Under C102, the cost of financing social security needs to be borne collectively. This means it can be financed by contributions, taxation or a combination of both. If the financing is done by contributions, employees’ contributions should NOT exceed 50% of the total of the financial resources allocated for the protection of employees as well as their wives and children (Article 71(2)). The Convention also provides that the State has the general responsibility for the due provision of social security benefits and needs to take all measures required for this purpose, including establishing and monitoring adequate financing mechanisms.

Under C102, a benefit to which a person protected would otherwise be entitled in compliance with any of Parts II to X of this Convention may be suspended to such extent as may be prescribed: (a) as long as the person concerned is absent from the territory of the Member; (b) as long as the person concerned is maintained at public expense, or at the expense of a social security institution or service, subject to any portion of the benefit in excess of the value of such maintenance being granted to the dependants of the beneficiary; (c) as long as the person concerned is in receipt of another social security cash benefit, other than a family benefit, and during any period in respect of which he is indemnified for the contingency by a third party, subject to the part of the benefit which is suspended not exceeding the other benefit or the indemnity by a third party; (d) where the person concerned has made a fraudulent claim; (e) where the contingency has been caused by a criminal offence committed by the person concerned; (f) where the contingency has been caused by the wilful misconduct of the person concerned; (g) in appropriate cases, where the person concerned neglects to make use of the medical or rehabilitation services placed at his disposal or fails to comply with rules prescribed for verifying the occurrence or continuance of the contingency or for the conduct of beneficiaries; (h) in the case of unemployment benefit, where the person concerned has failed to make use of the employment services placed at his disposal; (i) in the case of unemployment benefit, where the person concerned has lost his employment as a direct result of a stoppage of work due to a trade dispute, or has left it voluntarily without just cause; and (j) in the case of survivors' benefit, as long as the widow is living with a man as his wife.

C102 upholds the principle of inclusive and participatory management. Representatives of protected persons must participate in the administration whenever the State is not either directly administering social security or regulating the institutions in charge of social security. The State assumes the general responsibility for the proper administration of social security as well as the due provision of benefits. When the administration is not entrusted to an institution regulated by the public authorities or to a Government department responsible to a legislature, representatives of the persons protected shall participate in the management, or be associated therewith in a consultative capacity, under prescribed conditions. National laws or regulations may likewise decide as to the participation of representatives of employers and of the public authorities.

C102 constitutes a minimum standard and offers the possibility of initially ratifying at least three social security branches. One of the three should be either unemployment, old age, employment injury, invalidity or survivors. Ratification of other branches can be done at a further stage, according to the development of the national social security system. This flexibility device provides an incentive for the extension of social security coverage and the principle that the ratification of three branches is a successful starting point to increase social security coverage.

C102 sets minimum standards of protection for each of the 9 listed contingencies with regard to: the minimum percentage of the population to be protected in case of occurrence of one of the contingencies, a minimum level of benefits to be paid in case of occurrence of one of the contingencies, the conditions for and periods of entitlement to the prescribed benefits. C102 establishes the set of parameters and defines the value of each of these parameters that needs to be reached so as to give effect to its provisions irrespective of the type of scheme established.

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