Although it is not widely known in practice, according to the Social Insurance and General Healthcare Insurance Code No. 5510, insurance holders who start working for an employer are obliged to notify themselves the Social Security Institution, directly or via the internet or similar mediums, with an insured notification document, within one month at the latest, from the date they start to work.
In the event that the Social Security Institution determines that the insured is not notified by the relevant employer or that there is a difference between the notification of the employer regarding the same employee, the situation is notified to the insured by a registered letter, and if necessary, to the employer.
If the difference cannot be resolved as a result of the notifications made, action is taken according to the results of the inspection to be made at the workplace. These inspections will be held by the Social Security Inspectors/Auditors. If it is determined that the workplace employs the person informally, administrative fines will be imposed on the employer.
For the second half of the calendar year of 2022, an administrative fine of TRL 12,941 is imposed on the employer per employee for not submitting the insured employment statement within the legal time limit. If such a situation is detected for the second time within a year, an administrative fine of TRL 32,355 will be applied to the employer per employee, as a upper sanction.
In so far, the insured’s failure to notify himself/herself does not constitute evidence against the insured. In other words, non-reporting of the insured does not affect the employer’s obligation of notification and the social security rights of the insured are kept reserved.
Although, this is a mechanism existing in the Turkish social insurance code since 2008, in practice, very few employees are being notifying themselves to the Social Security Institution, as this might be known by the employer and they might loose their job.
