Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
37. İnternational Public Finance Conference, Antalya, Türkiye, 12 - 15 Ekim 2023, ss.39-45
In the first quarter of the 21st century, Turkey faced two major disasters that affected millions of people. The first of these disasters is the Covid-19 pandemic, which is considered a biological disaster. The second is an earthquake disaster that occurred on 6 February 2023. Turkey has implemented a series of financial and economic measures to mitigate the adverse effects of these two disasters in various fields. One of these measures is the implementation of the cash wage support, which was first implemented across Turkey in April 2020 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, and then reintroduced in February 2023 in order to mitigate the effects of the earthquake on economic and social life only in the ten provinces affected by the earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş, where a state of emergency was declared. In this context, the application of cash wage support as a financial instrument in combating disaster is the subject of this study. In this study, the concept of cash wage support, its importance, its purpose, who can benefit from it and for how long, how many people have benefited from this opportunity to date, how much payment has been made to those who deserve it, and what are the deficiencies and weaknesses of the application have been tried to be explained by taking into account the relevant legislation and ministerial statements and by making use of official statistics, bulletins and reports published by the Turkish Employment Agency, which is responsible for the implementation of the cash wage support application, and data obtained from other secondary sources. In the conclusion part of the study, although it is criticised that the cash wage support provided to employees who meet certain conditions is far below a minimum amount that is worthy of human dignity, it is concluded that cash wage support makes an important contribution to the survival of wage earners who have been unemployed for a certain period of time during Covid-19 and the earthquake disaster. On the other hand, in these periods of inflationary process, the cash wage support amounts should be updated again rapidly. In the study, it is suggested that more inclusive, income-increasing and permanent measures should be put into practice, taking into account that these and similar fiscal measures are temporary practices in combating disasters.