The Directorate of Social Security (Direction de la sécurité sociale - DSS) is the French body responsible for developing and implementing social security policy, its remit extending to health insurance, occupational injury and illness, pensions, family, continuing care and financing and governance issues.
The DSS operates under the joint authority of the ministries with responsibility for social security (Ministry for Labour, Employment and Health, Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts, the Civil Service and State Reform and the Ministry for Solidarity and Social Cohesion).
The DSS has oversight over all French social security institutions, including the funds of the general scheme (régime général), the funds of the basic scheme for (non-agricultural) self-employed people and the funds of the special schemes (regimes spéciaux). It also has a role in monitoring the complementary social security schemes and the French mutual sector, and serves as an interface with these organisations.
More generally its role is to ensure that the benefits and services provided through the social security system are aligned with the needs of the population, while at the same time seeking to secure the financial stability of the schemes.
