149 elders in both formal and informal sectors in the Matara District. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data and the Partial Least Square Structural Equation (PLS-SEM) model was employed to analyze data. Qualitative data were gathered having the face-to-face interviews with six elders and analyzed employing qualitative content analysis. The study revealed that formal social assistance had the highest positive impact on the social security of elders in the formal sector while it was not significant with the informal sector elders. However, formal social assistance was significant in both sectors under qualitative content analysis. Informal social assistance was evaluated using four major dimensions; social net-work, social connectedness, economic support during the emergency condition, health care support. Among these dimensions, social security during emergency conditions had significance in both sectors, and health care support positively significant in the formal sector. However, qualitative results confirmed that all these dimensions directly affect the increase of the social security of elders. Thus, it can be concluded that both formal and informal social assistance has an impact on the enhancement of the social security of elders in the formal sector while formal social assistance has not impacted the increase of social security of elders in the informal sector.