The social security in Switzerland (in German Sozialversicherungen) includes several public and private insurance plans to assist the welfare of the population.
Article 111 defines the so-called "three-pillar principle", which regulates the structure of retirement, survivors', and disability benefits.
Finally, in Article 117 sickness and accident insurance is regulated by constitutional law.
The old-age and survivors' insurance (Alters- und Hinterlassenenversicherung - AHV), together with the disability insurance (Invalidenversicherung - IV) and supplementary benefits, forms the first (state) pillar of the Swiss three-pillar system and serves to adequately safeguard the need for subsistence.
Social insurance is mostly financed by direct deductions from individual wages.