Urban Poverty and Anti-poverty Measures

I.Urban poverty situation during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period

2010  is the last year for the implementation of the "11th Five-Year Plan". During the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, China's national economic and social development withstood severe tests, responded effectively to the adverse effects of international financial crisis, the earthquake and other natural disasters, successful completed the main objectives and tasks of the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and made a major breakthrough in comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society. In 2010, with GDP surpassing Japan, China became the world's second largest economy. However, the situation of urban poverty was still grim in China.

　　China has an urban poor population of 23 million and a larger number of potential poor people. The urban minimum living security system mainly serves the urban poor and aims to solve their problems in life. Since 2003, the number of urban poor people covered by the urban minimum living security system has been 23 million or so. In 2010, this figure was 23.105 million. The number of the objects of the urban minimum living security system is almost the same as the figure estimated by the World Bank. Based on 2 times the World Bank's poverty line, in 2003, China had about 20.1 million urban poor residents, and the objects of the urban minimum living security system in the same year was 22.47 million. These two figures, however, both underestimated the scale of China's urban poor because there were about 153 million migrant workers in the cities of China, whose income level was generally low, and they were high-risk groups of urban poverty but not covered by the urban minimum living security system.

　　One of the main risks of urban poverty - unemployment remains a serious problem. Unemployment is one of the most important reasons for the poverty of urban residents. China's urban working-age population is increasing year by year. It is estimated that more than 10 million graduating students of schools at all levels entered the labor market each year during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period; Meanwhile, due to the employment transfer of a lot of rural labors and the intensification of the structural contradictions, plus the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the employment situation in China faced severe challenges.The Chinese government implemented a proactive employment policy and took various measures to expand employment. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, however, the registered urban unemployment rate in China remained at a low level of 4.0% - 4.3% and there was an increase of 610,000 in the total number of urban unemployed people compared to 2006. This was only the registered unemployed population and registered unemployment rate, and the real unemployment rate was much higher than 4%. According to "Social Blue Book 2009" of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in 2008, the real urban unemployment rate in China was as high as 9.4%, double the “registered unemployment rate”, and this figure would be higher if migrant workers were taken into account.

　　Figure 1: Registered urban unemployed residents and registered unemployment rate in the past five years

　　Unit: ten thousand persons, %

 



　　Source: 2010 Statistical Bulletin of Human Resources and Social Security Development

　　Prominent unemployment problem of young and highly educated groups: Among the registered unemployed in 2009, those aged 20-24 and 25-29 accounted for 21.9% and 14.8% of the total respectively and the younger age groups of 16-39 years old accounted for 67.1%. Among the registered unemployed aged 20-24, those with college, undergraduate and graduate degrees respectively accounted for 42.9%, 48.6% and 13.6%; In the 25-29 age group of registered unemployed, those with college, undergraduate and graduate degrees respectively accounted for 25.2%, 32.8% and 54.5%. The statistics of occupational supply and demand in some cities in 2010 showed that unemployed persons accounted for 55.1% of the job seekers and the new unemployed youth accounted for 26.7%, but this proportion was only 20.3% in 2006. Over the five years, there was an increase of five percentage points in the proportion. Among the new unemployed youth in 2010, 2.912 million were college graduates, 5% up over the previous year, accounting for 47.0% of the total.

　　The growing new generation of migrant workers is facing a variety of risks of poverty. As early as in the mid-1980s, a large number of rural labor forces started to go to work in the city and the scale of migrant workers kept expanding. As of the end of 2010, there were a total of 15,335 migrant workers and the “new generation of farmers” born in the 1980s gradually became the main body of migrant workers. According to the survey, the total number of the new generation of migrant workers in 2010 reached 84.87 million, accounting for 58.4% of the total migrant workers, but they faced many risks of poverty: (1) Strong intensity of work, low income levels, 26 working-days per month and nine working-hours per day. In 2009, their average monthly income was 1,328 Yuan, only equivalent to 49.4% of national average, and 22% of them had only monthly income of less than 1,000 Yuan. (2) Low contract signing rate and lack of effective protection measures for some jobs. 54.4% of the new generation of migrant workers did not sign labor contracts with the units or employers, so it was difficult for them to effectively protect their legitimate rights and interests; 35% of the employments requiring protective measures adopted complete protective measures, 53% took some protective measures and 12% never took any protection measures; (3) Low social security insurance participation rate. The proportion of the units or employers that bought pension insurance, injury insurance, medical insurance and unemployment insurance for the new generation of migrant workers was respectively 7.6%, 21.8%, 12.9% and 4.1%.

　　The new generation of migrant workers almost does not understand agricultural production and lack basic knowledge and skills of agricultural production. Even if the employment situation has deteriorated, few of these migrant workers will return home to engage in farming. Nearly half of the new migrant workers want to settle down in the city, but there are many obstacles for them to integrate into the urban life. The main difficulties and obstacles are "low income level (67.2%), housing problems (63.2%), imperfect social security (24%), unable to care the elderly "(20.1%), children's education problems (16%) and no feeling of belonging and difficulty in integrate into urban life" (13.5%). It shows that income and housing problems are the main stumbling blocks for the urbanization of the new generation of migrant workers. Meanwhile, it is difficult for migrant workers to enjoy equitable public services, which also hindered the urbanization of the new generation of migrant workers.

II.Urban anti-poverty policies and measures in 2010

　　To address urban poverty, in 2010, the Chinese government further improved the social assistance system and social insurance system, actively promoted the implementation of employment-oriented anti-poverty strategies and established the public service system of migrant workers. These poverty risk prevention mechanisms and protection mechanisms for the poor not only effectively reduced the risks of poverty, but also guaranteed poor people's basic livelihoods.

（I）Improve the social insurance system and establish the urban poverty risk prevention mechanism

　　As a modern social risk prevention and control mechanism, social insurance can effectively prevent the risks of poverty because of illness, old age, disability and unemployment. In the 1990s, along with the establishment of the market economic system, the social pension insurance for urban workers, basic medical insurance, unemployment insurance, industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance took shape to replace the iron rice bowl-style security system relying on units. After that, the systems have been constantly improved and played an important role in helping urban residents prevent and alleviate poverty risk.

1. Overview of basic social insurance

　　During the “11th Five-Year Plan” period from 2006 to 2010, the coverage of the social insurance systems continued to expand and the number of participants and amount of funds continued to grow, which effectively prevented the risks of poverty due to old age, illness, industrial injury and unemployment.

　　At the end of 2010, 257.07 million people had participated in the urban basic old-age insurance system nationwide, 21.57 million more than that of the previous year, 1.36 times that of 2006. 432.63 million people had participated in the urban basic medical insurance system, 31.16 million more, 2.75 times that of 2006, including 237.35 million who participated in basic medical insurance for urban workers and 195.28 million involved in basic medical insurance for urban residents. The basic medical insurance for urban residents had covered most of the urban residents. As of the end of 2010, 133.76 million people had participated in the unemployment insurance system and 2.09 million people had received unemployment insurance benefits, respectively 1.20 times and 64% of that in 2006. By the end of 2010, 161.61 million people had participated in the work-related injury insurance system and 1.47 million people had received the work-related injury insurance treatment, respectively 1.57 and 1.89 times that of 2006. As of the end of 2010, 123.36 million people had participated in the maternity insurance system and 2.11 million people received the insurance benefits, respectively 1.91 and 1.95 times that of 2006.

　　Table 1: Basic situation of the urban social insurance in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period

　　Unit: ten thousand persons

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Pension insurance participants	18766	20137	21891	23550	25707
Of which: retirees	4635	4954	5304	5807	6305
Unemployment insurance participants	11187	11645	12400	12715	13376
Unemployment benefit recipients	327	286	261	235	209
Urban basic medical insurance participants	15732	22311	31822	40147	43263
Basic medical insurance for urban workers	11580	13420	14988	16411	23735
Of which: retirees	4152	4600	5008	5527	5944
Basic medical insurance for urban residents		4291	11826	18210	19528
Work-related injury insurance participants	10269	12173	13787	14896	16161
Insurance benefit recipients	78	96	118	130	147
Maternity insurance participants	6459	7775	9254	10876	12336
Insurance benefit recipients	108	113	140	174	211

 

　　Source: "China Labor Statistical Yearbook 2011"

　　In 2010, the total revenue of five urban social insurance funds amounted to 1.8823 trillion Yuan, 270.7 billion Yuan more than that of the previous year, up 16.8%, 2.18 times that in 2006; the total fund expenditure was 1.4819 trillion Yuan, 251.6 billion Yuan more than the previous year, up 20.5%, 2.29 times that in 2006; the fund balance was 225 billion Yuan, up 18.8% over the previous year, 2.73 times that in 2006. The revenue of basic pension insurance, unemployment insurance, basic medical insurance, industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance funds was respectively 2.13 times, 1.62 times, 2.47 times, 2.344 times and 2.58 times that in 2006; and the expenditure was respectively 2.16 times, 2.14 times, 2.77 times, 2.78 times and 2.89 times that in 2006. It shows that the fund's income and expenditure both had a substantial increase. The balance of the five kinds of funds was respectively 2.80 times, 2.41 times, 2.88 times, 0.42 times and 2.69 times that in 2006. Except the work injury insurance, it can be seen, the balance of the funds all had a substantial increase.

　　Table 2:  Revenue, expenditure and balance of the urban social insurance funds during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period

　　Unit: 100 million Yuan

		Total	Basic pension insurance	Unemployment insurance	Basic medical insurance	Industrial injury insurance	Maternity insurance
	Year
Revenue	2006	8643	6310	402	1747	122	62
	2007	10812	7834	472	2257	166	84
	2008	13696	9740	585	3040	217	114
	2009	16116	11491	580	3672	240	132
	2010	18823	13420	650	4309	285	160
	2010/2006	2. 18	2. 13	1. 62	2. 47	2. 34	2. 58
Expenditure	2006	6477	4897	198	1277	69	38
	2007	7888	5965	218	1562	88	56
	2008	9925	7390	254	2084	127	72
	2009	12303	8894	367	2797	156	88
	2010	14819	10555	423	3538	192	110
	2010/2006	2. 29	2. 16	2. 14	2. 77	2. 78	2. 89
Balance	2006	8256	5489	725	1752	193	97
	2007	11237	7391	979	2477	263	127
	2008	15176	9931	1310	3432	335	168
	2009	18942	12526	1524	4276	404	212
	2010	22505	15365	1750	5047	82	261
	2010/2006	2. 73	2. 80	2. 41	2. 88	0. 42	2. 69

 

　　Source: “China Labor Statistical Yearbook 2011”

2. New progress made in social insurance policies and regulations in 2010

　　In 2010, the achievements made in the social insurance policies and regulations included the promulgation of the "Notice on the Implementation of the Basic Medical Insurance Program for Urban Residents in 2010" (Issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Ministry [2010] No. 39), revisal of the "Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance" and in particular, the promulgation and implementation of the "Social Insurance Law", marking China's social insurance system has embarked on a legal track.

　　The pilot projects of basic medical insurance for urban residents were launched in some cities in 2007 and comprehensively implemented nationwide in 2009, mainly covering primary and secondary school students (including vocational high schools, secondary vocational schools and technical schools), children and other non-employed urban residents, etc. In some places, migrant workers and flexible employees were also covered. These people do not have stable source of income and are not covered by the basic medical insurance for urban workers, and are the high-risk groups of falling into poverty due to illness. The fund-raising for urban residents' basic medical insurance is family-based and the government issues appropriate subsidies. The employing units with certain conditions can also provide subsidies for the insurance participation of the staffs' family members.

　　In 2010, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security put forward that, on the basis of the full establishment of the medical insurance system for urban residents, local government should consolidate and expand the coverage of insurance, increase the insurance participation rate and enhance the participation rate of urban residents’ medical insurance to 80%. The regions with certain conditions should enhance the rate to 90% and include all college students into the system. In 2010, the subsidy standard for urban residents’ medical insurance of financial departments at all levels was enhanced to at least 120 Yuan per person per year. The central government provided subsidies for the central and western regions according to the standard of 60 Yuan per person and enhanced the subsidy standard for eastern regions as well. At the same time, the government improved the level of treatment and reduced the burden of medical expenses for serious illness of critically ill patients. In 2010, the maximum payment of resident medical insurance fund was expected to be enhanced to more than six times the disposable income; the proportion of reimbursement for medical expenses of insured people according to relevant policy should be improved to 60% and even to 70% in Grade II (and above) medical institutions. In 2010, the system of out-patient co-ordination should be established in 60% of the regions covered by the coordination.

　　The promulgation and implementation of the "Social Insurance Law" was the most important achievement of China's social insurance system building in 2010. In fact, as early as in 1993, the former Ministry of Labor began to study the drafting of the "Social Insurance Law (Draft)". Due to the complex relations of adjustment, however, although it was included in the plan of the National People's Congress and the State Council for the legislative work for several times, it had never been promulgated and was not approved by the NPC Standing Committee until October 2010. It is the first social insurance law since the founding of new China and is a legal guarantee for the political commitment of achieving "social security for everyone". It establishes the basic institutional framework of social insurance in China: (1) Established the main social insurance projects in China, including five basic social insurance programs, namely the basic pension insurance, basic medical insurance, industrial injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance; (2) Established the policy objective of full coverage of social insurance and expanded the coverage of pension and medical insurance to include all kinds of workers and all residents in urban and rural areas and extended the coverage of industrial injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance to include all employed people; (3) Clarified the government responsibilities in social insurance. The government’s funding responsibilities are mainly reflected in three aspects: Before participating in the basic pension insurance, the basic insurance fee within the insured years of the staffs of state-owned enterprises and institutions should be paid by government; the government shall provide subsidies for the urban and rural residents who participated in the new rural cooperative medical system and the new rural pension insurance as well as medical insurance for urban residents; when the social insurance fund cannot afford the payment, the government shall provide subsidies. (4) Clarified the requirements for the establishment of social insurance that can be transferred and converged to adapt to the current trend of mobility of a large number of people in China, covering old-age insurance, medical insurance and unemployment insurance. The contribution years can be added up. Meanwhile, the medical billing system for off-site medical treatment was established

　　In order to better protect workers' rights and prevent the risk of poverty caused by work-related injuries, at the end of 2010, the State Council issued the newly revised "Work-related Injury Insurance Regulations". The main highlights include: (1) Expanded the scope of application of the industrial injury insurance to cover various types of institutions, social organizations, private non-enterprise units, foundations, law firms and accounting firms to address the worries of these units and their working staffs about work-related injury; (2) Enlarged the sphere of the ascertainment of work-related injury occurring while going to or returning from work. Injury caused by motor vehicle accident and non-motor vehicle accident and the injury caused by urban track traffic with prime responsibility not taken by oneself, passenger ferry and train accidents were brought into the sphere of the ascertainment of work-related injury, benefiting more workers; (3) Reduced procedures and shortened the period of work-related injury ascertainment; set up summary procedure of work-related injury ascertainment; shortened time for ascertainment of the work-related injury with clear fact and unambiguous rights and obligations from 60 days to 15 days; (4) Substantially increased the treatment standard of work-related injury; the average standard of China of the lump sum work-related death allowance was enhanced from former averagely monthly salary of staffs of the previous year within 48-60 months to 20 times of disposable income of urban residents in China of the previous year. (5) Increase the expenditure of the fund, included the injury prevention advocacy, training and other expenses in the fund and clarified that the lump sum work-related injury medical allowance, meal allowance and the necessary travel and boarding expenses paid for seeking medical treatment outside the pooling region will be paid by work-related injury fund; (6) Increase enforcement efforts, added the provision that the medical cost for work-related injury treatment should be continuously paid during the period of administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation so that the injured workers can be cured timely and institutional guarantee can be provided to prevent the malicious lawsuit of some employer; and added the provision on administrative penalties for the employing units not participating in industrial injury insurance and refused to assist in work-related injury identification, investigation and verification.

（II）Improve the social assistance system to build a social safety net for the urban poor

　　If social insurance is a poverty risk prevention mechanism mainly for the general public, then social assistance is the last "social safety net" directly for the poor and low-income population at the edge of poverty. It is related to the fairness of social bottom line and plays an indispensable role in maintaining the basic livelihood of the poor and urban social stability.

1. Urban minimum living security system

　　Development overview: Objects and subsistence allowance

　　China launched the pilot project for the urban minimum living security system in some cities in 1996. In 1997, the State Council issued the "Notice on the Establishment of Urban Minimum Living Security System across the Country", which later became the most basic social relief system in urban China, covered a growing number of people and gradually replaced former assistance system for urban poor resident. The reform of state-owned enterprises made a large number of workers lose jobs and fall into poverty, threatening the social stability and harmony. To cope with the reform of state-owned enterprises, the central and local governments increased investment of urban subsistence allowance and put forward the policy objective of “providing subsistence allowance for all those covered by the urban minimum living security system”. From 2000 to 2002, the urban minimum living security system covered a growing of urban poor residents and the objects of the system increased from 4.026 million in 2000 to 20.647 million in 2002, 4.13 times the former figure within three years. Since then, the number of objects of this system remains at around 23 million. In 2010, the system covered 23.105 million urban poor residents, 350,000 less than that in 2009.

　　At the same time, the poverty line and the average allowance have been gradually raised with the change of price index. In 2004, the urban poverty line in China was 152.0 Yuan per month per capita and the average allowance was 65 Yuan per month; In 2010, the average urban poverty line was 251.2 Yuan, 10.3% up over the previous year, and the monthly subsistence allowance was 189.0 Yuan, 9.9% up. In the seven years, the poverty line and average subsistence allowance respectively increased by 65.3% and 190.8%. The per capita disposable income of urban residents was 9,422 Yuan in 2004 and 19,109 Yuan in 2010, up 102.8%. It shows that although the growth rate of the poverty line was higher than that of the income of urban residents, the growth rate of average allowance was higher than that of urban per capita disposable income. This indicates that the subsistence allowance strongly supports the urban poor.

　　Table 3: General situation of the urban minimum living security system, 1997-2010

	Objects	Subsistence allowance (Yuan / month / person)	Average expenditure of urban subsistence allowance (Yuan / month / person)
1997	87. 9	—	—
1998	184. 1	—	—
1999	256. 9	149. 0	—
2000	402. 6	157. 0	—
2001	1170. 7	147. 0	—
2002	2064. 7	148. 0	—
2003	2246. 8	149. 0	—
2004	2205. 0	152. 0	65
2005	2234. 2	156. 0	72. 3
2006	2240. 1	169. 6	83. 6
2007	2272. 1	182. 4	102. 7
2008	2334. 8	205. 3	143. 7
2009	2345. 6	227. 8	172
2010	2310. 5	251. 2	189

　　Source: Previous "China Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook"

　　According to the standard of urban subsistence allowance (poverty line) for the third quarter of 2010, as the eastern cities’ income and consumption level was higher and financial strength was stronger than the national average, their standards of subsistence allowance were relatively higher. In Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, for example, the subsistence allowance was all above 300 Yuan, and the subsistence allowance in Shanghai was the highest, reaching 450 Yuan. Guangdong is an economically strong province, but its standard of subsistence allowance was only 252 Yuan. Except Tibet, where the standard of subsistence allowance exceeded 300 Yuan, the standards of subsistence allowance of all other western regions were generally low. Guizhou Province had the lowest standard of subsistence allowance, only 178.5 Yuan. The standard of subsistence allowance in Shanghai was 2.53 times that of Guizhou Province.

　　Table 4: Average standard of subsistence allowances in various provinces of China in September 2010

Area	Average standard of subsistence allowances	Number of counties / districts	Area	Average standard of subsistence allowances	Number of counties / districts
Beijing	428. 9	18	Hubei	240. 7	104
Tianjin	447. 5	16	Hunan	204. 6	132
Hebei	249. 9	191	Guangdong	252. 1	123
Shanxi	216. 1	121	Guangxi	226. 1	110
Inner Mongolia	286. 8	103	Hainan	247. 4	21
Liaoning	281. 0	111	Chongqing	232. 4	41
Jilin	214. 0	69	Sichuan	206. 7	186
Heilongjiang	234. 9	141	Guizhou	178. 5	90
Shanghai	450. 0	18	Yunnan	199. 6	129
Jiangsu	336. 2	120	Tibet	305. 8	73
Zhejiang	354. 8	92	Shaanxi	199. 6	108
Anhui	247. 5	115	Gansu	185. 0	87
Fujian	215. 6	87	Qinghai	217. 4	46
Jiangxi	237. 1	110	Ningxia	211. 5	22
Shandong	272. 3	166	Xinjiang	181. 8	117
Henan	196. 0	178

　　Source: Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

　　Basic characteristics of the objects of the urban minimum living security system

　　Women account for a smaller proportion of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. In 2010, women accounted for 40.49% of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. In various provinces, women also accounted for a smaller proportion of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. In Fujian Province, women only accounted for 28.85% of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. International experience shows that usually the female poverty rate is higher. It still needs further investigation whether this indicates that women have no right to speak in the process of identifying objects of the urban minimum living security system and whether there is gender discrimination in this process. From the perspective of age composition, the elderly accounted for about 13% of the objects of the urban minimum living security system, but the situation was quite different in various regions. In Shanghai, for example, the elderly only accounted for 1.21% of the objects of the urban minimum living security system, but this proportion was respectively 25.31% and 26.51% in Zhejiang and Guangxi. In the whole country, adults accounted for about 60% of the objects of the urban minimum living security system and juveniles accounted for 25%. The situation was also different in various regions.

　　Table 5：Gender and age composition of the objects of the urban minimum living security system, 2007-2010

Year/ area	Number of objects (ten thousand)	Gender		Age group
		Female (ten thousand)	Proportion of female (%)	The elderly (ten thousand)	Proportion of the elderly（%）	Adults (ten thousand)	Proportion of adults(%)	Juveniles (ten thousand)	Proportion of Juveniles (%)
2007	2272. 10	——	——	298. 40	13. 13	1429. 20	62. 90	544. 60	23. 97
2008	2334. 80	——	——	316. 70	13. 56	1430. 40	61. 26	587. 70	25. 17
2009	2345. 60	——	——	333. 50	14. 22	1432. 30	61. 06	579. 80	24. 72
2010	2305. 01	933. 30	40. 49	328. 49	14. 25	1391. 43	60. 37	585. 09	25. 38
Beijing	14. 64	6. 39	43. 65	1. 41	9. 63	9. 15	62. 49	4. 08	27. 87
Tianjin	18. 28	8. 79	48. 10	2. 01	10. 98	11. 10	60. 73	5. 17	28. 29
Hebei	88. 16	35. 57	40. 34	12. 41	14. 07	51. 39	58. 30	24. 36	27. 63
Shanxi	93. 26	39. 42	42. 27	10. 37	11. 12	55. 35	59. 35	27. 54	29. 52
Inner Mongolia	85. 03	41. 27	48. 54	14. 70	17. 29	51. 08	60. 08	19. 25	22. 63
Liaoning	129. 17	53. 26	41. 24	15. 71	12. 16	77. 01	59. 62	36. 44	28. 21
Jilin	117. 88	42. 48	36. 04	16. 17	13. 72	76. 68	65. 05	25. 02	21. 23
Heilongjiang	148. 56	60. 02	40. 40	18. 15	12. 22	96. 94	65. 25	33. 47	22. 53
Shanghai	36. 16	14. 00	38. 71	0. 44	1. 21	26. 03	72. 00	9. 69	26. 79
Jiangsu	45. 36	17. 62	38. 85	7. 63	16. 82	28. 46	62. 74	9. 27	20. 44
Zhejiang	9. 16	3. 47	37. 89	2. 32	25. 31	4. 63	50. 55	2. 21	24. 15
Anhui	90. 83	37. 34	41. 11	20. 21	22. 25	46. 63	51. 34	23. 99	26. 41
Fujian	18. 49	5. 33	28. 85	2. 83	15. 30	11. 06	59. 79	4. 60	24. 90
Jiangxi	98. 21	41. 44	42. 19	18. 56	18. 90	55. 12	56. 13	24. 52	24. 97
Shandong	62. 14	23. 71	38. 16	8. 43	13. 56	43. 59	70. 15	10. 12	16. 29
Henan	148. 57	55. 28	37. 21	19. 51	13. 13	93. 38	62. 85	35. 68	24. 01
Hubei	135. 01	54. 88	40. 65	21. 51	15. 93	89. 82	66. 53	23. 68	17. 54
Hunan	148. 70	58. 76	39. 52	23. 41	15. 75	87. 86	59. 09	37. 42	25. 17
Guangdong	40. 56	16. 55	40. 80	6. 89	16. 99	22. 97	56. 63	10. 70	26. 38
Guangxi	62. 44	23. 90	38. 27	16. 55	26. 51	33. 46	53. 60	12. 42	19. 90
Hainan	16. 89	7. 82	46. 31	2. 39	14. 18	10. 64	63. 00	3. 85	22. 82
Chongqing	68. 52	32. 30	47. 14	6. 89	10. 06	45. 02	65. 71	16. 60	24. 23
Sichuan	188. 20	78. 15	41. 52	23. 02	12. 23	107. 34	57. 04	57. 84	30. 73
Guizhou	54. 91	23. 07	42. 02	7. 80	14. 21	31. 93	58. 16	15. 17	27. 63
Yunnan	90. 97	32. 77	36. 02	12. 56	13. 81	53. 31	58. 60	25. 10	27. 59
Tibet	4. 10	1. 86	45. 43	0. 49	12. 07	2. 91	71. 08	0. 69	16. 85
Shaanxi	86. 66	33. 39	38. 53	7. 69	8. 87	56. 62	65. 33	22. 36	25. 80
Gansu	85. 35	31. 36	36. 74	9. 34	10. 94	51. 40	60. 23	24. 61	28. 83
Qinghai	22. 17	10. 81	48. 77	1. 80	8. 13	12. 50	56. 37	7. 87	35. 50
Ningxia	20. 91	7. 94	37. 95	4. 32	20. 65	11. 65	55. 73	4. 94	23. 63
Xinjiang	75. 76	34. 35	45. 34	12. 96	17. 10	36. 37	48. 01	26. 43	34. 88

 

　　Note: Data for 2010 are second-quarter data of various provinces and the country.

　　Source: Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

　　Among all urban residents receiving subsistence allowances, the groups with high risk of poverty, including the disabled, those who have no ability to work, who have neither sources of income nor family support, or whose family supporters do not have the ability to support them ("three-no people"), the students at school and other "vulnerable groups" account for a higher proportion. In 2010, the disabled accounted for 7.60% of the urban residents receiving subsistence allowances, but the situation was different in various regions. This proportion was 18.59% in Zhejiang and less than 4% in Qinghai Province. The unemployed are important source of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. In 2010, among the 23.051 million farmers covered by the urban minimum living security system, 8.9531 million were unemployed people, accounting for 38.84% of the total, but the proportion of the unemployed in the objects declined from 43.64% in 2007 to 38.84% in 2010. In 2010, this proportion was different in various regions. In Shanghai, the unemployed accounted for 55.07% of the urban residents receiving subsistence allowances, but this proportion was only 27.63% in Guangxi. The "three-no people" and students at school respectively accounted for about 4% and 15% of the total objects of the urban minimum living security system in the country.

　　Table 6: Proportions of the disabled, "three-no people", unemployed people and students in the objects of the urban minimum living security system

Area	Total objects (ten thousand)	The disabled (ten thousand)	Proportion of the disabled (%)	"three-no people" (ten thousand)	Proportion of "three-no people"(%)	The unemployed 　　(ten thousand)	Proportion of the unemployed (%)	Students (ten thousand)	Proportion of students (%）
2007	2272. 10	161. 00	7. 09	125. 80	5. 54	991. 50	43. 64	321. 60	14. 15
2008	2334. 80	169. 10	7. 24	106. 90	4. 58	966. 50	41. 40	358. 10	15. 34
2009	2345. 60	181. 00	7. 72	94. 10	4. 01	921. 10	39. 27	369. 10	15. 74
2010	2305. 01	175. 12	7. 60	91. 22	3. 96	895. 31	38. 84	350. 15	15. 19
Beijing	14. 64	2. 27	15. 49	0. 28	1. 89	6. 33	43. 28	2. 92	19. 94
Tianjin	18. 28	2. 15	11. 77	0. 13	0. 72	8. 52	46. 64	3. 51	19. 23
Hebei	88. 16	4. 77	5. 41	3. 69	4. 19	29. 62	33. 60	14. 00	15. 88
Shanxi	93. 26	6. 29	6. 74	2. 10	2. 25	27. 07	29. 02	18. 62	19. 97
Inner Mongolia	85. 03	7. 46	8. 77	2. 87	3. 37	28. 24	33. 21	15. 00	17. 64
Liaoning	129. 17	13. 84	10. 71	2. 58	1. 99	46. 01	35. 62	23. 90	18. 50
Jilin	117. 88	8. 51	7. 22	8. 83	7. 49	58. 96	50. 02	11. 15	9. 46
Heilongjiang	148. 56	16. 60	11. 18	3. 54	2. 38	67. 73	45. 59	21. 34	14. 36
Shanghai	36. 16	2. 75	7. 60	0. 08	0. 21	19. 91	55. 07	9. 37	25. 91
Jiangsu	45. 36	5. 04	11. 11	1. 79	3. 94	19. 22	42. 36	5. 90	13. 00
Zhejiang	9. 16	1. 70	18. 59	0. 58	6. 37	3. 01	32. 84	1. 26	13. 73
Anhui	90. 83	6. 45	7. 10	3. 88	4. 27	29. 12	32. 06	12. 87	14. 16
Fujian	18. 49	1. 83	9. 89	0. 88	4. 76	7. 15	38. 65	1. 88	10. 18
Jiangxi	98. 21	16. 21	16. 51	6. 30	6. 41	30. 85	31. 41	13. 84	14. 09
Shandong	62. 14	3. 58	5. 76	2. 02	3. 25	30. 47	49. 04	6. 40	10. 30
Henan	148. 57	7. 57	5. 10	8. 00	5. 38	61. 70	41. 53	20. 13	13. 55
Hubei	135. 01	9. 09	6. 73	6. 78	5. 02	57. 43	42. 54	12. 88	9. 54
Hunan	148. 70	9. 12	6. 14	6. 11	4. 11	65. 13	43. 80	19. 41	13. 05
Guangdong	40. 56	3. 30	8. 14	2. 09	5. 16	13. 84	34. 13	7. 47	18. 41
Guangxi	62. 44	4. 91	7. 86	6. 14	9. 84	17. 25	27. 63	7. 71	12. 34
Hainan	16. 89	1. 34	7. 94	0. 58	3. 41	6. 42	38. 01	2. 77	16. 40
Chongqing	68. 52	4. 71	6. 87	1. 22	1. 78	25. 99	37. 93	13. 35	19. 48
Sichuan	188. 20	10. 64	5. 65	6. 76	3. 59	65. 25	34. 67	27. 13	14. 41
Guizhou	54. 91	3. 11	5. 66	1. 75	3. 18	21. 48	39. 12	10. 08	18. 36
Yunnan	90. 97	5. 18	5. 70	3. 19	3. 50	35. 54	39. 07	13. 38	14. 71
Tibet	4. 10	0. 18	4. 46	0. 86	20. 93	1. 16	28. 21	0. 44	10. 82
Shaanxi	86. 66	3. 55	4. 10	1. 80	2. 08	37. 62	43. 41	13. 93	16. 08
Gansu	85. 35	4. 67	5. 47	1. 74	2. 04	34. 58	40. 52	16. 42	19. 23
Qinghai	22. 17	0. 83	3. 74	0. 41	1. 85	8. 48	38. 23	5. 06	22. 81
Ningxia	20. 91	1. 49	7. 12	1. 12	5. 38	7. 55	36. 11	3. 17	15. 13
Xinjiang	75. 76	5. 98	7. 89	3. 16	4. 17	23. 67	31. 24	14. 88	19. 64

　　Note: Data for 2010 are second-quarter data of various provinces and the country.

　　Source: Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

　　The following table analyzes the adult composition of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. Adults here include in-service staffs, flexible employees and the registered and unregistered unemployed, not including the elderly and adult students. In 2010, there were a total of 13.9143 million adults objects of the urban minimum living security system, including 716,200 in-service staffs, 4.2449 million flexible employees and 8.9531 million unemployed people (including registered and unregistered ones), respectively accounting for 5.15%, 30.51% and 64.34% of the total. This indicates that the unemployed are the main source of urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances. It should be noted that the flexible employees account for a growing proportion of the total objects – the proportion rose from 24.06% in 2007 to 30.51% in 2010, 6 percentage points up in four years. Meanwhile, the proportions of in-service staffs and unemployed people in the total objects both declined to some extent, respectively dropping from 6.57% and 69.37% in 2007 to 5.15% and 64.34% in 2010. This means that flexible employees have growing risks of poverty due to instable income and jobs. To the adults, it indicates, it is an effective way to escape the poverty trap to object stable jobs.

　　Table 7：Adult composition of the objects of the urban minimum living security system

Year/ Area		In-service staffs		Flexible employees		The unemployed
	Adult objects (ten thousand)	No. (ten thousand)	Proportion (%)	No. (ten thousand)	Proportion (%)	No. (ten thousand)	Proportion (%)
2007	1429. 20	93. 90	6. 57	343. 80	24. 06	991. 50	69. 37
2008	1430. 40	82. 20	5. 75	381. 70	26. 68	966. 50	67. 57
2009	1432. 30	79. 00	5. 52	432. 20	30. 18	921. 10	64. 31
2010	1391. 43	71. 62	5. 15	424. 49	30. 51	895. 31	64. 34
Beijing	9. 15	1. 28	13. 95	1. 54	16. 79	6. 33	69. 25
Tianjin	11. 10	0. 67	6. 01	1. 91	17. 19	8. 52	76. 80
Hebei	51. 39	2. 62	5. 10	19. 15	37. 26	29. 62	57. 64
Shanxi	55. 35	4. 80	8. 67	23. 49	42. 44	27. 07	48. 90
Inner Mongolia	51. 08	1. 24	2. 43	21. 60	42. 28	28. 24	55. 28
Liaoning	77. 01	3. 46	4. 49	27. 54	35. 76	46. 01	59. 74
Jilin	76. 68	6. 08	7. 92	11. 64	15. 18	58. 96	76. 90
Heilongjiang	96. 94	2. 86	2. 95	26. 35	27. 18	67. 73	69. 87
Shanghai	26. 03	5. 61	21. 54	0. 51	1. 98	19. 91	76. 49
Jiangsu	28. 46	1. 47	5. 16	7. 77	27. 31	19. 22	67. 53
Zhejiang	4. 63	0. 34	7. 34	1. 28	27. 70	3. 01	64. 96
Anhui	46. 63	2. 16	4. 62	15. 35	32. 92	29. 12	62. 45
Fujian	11. 06	0. 57	5. 15	3. 34	30. 22	7. 15	64. 63
Jiangxi	55. 12	1. 70	3. 08	22. 58	40. 96	30. 85	55. 96
Shandong	43. 59	4. 21	9. 65	8. 91	20. 44	30. 47	69. 91
Henan	93. 38	4. 13	4. 42	27. 55	29. 50	61. 70	66. 08
Hubei	89. 82	5. 28	5. 88	27. 12	30. 19	57. 43	63. 93
Hunan	87. 86	2. 51	2. 86	20. 22	23. 02	65. 13	74. 13
Guangdong	22. 97	1. 29	5. 62	7. 84	34. 12	13. 84	60. 26
Guangxi	33. 46	2. 11	6. 31	14. 10	42. 13	17. 25	51. 56
Hainan	10. 64	0. 45	4. 22	3. 77	35. 44	6. 42	60. 34
Chongqing	45. 02	0. 26	0. 58	18. 77	41. 70	25. 99	57. 73
Sichuan	107. 34	2. 62	2. 44	39. 46	36. 76	65. 25	60. 79
Guizhou	31. 93	1. 03	3. 23	9. 42	29. 50	21. 48	67. 27
Yunnan	53. 31	3. 50	6. 56	14. 27	26. 76	35. 54	66. 68
Tibet	2. 91	0. 47	16. 16	1. 29	44. 15	1. 16	39. 69
Shaanxi	56. 62	2. 07	3. 66	16. 93	29. 91	37. 62	66. 44
Gansu	51. 40	3. 27	6. 37	13. 55	26. 36	34. 58	67. 27
Qinghai	12. 50	0. 63	5. 04	3. 39	27. 14	8. 48	67. 82
Ningxia	11. 65	0. 42	3. 59	3. 68	31. 61	7. 55	64. 79
Xinjiang	36. 37	2. 54	6. 98	10. 17	27. 95	23. 67	65. 07

 

　　Note: Data for 2010 are second-quarter data of various provinces and the country.

　　Source: Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

　　Construction progress of the urban minimum living security system

　　While making the insurance system cover all those meeting the conditions and enhancing the standard of relief, the Ministry of Civil Affairs actively promoted the standardized building of grass-roots minimum living security system and required local governments to further improve the urban and rural minimum living security system and other social assistance systems through institutional construction, standardizing management and operation links and strengthening supervision and inspection.

　　Standardization of subsistence allowances As there is no necessary demonstration or scientific calculations for the formulation of the poverty line, it can hardly reflect the basic needs of life of local residents to simply develop and adjust the subsistence allowance standards based on the poverty line or national average level. In order to further regulate the development and adjustment of the subsistence allowance standards for urban and rural residents (hereinafter the urban and rural subsistence allowance), in May 2011, four ministries including the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Further Regulating the Formulation and Adjustment of the Minimum Standard for Urban and Rural Subsistence Allowances” and put forward three basic methods to develop and adjust the subsistence allowance standards, namely the basic living expenses method, Engel Coefficient or consumption expenditure ratio method. (1) The basic living expenses method: Determine the minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances according to local residents’ basic living expenses, including the necessary spending on food and non-food necessities of life. It can be shown by the following formula: The minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances = necessary spending on food + expenditure of non-food necessities of life. In the formula, necessary spending on food is, through market survey, calculated based on local necessary food consumption list, and the expenditure on non-food necessities is calculated based on necessary clothing, water, electricity, fire coal (gas), public transport, daily necessities, etc. (2) Engel Coefficient method: The minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances are determined based on the necessary food spending and the Engel Coefficient of the lowest-income family of the previous year. It can be shown in the following formula: The minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances = necessary food spending / Engel Coefficient of the lowest-income family of the previous year. (3) Consumption expenditure ratio method: The regions that has calculated the minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances according to the above two methods can compared this figure with the per capita consumption expenditure of local urban and rural residents of the previous year to get the proportion of the minimum standard for subsistence allowances in the annual per capita consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents. In the calculation of the next period of time, it can directly use multiply this proportion by the per capita consumption expenditure of local urban and rural residents of the previous year. It can be shown in such a formula: The minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances = per capita consumption expenditure of local urban and rural residents of the previous year × the proportion of the minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances in the annual per capita consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents of the previous year.

　　Identification of objects of the minimum living security system The identification of objects of the minimum living security system - the mechanism for urban minimum living security system to target at the poor is a core link of the urban minimum living security system. Only after an effective targeting mechanism is set up can we correctly identify the targets of the minimum living security system, target at urban poor residents, achieve the policy objective of “covering all those meeting the conditions” and thus ensure the effective guarantee of the basic living of urban poor. In view of the problems in the process of identification of objects of the urban minimum living security system, in 2010, the Ministry of Civil Affairs promulgated the “Notice of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Strengthening the Work of Identifying Urban Residents Entitled to Basic Living Allowances” to regulate some procedures and address relevant problems in the identification of objects of the system.

　　The "Notice" determines the basic conditions for urban residents to be entitled to basic living allowances. (1) Clarified the standards of the conditions for household registration identification and only those urban residents non-agricultural household can receive the subsistence allowances. Currently, however, the urban mobility, urban internal flow and the household registration reform in some places make household identification difficult. To this end, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the provisions that the regions without the division of agricultural and non-agricultural household can allow those meeting the following conditions to apply for urban basic living allowances: Their households are in urban administration area and they live there for a certain period of time; they have not contracted any land or participated in allocation of rural collective economic benefits. Those urban families whose family members’ households are not in the same place should first move the households together and then apply for the basic living allowances. If they cannot do that for some special reasons, the head of household should apply for the basic living allowances in the places where his household is and other family members should provide the income certificate respectively. The family members not in local area should apply for the basic living allowances in the places where they are registered. Under some special conditions, they can also apply for the subsistence allowances in the places where they live together with the head of the household. (2) Clarified the standards of the category and conditions of family properties. Family properties include the securities, deposits, real estate and vehicles and other assets owned by the family members living together. The identification of family properties should be an importance basis for identifying the objects of the urban minimum living security system. (3) Clarified the standards for the categories and calculation methods of home income. Home income refers to all the disposable income of the family members living together within the prescribed period, including the wages deducted personal income tax and personal contribution of social security expenditures, operating net income, property income and transfer income. Whether the per capita monthly income of the family is below the local minimum standard is the basic condition for the family to enjoy the subsistence allowance. (4) Clarified the category and amount of family income that can be avoided to be calculated. The pensions and subsidies provided by the state for entitled groups are not taken into account in the calculation of family income. Other family incomes not calculated include the one-child fees, basic living allowance for orphans and disabled children, etc.

　　Meanwhile, the “Notice” further improved the methods for identifying urban residents entitled to basic living allowances. (1) The applications for the subsistence allowances should be handled directly by the sub-district or township government department in charge of the work. The neighborhood committees entrusted by the sub-district or township government department to handle the applications for the subsistence allowances must submit all the materials delivered by the applicants to the sub-district or township government department in charge of the work and mustn’t leave it alone or make any decision not in line with relevant regulations. (2) The household survey should keep records of original materials and each household survey and neighborhood visit should be conducted by at least two persons. (3) Posting of publicity should be conducted within limited scope and period of time. The scope of publicity should be limited to the communities the applicants live in and online publicity should be avoided; the content of the publicity should be limited to the names of the head of households, number of family members and the amount of subsistence allowances, and relevant department should pay attention to the protection of privacy of families, especially privacy of children. Publicity should not be conducted for families of the elderly and the disabled or other families with no or little change in income. (4) The civil affairs departments at the county level should establish the random check system and conduct category management on the families enjoying the subsistence allowances. Those families with no or little change in income can be reviewed once a year; those families living in changing status should be reviewed at least once half a year.

　　In order to ensure the implementation of work, the Ministry of Civil Affairs called on local governments to carry out an investigation into the work of identification of objects of the urban minimum living security system, including checking the systems and regulations to see whether the identification-related systems are healthy and sound and whether they are in line with relevant laws and policies and suitable for local situation; checking the system implementation to correctly grasp the information of the objects of the urban minimum living security system and make clear their actual living status, cover all those meeting relevant conditions and cancel those that should not be taken into account; checking problem correcting to timely address the problems reported by relevant departments in the relevant work, conduct investigations into the cases reported by the public and correct errors promptly and seriously.

　　In 2010, the national religious sector and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly issued the "Opinions on Appropriately Solving the Social Security Problem of Religious Personnel". For the religious workers to participate in the urban minimum living security system, it formulated the provision that religious workers meeting the conditions should be covered by the urban minimum living security system. The religious workers meeting the conditions for five-guarantee system can be covered by the system. In identifying the objects of relief, those religious workers who live alone for a long time can be regarded as an independent household.

　　The mechanism for linkage of rescue standards and price rising Since the second half of 2010, the high inflation rate affected the basic living of urban residents, especially the poor, so the State Council promulgated the "Notice on the Stability of the General Price Level and Protection of the Masses' Basic Livelihood" and proposed 16 measures to stabilize prices and the establishment of mechanism to link the minimum living security system and price level for the urban poor. At present, more than half of Chinese provinces have established the mechanism for linkage of social relief standards and the price rising. The linkage mechanism includes four main contents: (1) The protection objects mainly include entitled groups, urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances, objects of the rural five-guarantee system and those receiving unemployment insurance benefits; (2) Launch conditions are based on the residents’ basic living expenditure or monthly increases of residents’ consumer price index, and the critical conditions for the launching of the mechanism can be determined based on the expected price regulation objectives put forward by local government every year; (3) Linkage measures: When residents’ basic living expenditure or monthly increases of residents’ consumer price index reach the critical conditions, the linkage mechanism can be launched and temporary price subsidy can be issued; After residents’ basic living expenditure or monthly increases of residents’ consumer price index fall below the critical point for a certain period of time, the urban and rural subsistence allowance standards should be raised according to the normal procedure and the issuance of temporary price subsidy should be immediately stopped as soon as the subsistence allowance standards are enhanced. (4) Subsidy standards: Determine the standards of temporary price subsidy for the objects of urban and rural minimum living security system, entitled groups and the objects of rural five guarantees system in accordance with a certain percentage of the urban and rural subsistence allowances. The subsidies should at least make up for the actual impact of price rising on the livelihoods of low-income people.

　　Supervision on the implementation of aid policy and the management of special funds In order to supervise the implementation of social assistance policy and the management of special funds in various regions, discover and resolve the major difficulties and outstanding problems in the social relief work and strengthen and standardize the management and supervision of the social relief work to ensure the implementation of social assistance policy, the safe operation and timely and full payment of special funds, in 2010, the Ministry of Civil Affairs decided to carry out a nationwide supervision on the implementation of social aid policy and the management and use of special funds. Main contents of the supervision work included: (1) The implementation and standardized management of social assistance policy. Conduct supervision on the establishment of urban and rural minimum living security system, urban and rural medical relief and rural five-guarantee system, find and fill the policy loopholes and correct problems not in line with the state’s policy and regulations; check the implementation of social relief work to ensure the scientific development and timely adjustment of various relief standards and the fairness and openness of relief work, and adhere to dynamic management to ensure that the fair and reasonable level of social assistance and classified implementation of social insurance policies. (2) The management and allocation of social assistance funds. Check the situation of fund allocation for social assistance, the construction and implementation of urban and rural minimum living security system and urban and rural medical aid fund management system. Resolutely correct the phenomena of retention, misappropriation and diversion of social assistance funds in the process of fund allocation, carry out investigations and seriously handle law and discipline violations such as making fraudulent application and claim, eliciting funds, corruption, embezzlement and misappropriation. (3) Support and guarantee for grass-roots social assistance. Conduct supervision on the development and implementation of the grass-roots social assistance work’s security measures in various regions, urge the county (city, district) and township (town, street) government to recruit social assistance staff, allocate social assistance funds, arrange office area and purchase office supplies, etc, urge the village (neighborhood) committees and communities to set up social assistance project publicity column, organize democratic discussion and announcement of social relief objects and put forward relevant rectification measures for problems found in the inspection.

2. Medical aid system

　　Urban medical assistance policy progress

　　In recent years, the rising speed of health care costs is far higher than the income growth rate of urban residents. A serious illness treatment is usually unaffordable for common citizens and is one of the main poverty risks of urban low-income groups and poor residents. In order to effectively help the urban poor solve the difficulties and problems in seeing a doctor, in 2005, the State Council promulgated the “Notice on the Launching of Pilot Program for Urban Medical Assistance System” (Guo Ban Fa [2005] No. 10) and decided to establish experimental medical aid systems in all the cities across the country. The relief funds include budgetary funds, lottery funds and social donations. In order to ensure the financial stability, it also demands local government to arrange medical aid funds every year and include the funds into the fiscal budget. The central and provincial financial departments will provide appropriate subsidies for the regions with difficulties. The social assistance is mainly provided for the urban poor, including those not participating in medical insurance for urban workers among the urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances, those urban residents who receive the subsistence allowances but still have a heavy burden of personal contribution as well as other groups with special difficulties.

　　In June 2009, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Health jointly issued the "Opinions on Further Improvement of the Urban and Rural Medical Aid Systems" to further improve and regulate the urban and rural medical assistance system arrangements. The main contents include: (1) The scope of relief should be reasonably determined. After including the urban and rural residents receiving subsistence allowances and the family members of "five-guarantee" households into the scope of medical aid, we should gradually include the members of other economically disadvantaged families into the scope of the medical aid. The members of other economically disadvantaged families mainly include the seriously ill people of low-income families and other people in with special difficulties identified by local governments. (2) Assistance should be provided in a variety of ways. As for urban and rural residents receiving subsistence allowances, family members of five-guarantee households and other economically disadvantaged families, we should provide subsidy for the individual payments of the basic medical service for them to participate in the basic medical insurance system for urban residents or new rural cooperative medical system. (3) Improve the relief services. We should pay attention to outpatient relief while focusing on hospitalization relief. Hospitalization relief fund is mainly used to help solve the personal burden of medical expenses for hospitalization of the relief objects; outpatient relief fund is mainly used to help solve the personal burden of medical expenses for emergency and first aid for common diseases, chronic diseases and the diseases requiring long-term drug treatment of the objects who meet relevant conditions. (4) Reasonable subsidy plan must be developed. Local governments must develop scientific medical aid subsidy plan based on the amount of medical relief funds that year, gradually reduce and cancel the bottom line of medical assistance, set a reasonable cap line and further enhance the relief proportion for personal burden of basic medical expenses after the relevant basic medical subsidy is provided. (5) Simplify the procedures, give full play to the role of emergency relief of medical assistance and gradually implement the measures for designated medical institutions to make real-time settlement of the costs of medical assistance. The medical costs of the family members of urban and rural residents receiving the subsistence allowances and five-guarantee households in the designated medical institutions implementing real-time settlement that should be paid by medical aid funds will be paid by the hospitals and the relief objects only need to pay the part that should be paid by themselves. (6) Do a good job in linking the medical aid with relevant basic medical security system and make the family members of the urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances and other economically weak families to enjoy the basic medical security treatment through providing subsidies for individual contributions of the medical insurance premiums; help solve the personal burden of medical expenses; strengthen the convergence of medical aid and basic medical insurance for urban workers and urban residents in management, improve the way of settlement of the various systems, explore the implementation of "one-stop" management services to gradually achieve the goal of personnel, medical and medical cost information sharing between various medical insurance systems so as to improve the efficiency of management service and provide convenience for the poor.

　　Overview on the development of medical assistance

　　When the urban medical assistance was initially launched, the assistance only covered a total of 1.149 million person-times in China. Later, with the promotion of urban medical assistance, the number of relief objects witnessed a stable growth, especially in 2008, the figure increased by 6.44 million over 2007, up 146%. In 2010, a total of 19.213 million urban residents received the assistance, 16.7 times that in 2005, when the pilot project was initially implemented, including 14.612 million persons subsidized by civil affair departments and 4.601 million urban residents receiving direct assistance. Although there was a substantial increase in the number of relief objects, with the expansion of the scope of relief objects, the per capita relief level is continuously declining. In 2008, the per capita subsidy was only 60.5 Yuan, and this figure dropped to 52.0 Yuan in 2010. Direct assistance refers to direct subsidy for medical expenses of urban poor residents. In 2010, the number of direct relief objects was larger than that in 2008 and 2009, but the growth rate was not as high as that of subsidies for urban medical insurance –4.5 million person-times or so. However, the level of per capita assistance was much higher. The per capita relief fund increased from 483.5 Yuan in 2008 to 809.9 Yuan in 2010, up 67.5%. In 2010, a total of 4.95 billion Yuan of financial investment was allocated for urban medical assistance, up 20.1% over 2009, of which 760 million Yuan was issued by civil affair departments to subsidize urban residents to participate in the basic medical insurance, up 31.0%, and 3.73 billion Yuan was directly issued as relief funds, up 18.8% over the previous year. 

　　Table 8: Basic situation of urban medical assistance, 2005-2010

		Direct assistance		Subsidy for insurance participation
	Total number of person-times of the assistance	Number of person-times (ten thousand)	Per capita relief fund (Yuan)	Number of person-times (ten thousand)	Per capita relief fund (Yuan)
2005	114. 9	——	——	——	——
2006	187. 2	——	——	——	——
2007	442. 0	——	——	——	——
2008	1086. 2	443. 6	483. 5	642. 6	60. 5
2009	1506. 3	410. 4	764. 7	1095. 9	53. 5
2010	1921. 3	460. 1	809. 9	1461. 2	52．0

 

　　Source: Previous "China Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook" and "Statistical Report on the Development of Civil Affairs Undertakings"

　　In view of the challenge of H1N1 influenza A prevention and control during the Spring Festival of 2010, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Health actively promoted the implementation of the Influenza A (H1N1) medical assistance for the urban poor. The relief objects included the objects of the minimum living security system, five-guarantee objects, seriously ill members of the families with economic difficulties and other special groups identified by local governments. For the H1N1 patients covered by the assistance system, we should provide subsidies for unaffordable basic medical cost through medical aid system after urban basic medical insurance benefits are issued, cancel the medical assistance bottom line and enhance the proportion and amount of relief funds within the cap line. We should provide temporary subsidy for the unaffordable individual payments of the basic medical service for H1N1 patients. We should pay attention to outpatient relief while focusing on hospitalization relief. Hospitalization relief fund was mainly used to help solve the personal burden of medical expenses for hospitalization of the relief objects for treatment of H1N1; outpatient relief fund was mainly used to help solve the personal burden of medical expenses for emergency and first aid for H1N1 treatment of the objects who meet relevant conditions.

3. Education assistance system

　　Assistance to students with financial difficulties decides whether they can complete their studies smoothly and thus shake off poverty rely on knowledge. The Chinese Government promised to effectively protect the right to education of all the people, especially the groups with difficulties and ensure that no child will drop out of school due to poverty. In recent years, the central and local governments have successively taken a series of major initiatives and established a complete education aid policy system: In colleges and universities, the government established the aid system based on national scholarships and national student loan, combined with other aid measures; In secondary vocational schools, the government set up the aid policy system based on state grants and tuition-free, supplemented by students’ work-study and post practice. In high school, the central government lottery welfare education assistance projects were launched to support the students in central and western counties and towns and students from rural poor families. In the stage of compulsory education, all urban and rural students are exempted from tuition fee, rural and urban poor students were exempted from textbook fee and living allowances are provided for the boarding students from rural needy families.

　　In 2010, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and other relevant ministries continued to improve the aid policy system for students from poor families and further improved the funding criteria to basically ensure "not to allow any student from economically disadvantaged families give up schooling due to financial difficulties" from the perspective of system. In 2010, the state introduced four new funding policies. (1) Established a dynamic adjustment mechanism for state grants of college and university students. Taking into consideration of the level of economic development and price changes, since the fall semester in 2010, the state grants to college and university students has been increased from 2,000 Yuan a year per head to 3,000, which effectively alleviate the adverse impact of price increases on college and university students from poor families. (2) Established the state-funded system for high school students from economically weak families. Since the fall semester of 2010, the central and local governments jointly set up state grants for high school students from economically weak families, covering 20% of the students. The average subsidy for each student per year is 1500 Yuan. The introduction of this policy marked that China basically improved the aid policy system for poor students, covering primary and secondary as well as college students from poor families. (3) Further expanded the scope of free tuition in secondary vocational education. Since the autumn of 2009, this policy has benefited many students from rural economically weak families and the students of agriculture-related majors. Since the fall semester of 2010, secondary vocational school students from urban needy families have also been covered by the policy, so more students and young people received vocational education. (4) Improved the standard of living allowance for boarding students in the stage of compulsory education from rural families with financial difficulties. Since the autumn of 2010, the average annual living allowance for each of the boarding student in the stage of compulsory education from rural families with financial difficulties has been raised from 500 Yuan to 750 Yuan, one Yuan more per day per head, and the living allowance for junior middle schools’ boarding students was raised from 750 Yuan to 1,000 Yuan per year per head, which further reduced the financial burden on boarding students from poor rural families and helped them improve the nutritional status.

　　The continuous improvement and implementation of the aid policy system for students from needy families strongly promoted educational equity and social justice, promoted the popularization and consolidation of the nine-year compulsory education, vigorously developed vocational education and achieved the popularization of higher education, thus helping to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation.

　　New Results Made in Financial Assistance to Poor Students in 2010

　　In 2010, new results were made in financial assistance to poor college and university students, mainly including: (1) A breakthrough of "double hundred" was made in National Student Loan and credit student loan played a "leading role" in helping needy students. In 2010, 1.1384 million students obtained state loans, 11.6% up over 2009; 11.489 billion Yuan of loans were issued, 32% up over 2009, the number of students receiving the loans and the amount of the national student loans respectively exceeded 1 million and 10 billion Yuan, hitting record high. (2) Source-based credit loans for students became the main mode for local government to promote the work of the National Student Loan issuing. In 2010, the students from source bases receiving the loans accounted for 70.8% of total and the loans they obtained accounted for 65.7% of the total. A historic breakthrough was made in issuing tuition reimbursement and loan compensation for college graduates. In 2010, a total of 36,157 graduates got the tuition reimbursement and loan compensation for military service of 555 million Yuan. A total of 10,650 graduates of colleges and universities affiliated to central departments obtained tuition reimbursement and loan compensation of 65.42 million Yuan for grass-roots employment. (3) Successfully implemented the policy to issue scholarships and grants for university students. In 2010, state scholarships and grants were issued to a total of 4.99 million college and university students and the state invested a total of 14.1 billion Yuan for this program, of which 8.63 billion Yuan was from the central government and 5.47 billion Yuan was issued by local government. (4) Established the "green channel" system for college students. In the fall semester of 2010, 60.9 million freshmen were enrolled through the "green channel", accounting for 38.8% of the freshmen from economically disadvantaged families and 9.7% of the total freshmen, which ensured that the no freshmen would be unable to go to college because of financial difficulties. Meanwhile, after the enrollment of freshmen, the universities and colleges would provide subsidies and grants in various forms based on the students’ economic situation and the relevant provisions.

　　New progress was made in providing financial assistance for vocational school students, mainly including: (1) In 2010, the coverage of the tuition-free policy for secondary vocational school students was expanded to include the students from urban needy families and the number of aided students increased from 4.26 million in 2009 to 4.4 million, accounting for 22% of the total full-time vocational school students, and about 8.8 billion Yuan of tuition fee was eliminated, of which 4.32 billion Yuan was made up for with central government investment. (2) The supervision mechanism for the issuance of state grants for students has been constantly improved to avoid the malpractice of individual schools to take the student subsidies. In 2010, the Ministry of Education and the relevant ministries actively promoted the model of student subsidy issuance through bank cards and the centralized issuance of secondary vocational student aiding funds, organized the national inspection on the implementation of secondary vocational student subsidy policy. In 2010, a total of 11.36 million secondary vocational school students received the state grants of 17 billion, of which the central government invested 8.052 billion Yuan.

　　New breakthroughs were made in funding primary and secondary students, mainly including: (1) Included high school student funding into the National Student Financial Assistance policy. In the fall semester of 2010, the state newly established the high school state grants, benefiting 4.82 million high school students from poor families, accounting for 20% of the total number of high school students, and the amount of subsidies was about 4.8 billion Yuan, of which 2.256 billion Yuan was issued by the central government. After the implementation of this policy, the student aid policy was further improved, covering all stages of schooling from primary school education to college and university education. (2) The living allowance for boarding students in the stage of compulsory education was further raised. In 2010, a total of 14.95 million boarding students in the stage of compulsory education from needy families received the living allowance, including 12.28 million in the central and western regions, 1.08 million more than that in 2009. The central government issued subsidies of 5.71 billion Yuan, 1.85 billion Yuan more than that in 2009. It has not only expanded the coverage of financial aid, but enhanced the subsidy standards. The living allowance for each boarding student of primary schools was enhanced from 500 Yuan to 750 Yuan and that for each junior middle school boarding student was increased from 750 Yuan to 1,000 Yuan. (3) Textbook-free policy for students in the stage of compulsory education was implemented. In 2010, based on the tuition-free policy implementation for 150 million students in the stage of compulsory education, the state provided fee textbooks for rural students and the students from urban needy families, benefiting 135 million students – 87% of the total students in the stage of compulsory education. After the implementation of rural compulsory education funds guarantee mechanism, in 2008, the state began to implement the tuition-free policy in urban areas. Since 2008, therefore, China has really implemented the tuition-free policy for compulsory education.

　　—5th press briefing of the Ministry of Education in 2011 (Introduction to the progress of national funding for students from needy families)

4. Housing assistance and housing security system

　　Housing assistance and housing security policy progress

　　The high housing prices in major Chinese cities have exceeded the borrowing capacity of the majority of low-income families, even for middle-income families, housing expenditures may also lead to their impoverishment. In order to solve the housing problems of urban middle and low-income families and poor families, during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the Chinese government gradually established and improved the housing security system, vigorously developed public rental housing, strengthened the construction of low-rent housing and accelerated the construction of shanty towns to alleviate the housing difficulties of the masses and improve the living conditions of the inhabitants.

　　In August 2007, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Solving the Housing Difficulties of Urban Low-income Families", stressed that it is an important duty of the government's public service to solve the housing difficulties of low-income families in the cities (including counties, the same below) and proposed to establish and improve the policy system to solve the housing difficulties of urban low-income families in various channels focusing on low-rent housing system. Targeting at the urban low-income families, according to the "Opinion", we must further improve the urban low-rent housing system, improve and standardize the affordable housing system and increase efforts on transformation of shantytowns and old residential areas to significantly enhance the housing conditions of low-income families and gradually improve the living conditions of other urban residents with housing difficulties including migrant workers during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period. This undoubtedly provided a strong institutional guarantee for addressing the housing problem of urban vulnerable groups. After that, a series of supporting policies have been introduced, involving low-rent housing guarantee fund management, improvement of the living conditions of migrant workers, transformation of urban and state-owned mining shantytowns and low-rent housing security planning, etc, making a housing support network for urban low-income families.

　　The coverage of housing security policy for low-rent housing and affordable housing construction and shantytown transformation is relatively small, the housing prices in some major cities are fairly high and many middle and low-income families can hardly afford the houses. These problems are prominent. The Ministry of Construction and other related ministries promulgated the "Guidance on Speeding up the Construction of Public Rental Housing" (Jian Bao [2010] No. 87) and put forward some important initiatives to vigorously develop public rental housing and foster the rental housing market to meet the basic housing needs of urban middle-income families. Public rental housing is mainly supplied to urban lower-middle income families with housing difficulties. Newly employed workers and migrant workers with stable jobs living in the city for a certain period of time can also apply for the public rental housing. Rent levels of public rental housing are "reasonably determined by the municipal and county people's government based on the housing market rent level and the purchasing power of the targets and annual dynamic adjustment should be made. All those meeting the conditions can apply for low-rent housing rent subsidies". As for the supportive policy for public rental housing construction, according to the "Opinion", local government must include the public-rental housing construction land into annual land supply plan and put it under special protection. The construction land for public rental housing construction for objects of the affordable housing should be supplied by the government. The municipal and county government should increase investment in public rental housing construction and operation through providing direct investment, capital investment, investment subsidy and loan interest subsidy, and the provincial and central government should give financial support; The administrative fees and government funds related to preferential taxes for public rental housing construction and operation should be charged according to the relevant policies for affordable housing.

　　Development overview of housing assistance and housing security

　　At present, the Chinese government has developed the housing security policy framework with "guarantee for low-income groups and support for middle-income groups" in various forms, including low-rent housing, affordable housing and public rental housing.

　　As of the end of 2005, only 329,000 lowest-income families had been covered by the low-rent housing guarantee system in China. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the housing problem of million urban low-income families and 3.6 million lower-middle-income families were solved. The central government issued a total of 133.6 billion Yuan of subsidies for the construction of housing security projects. To support the construction of low-rent housing, in 2007, the government issued 7.7 billion Yuan, exceeding the total amount of investment over the past years. In 2008, the low-rent housing guarantee fund was, for the first time, included by the government work report and the central government allocated 18.19 billion Yuan that year for the construction of affordable housing projects, and the affordable housing spending in 2009 reached 55.056 billion Yuan. This year, the central government increased subsidies for low-rent housing in the regions with financial difficulties: 400 Yuan / square meter for western regions, 300 Yuan / square meter for central regions and 200 Yuan / square meter for the regions with financial difficulties in Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian Province.

　　In 2010, the central government issued 80.2 billion Yuan of special subsidy for the construction of affordable housing projects. Meanwhile, the "Government Work Report" proposed to build 5.8 million sets of affordable housing and shantytowns transformation housing in China. In 2010, the construction of 590 sets of affordable housing and shantytowns transformation housing was conducted, 100,000 sets more than the scheduled task, including 3.22 million sets of affordable housing and 2.68 million houses based on transformation of shantytowns. About 3.7 million sets of such houses were built in the whole year.

5. Aid for unfunded vagrants

　　Policy progress for supporting unfunded vagrants

　　In view of the chaos in the resettlement and repatriation system for urban vagrants, in 2003, the State Council issued the “Measures for Assisting Urban Vagrants with No Means of Support”, which fundamental changed the original resettlement and repatriation system, abandoned the controversial practice of deportation and included urban vagrants and beggars into social assistance system to protect their rights to basic living. According to the new “Measures”, temporary social assistance is provided for the vagrants and beggars through building salvation stations in county (and higher level) government, including providing safe food and residence with basic conditions, sending the sick to the hospital timely; helping them contact their relatives or work units; and providing certificate for bus-taking of those who cannot afford the car fare to return home or work unit. According to the new “Method”, people’s government at or above the county level should include the funds for relief work into fiscal budget.

　　In 2009, the "Notice on Further Strengthening Relief Administration of Street Vagrants and Beggars and Rescuing and Protection of Vagrant Minors" (Min Fa [2009] No. 102) jointly issued by five ministries including the Ministry of Civil Affairs further clarified the duties of relevant government departments in assisting street beggars and the specific relief methods.

　　The civil affairs department is mainly responsible for assisting street vagrants and beggars, and should cooperate with the public security, urban management and public health department to do a good job of street management and rescue. (1) Try to persuade and guide street vagrants and beggars to receive aid in the rescue management stations and provide necessary food, clothing, and other services for those reluctant to go to the rescue stations; adhere to the principle of "first treatment and then rescue", cooperate with relevant medical agencies to cure the seriously ill persons and those with mentally ill and dangerous infectious diseases. (2) Adhere to the principle of "first treatment and then rescue", the rescue stations (homeless juveniles assistance and protection centers) must accept the minors rescued and sent by the public security organs and welfare agencies must do a good job of temporary supporting of infants and young children; the trafficked minors rescued by Railway Police should be sent to the rescue management stations (homeless juveniles assistance and protection centers) of local area and welfare agencies must do a good job of temporary supporting of infants and young children. (3) Assist the relevant departments in street governance. The civil affairs department should put forward law enforcement suggestions to public security organs and urban management departments after finding vagrants and beggars making troubles for others, disturbing social order, defacing and occupying public facilities to do harm to others and destruct the city appearance and environment. (4) Strengthen the services and management of rescue shelters, improve the facilities environment and provide humane family services to protect the basic living of the aid recipients. For example, separate minors with other aid recipients and make reasonable arrangements for the daily life, sports entertainment, education and training based on the characteristics of minors; provide health care and rehabilitation service for the disabled and those with mental retardation or psychological problems or being hurt. (5) Do a good job of helping vagrants return home village, resettlement and preventive work in the places where the vagrant flow. Arrange those meeting the conditions to social welfare agencies and actively explore social resettlement mode for social and family fostering of vagrants; urge the government of the places concentrated with vagrants to include the returned residents meeting the conditions into social security system. (6) Encourage and support social organizations or individuals to provide shelter, food and clothing for vagrants and beggars, explore ways of social work intervention, psychological counseling, behavioral treatment, education and training, and help vagrants and beggars return home and society.

　　The public security department is mainly responsible for street management, combating trafficking and rescue of trafficked children. It also assists civil affairs department and health department in street rescue and the management in rescue shelters. The health department is responsible for medical treatment of vagrants and beggars and accepting vagrants and beggars in accordance with the principle of "first treatment and then rescue". The financial department is mainly responsible for the rescue and management of vagrants and beggars on city streets and must ensure funding for rescue of homeless juveniles. Local governments are required to include government expenditures on rescuing and managing street beggars and homeless juveniles into the budget of relevant departments.

　　Overview of rescue for unfunded vagrants

　　As of the end of 2010, there were a total of 1593 unfunded vagrant rescue management units in China, including 1448 rescue shelters and 145 homeless children rescue centers, much more than that in 2003, when the new homeless beggar relief system was initially set up. The number of rescue stations in 2010 was 1.68 times that in 2003. In addition, due to the special characteristics of homeless children, the state began to set up homeless children rescue and protection centers and established 40 homeless children rescue and protection centers in 2005, and the number of children rescue centers in 2010 reached 145. In 2010, a total of 1.719 million people were rescued, 2.10 times that in 2004, and 56,000 beds were provided, including 50,000 beds of rescue shelters and 6,000 beds of child rescue and protection centers. In the whole year, 1.719 million beggars in urban areas were rescued.

　　Table 9：Rescue of urban unfunded vagrants, 2003-2010

Year	Rescue shelters	Homeless children rescue and protection centers	Rescued people (ten thousand person-times)	Beds of rescue units (ten thousand)
2003	864	——	——	——
2004	977	——	82. 03	4. 71
2005	1079	40	119. 63	4. 56
2006	1189	50	129. 55	4. 57
2007	1261	90	154. 45	4. 68
2008	1334	88	157. 35	5. 06
2009	1372	116	168. 05	5. 10
2010	1448	145	171. 90	5. 60

 

　　Source: Previous "China Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook"

　　In view of the high temperature and flood devastation in some areas in the summer of 2010, the civil affairs departments actively promoted the timely rescue of street vagrants and beggars and carried out the rescue activity of "sending summer cool", including actively organizing rescue service team to persuade street vagrants and beggars to avoid summer heat in the rescue shelters and providing sunstroke prevention medicines, beverage and food for those reluctant to go to the rescue shelter; sending seriously ill persons and those with mentally ill and dangerous infectious diseases to hospital for medical treatment; mobilizing social forces to participate in street rescue, opening up more summer resorts; strengthening summer cooling material reserves of rescue stations and increasing ventilation and cooling equipment. 

(III) Anti-poverty strategy to promote employment

　　Employment is the basis of people’s livelihood and one of the fundamental urban anti-poverty policies. In 2010, 11.68 million urban residents found jobs, 5.47 million laid-off workers were re-employed and 1.65 million people with difficulties in employment obtained new jobs. The government helped 85,000 zero-employment families to achieve at least one-person employment, and organized 33,000 university graduates to support the “three supports and one assistance” work in rural grassroots units.

　　Figure 2：Number of re-employed urban laid-off workers in the past five years

 



 

　　Unit: ten thousand persons

　　In 2010, the Chinese government strived to promote the implementation of employment-oriented urban anti-poverty strategies by providing employment assistance for disadvantaged groups, increasing burdens on enterprises to stabilize employment and providing employment services for people with disabilities and university graduates.

1. Improve the employment assistance system

　　According to the "Employment Promotion Act" issued in 2007, people’s government at all levels must establish and improve employment assistance system and support the people with difficulties in employment through providing tax relief, loan interest subsidy, social insurance subsidy and post subsidy and arranging public welfare working posts, etc. The aided persons include those with difficulties in finding jobs and members of zero-employment families. The former refer to the people who can hardly find jobs because of their poor health status or because they don’t have any skills, or for family reasons or because they’ve lost land, and those people who become unemployed for a certain period of time and have not found any job. Zero-employment family members refer to the members of urban households of legal working age registered unemployed.

　　The "Guidance on Strengthening Employment Assistance" enacted in 2010 (Issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Ministry [2010] No. 29) proposed to include all those meeting the conditions into the scope of employment assistance, establish the employment assistance working mechanism of "identifying and supporting all those meeting the conditions and stabilizing their employment status", strive to provide more pertinent support and timely employment assistance service for the unemployed and ensure the employed to effectively enjoy policy support to stabilize their employment. According to the "Opinions", local governments must develop individual assistance programs based on the needs and characteristics of each aided person and provide key support of “one strategy for one person” by signing assistance agreement. Public employment service agencies at all levels must all give priority to the aid objects in providing relevant services, clarify the content, time and requirements for results of various aid work and practice the “commander responsibility system” to assign duties to specific working agencies and staffs. Local governments should vigorously develop public service jobs, expand the job scale, implement the policy of job subsidies and social security benefits and improve public service job development and management system; At the same time, we should strive to achieve the long-term effectiveness of employment assistance by improving the employment assistance system, improving employment assistance security measures, enhancing the support of information technology for employment assistance and implementing employment assistance performance management, etc.

　　In order to help the disadvantaged groups with difficulties in employment to get jobs, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and China Disabled Persons' Federation launched the activity of Employment Assistance Week in 2009. In 2010, they successively carried out the activity of employment assistance month.

　　Employment Assistance Month

　　In 2010, themed on “employment assistance for ten thousand families to solve employment problems”, the activity of Employment Assistance Month targeted at various kinds of persons with difficulties in employment and registered unemployed disabled persons. In the activity, domestic public employment service agencies at all levels and disabled persons’ employment service agencies went to the sub-districts and communities for propaganda, paid home visits and helped the unemployed to find jobs as soon as possible through individual recommendation, special job fairs, arrangements of public welfare working posts and implementation of employment assistance policy, etc.

　　In 2009, it is reported, 1.64 million people with difficulty in finding employment got jobs in the country. Through carrying out national employment service activities and the employment assistance service for the disabled, the government helped 7415 college and university graduates with disabilities in 2009 to help 98,502 of the registered 146,768 registered unemployed persons with disabilities find jobs and the employment rate was nearly 70%. Meanwhile, it organized trainings of disabled persons for 200,710 person-times, exported 32,556 disabled labors and helped 75,852 persons with disability to find jobs in local or nearby areas.

　　- From the “Launching of the Activity of Employment Assistance Month by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and China Disabled Persons' Federation”, “China Disabled Persons' Federation: The National Employment Assistance Month will Be Launched in January 2011”

2. Reduce burdens on enterprises to stabilize employment

　　Due to the global financial crisis of 2008, many domestic enterprises, especially SMEs faced operating difficulties and collapse pressure, leading to the severe employment status. In order to help the enterprises tide over the crisis and stabilize the employment situation, since 2008, the state has adopted a number of documents to propose to reduce the burden on enterprises. In 2008, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other ministries issued the "Notice on Taking Active Measures to Reduce Burdens on Enterprises and Stabilize Employment Status", which allows payment delay of social insurance premiums the enterprises in difficulty within a certain period of time and proposes to reduce the premiums of four social insurance in a certain period of time. The premium rate of basic medical insurance for urban workers, unemployment insurance, industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance can be reduced in 2009; unemployment insurance premiums can be used to help enterprises stabilize working posts and pay the social insurance subsidies and position subsidies for the enterprises in difficulty that strive to stabilize staff teams by organizing on-the-job training, shift work and consultations for wages and promise not to lay off employees or reduce the scale of layoff. These measures played a positive role in reducing the burden on enterprises and stabilizing the employment situation. In 2009, the employment situation was still severe and the government again issued the relevant documents to extend the implementation period of relevant preferential policies to stabilize working positions and support employment. It extended the implementation period of four policies to the end of 2010, including: Postponing payment of social security contributions of enterprises in difficulty and periodical reduction of four social insurance rates, using unemployment insurance fund to help enterprises in difficulty stabilize working posts and encourage the them to carry out on-the-job trainings, etc; Those flexible employees enjoying social insurance subsidy policy who have not got stable jobs can enjoy one-time extension of social insurance subsidy period, no longer than one year. The implementation period of pilot policy for seven eastern provinces to expand the expenditure scope of unemployment insurance funds was extended to the end of 2010. Priorities were given to SMEs. Under the same conditions, the government should first approve SMEs’ applications for postponing payment of social security contributions, enjoying social insurance subsidy, working post subsidy and on-the-job training subsidy. 

　　In 2010, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Notice on Relevant Issues on Supporting Unemployment Insurance Work and Stabilizing Working Positions" (Ren She Ting Han [2010] No. 35), called on local governments to increase efforts on using the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize working position subsidy policy, give priorities to SMEs and private enterprises and encourage SMEs and private enterprises not to fire employees or reduce the scale of layoff and stabilize and increase employment opportunities; enhance the level of overall coordination, increase efforts on fund transfer and encourage regions where conditions permit to explore ways for provincial government coordination of unemployment insurance fund to address the fund shortage for the implementation of enterprise-supporting policy in the regions with a small amount of fund so that more enterprises will be supported by the policy.

3. Promote the employment of persons with disabilities

　　People with disabilities are high-risk groups for unemployment and poverty and it is an effective way of lifting the disabled out of poverty and preventing them from falling into poverty to promote the employment of disabled persons with the ability to work. In 2007, the Chinese government promulgated the “Regulations on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities” and required people’s government at or above the county level to include the employment of people with disabilities into national economic and social development plan and develop preferential policies and supportive measures to create conditions for the employment of persons with disabilities. Specific measures include: Employing units shall employ a certain proportion of disabled persons in at 1.5% of the total number of their employees. Government and social welfare enterprises for persons with disabilities, blind men’s massage agencies and other welfare institutions founded in accordance with the law (hereinafter collectively referred to as employing units using persons with disabilities) should arrange employment for the disabled; People's governments at or above the county level should give priority to the employment of the disabled in the development of community services, and issue preferential tax policy and special support for the employing units hiring many persons with disabilities in production, management, technology, capital, materials and use of the site; The employment security fund for the disabled levied in accordance with the law should be included in the fiscal budget and used for vocational trainings and employment service and assistance for persons with disabilities.

　　In 2010, the State Council promulgated the "Guidance on Accelerating the Establishment of Social Security System and Service System for Persons with Disabilities" and put forward that we should establish and improve the employment service network for the disabled, promote the stable employment of persons with disabilities, including providing employment opportunities for persons with disabilities according to a certain proportion, preferential taxes for the employing units of the disabled, support for individual employment of persons with disabilities, government’s purchase and use of the products or services of the employing units of the disabled and other policies to promote the employment of persons with disabilities, and improve the policies on the collection, use and management of employment security fund for the disabled, etc. The public service posts developed by the government should provide jobs for the disabled meeting the conditions according to relevant regulations; The employing units with disabled staffs should sign labor service contracts or service agreement with the disabled persons according to law, provide the labor conditions and protection based on their health status and shall not discriminate against persons with disabilities in promotion, assessment of the titles, remuneration, social insurance, welfare, etc. Meanwhile, we should strengthen the construction of provincial, municipal and county-level employment service agencies for persons with disabilities, include it into the unified management of public employment service system and provide employment assistance for the disabled; provide guidance and services for management of  blind massage and open service windows and programs for persons with disabilities in public employment service agencies to provide free employment services and employment assistance for persons with disabilities.

　　In 2010, 324,000 persons with disabilities found jobs in urban areas, including 102,000 persons with jobs arranged by concentrated arrangements for the disabled, 46,000 persons with jobs arranged by the program of providing a certain proportion employment opportunities for the disabled, 137,000 through individual unit launching and other ways. In fact, there were a total of 4.412 million people working in the city. Meanwhile, a total of 2504 vocational education and training agencies for persons with disabilities were set up by provincial, municipal and county-level disabled persons’ federations, 2200 common agencies organized vocational trainings for the disabled, 833,000 persons with disabilities received vocational education and trainings and 116,000 of them obtained professional certificates. 

　　Figure 3：New employments of national urban residents with disabilities in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period

 



　　Source: “2010 Statistical Bulletin on Development of the Work for Persons with Disabilities in China”

　　Employment project of a million persons with disabilities in urban areas

　　In order to improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities, according to the overall requirements of the 12th Five-Year Plan for the development of disable persons’ undertakings in China, China Disabled Persons’ Federation decided to implement the project to promote the employment of a million persons with disabilities in urban areas during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. Through the project construction, it aims to provide jobs for 1 million disabled persons and establish the policy system and long-term working mechanism to protect and promote the employment of persons with disabilities. Main measures include: (1) Comprehensively promote the employment of persons with disabilities according to a certain proportion. The county-level disabled persons’ federations and their affiliated units, for example, should first provide working positions for the disabled and the disabled should account for no less than 20% of their total employees. Encourage and guide party and government organs at all levels, social groups, institutions and state-owned enterprises to take the initiative to hire persons with disabilities and gradually establish the job reservation system; (2) Implement the preferential tax policies for centralized job arrangements for persons with disabilities to stabilize the centralized employment of persons with disabilities; (3) Support people with disabilities to start their own businesses and individual units and coordinate relevant departments to give priority to the disabled engaged in individual business operation in issuing business license, provide business premises, waive the administrative fees and provide basic pension insurance and basic medical insurance premium subsidies for them; Issue the unemployment insurance benefits in full and provide venture capital subsidies for the entrepreneurship of unemployed persons with disabilities; Provide preferential subsidized loans to support capable disabled persons and the enterprises with a large number of disabled persons, aiming to promote their business development and provide more employment opportunities for persons with disabilities; (4) Develop public service jobs and broaden the employment channels based on communities. No less than 10% of the public service posts developed by the government should be provided for persons with disabilities and, in accordance with relevant regulations, post subsidies and social insurance subsidies shall be issued; Carry out special investigation and research on community service and family service, develop working posts suitable for the disabled and promote the employment of persons with disabilities through developing community service, family service, calling service and convenient service spots; (5) Explore assistive employment for persons with disabilities and support the development of blind massage industry.

　　In addition, the employment project of a million persons with disabilities in urban areas will practice real-name system statistics management on the employment of persons with disabilities, establish accounts for new employed disabled persons and practice dynamic management; further improve the employment assistance system for persons with disabilities; further strengthen vocational education and vocational training for persons with disabilities and found 1000 vocational training bases for the disabled nationwide; accelerate the standardized construction of employment service agencies for the disabled; increase financial investment to carry out vocational trainings for the disabled and provide post subsidy and social insurance subsidy for persons with disabilities to support their employment.

　　-          "Notice of China Disabled Persons 'Federation on Promoting the Employment of A Million Persons with Disabilities in Urban Areas", "The "‘12th Five-Year Development Program’ for Undertakings of China's Disabled Persons"

4. Promote the employment of college graduates

　　In 2010, there were 6.3 million college graduates in China and the employment task was arduous. In order to solve the employment problem, in 2010, a few sectors of the Central Government jointly implemented the "activity of promoting the employment of college graduates in 2010". The main measures included: (1) Combined with the development of new industries and industrial upgrading, create new jobs for university graduates; (2) Provide smooth channels for university graduates to serve various enterprises, especially SMEs and non-public enterprises through removing institutional obstacles such as labor and social security, personnel agency, file management and the urban settlement; (3) Implement and improve relevant policies to encourage scientific research units to absorb and stabilize the employment of college graduates, including household registration, record management, social insurance work, etc. (4) Expand the primary jobs and the further develop grass-roots management and public service jobs suitable for college graduates.

　　Provide employment assistance for college and university graduates in poverty or difficulty. Implement the policies for poor college and university graduates to take part in various job fairs for free, waive the registration and examination fees of college and university graduates for them to take part in the recruitment of civil servants and state-owned enterprises and institutions and participate in vocational skills trainings and identification. Provide social insurance subsidy and public service post subsidy for the college and university graduates engaged in grass-roots public management and public services; and strengthen the employment service and assistance for unemployed college and university graduates living in major cities for a long time to protect their legitimate rights and interests.

5. Labor rights protection

　　To protect the rights of labors, in 2010, the government promoted the signing of collective contracts and raised the minimum wage level.

　　In order to protect workers 'rights, especially the rights of SMEs’ workers, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security promulgated the "Notice on Further Promoting the Collective Contract System and the Implementation of Rainbow Program" (Issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Ministry [2010] No. 32) in May 2010 and proposed to practice collective contract system in various enterprises with trade units within three years. The coverage rate of the collective contract system was expected to reach 60% in 2010. To small enterprises without trade unions, we can enhance the coverage ratio by signing regional and industrial collective contracts. Collective contracts are designed mainly for non-public enterprises and labor-intensive enterprises to urge enterprises and staffs to carry out collect negotiations and sign special collective contracts on wages (unit price), work quota and other issues related to labor remuneration so as to promote the establishment and improvement of the joint decision-making mechanism for determining staffs’ wages, wage increase mechanism and payment security mechanism as well. Promote the signing of industrial collective contracts in the regions below the level of county concentrated with peers, especially mining and catering service enterprises. Meanwhile, we should establish the work coordination leadership agency led by the principles of human resources and social security departments with department leaders of three parties coordinating labor relations (human resources and social security departments, trade unions and business federations / entrepreneurs association) as the responsible persons, and participated by relevant functional departments, and the working mechanism under the leadership of government department to coordinate the cooperation of the three parties, which is participated by enterprises and staffs.

　　Meanwhile, in order to protect the interests of workers of low-income industries, in 2010, local governments all raised the minimum wage. As of the end of 2010, 30 provinces in the country adjusted the minimum wage and the average growth rate of monthly minimum wage was 22.8%. The highest monthly minimum wage after the adjustment is that in Shanghai, 1120 Yuan, and the highest minimum wage per hour is that in Beijing, 11 Yuan.

（IV）Improve the public service system for migrant workers to cope with the risk of poverty

　　Since 2006, supported by the central government, migrant workers have been gradually incorporated into the city's public services and social security systems, including helping migrant workers join the urban social security system, addressing the schooling problem of migrant workers’ children and housing problems of migrant workers and providing public health services for migrant workers, and the overall situation of migrant workers is continuously improved. These policies and measures have played an important role in helping migrant workers settle down in the city and accelerating poverty alleviation among migrant workers.

1. Social insurance for migrant workers

　　In 2006, the State Council issued the "Some Opinions on Resolving the Problems Faced by Migrant Workers" (Guo Fa [2006] No. 5) and proposed to give priority to industrial injury insurance and serious medical problems and gradually solve the problem of old-age security. All employing units must promptly apply for work-related injury insurance for migrant workers and timely pay work-related injury insurance premiums in full; Those regions with certain conditions can directly include the migrant workers with stable working positions into the basic medical insurance system for urban workers and migrant workers can also voluntarily participate in the new rural cooperative medical system in their native places. Those regions with certain conditions can directly include the migrant workers with stable working positions into the basic endowment insurance for urban workers and employing units must continue to pay the insurance premium for migrant workers and develop the measures for transfer of migrant workers’ endowment insurance.

　　In 2010, No. 1 Document of the Central Government in 2010 pointed out that we must further improve the social security system of migrant workers, promote the full coverage of industrial injury insurance, strengthen the prevention and treatment of occupational diseases and health service for migrant workers, include the migrant workers in stable labor service relationship with enterprises into the basic medical insurance for urban workers and implement the measures for transfer of basic endowment insurance of urban workers, including migrant workers.

　　As serious illness and injury are the main risks faced by migrant workers, the Central Government actively encouraged migrant workers to participate in medical insurance and industrial injury insurance for urban workers. In some places, the basic medical insurance system for urban workers has set up the catastrophic health insurance for migrant workers, which first guarantees that hospitalization and catastrophic health care of migrant workers. The medical expenses are not paid by migrant workers but by employing units. As of the end of 2010, 45.83 million migrant workers had participated in the basic medical insurance for urban workers. In recent years, as employing units, especially the units in construction field are required to purchase work-related injury insurance for migrant workers, there was a rapid growth in the number of migrant workers participating in industrial injury insurance and the a total of 63 million migrant workers had participated in the work-related injury insurance system by the end of 2010. The number of migrant workers participating in pension insurance and unemployment insurance is relatively small and was respectively 32.84 million and 19.9 million at the end of 2010.

　　Situation of migrant workers participating in urban basic social insurance

　　Unit: ten thousand persons

	2007	2008	2009	2010
Medical insurance	3131	4266	4335	4583
Endowment insurance	1846	2416	2647	3284
Industrial injury insurance	3980	4942	5587	6300
Unemployment insurance	1150	1549	1643	1990

　　Source: "Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Human Resources and Social Security Undertakings" over the years

2. Education of migrant children

　　According to the requirements of the central government, local government must undertake the responsibility of compulsory education of the children of migrant workers living together with them, include the education of migrant workers’ children into local education development plan and fiscal budget for education, accept children of migrant workers to study in full-time public primary and secondary schools and allocate public education funds to the schools based on the actual number of students. The city public school must provide equal treatment for children of migrant workers and local students to receive compulsory education in charging and management and shall not violate the regulations to charge temporary schooling fee or any other fee from children of migrant workers. In 2010, No. 1 Document of the Central Government further stressed that we must implement the policy to solve the schooling problem of migrant workers’ children based on public schools and labor input areas. According to the survey conducted by the State Family Planning Commission in 2009, 97.9% of the 7-14-year-old migrant children were at school and 68.8% of them were students of public schools, 25.1% were from private schools and 6.1% from migrant schools. 

　　100% of the children of 400,000 migrant workers in Shanghai

　　received free compulsory education this year

　　In 2009, Shanghai invested 3.69 billion Yuan to support children of migrant workers living together with them to receive free compulsory education in public schools to achieve balanced development of education. As of the beginning of this semester, 97.3% of the children of 400,000 migrant workers in Shanghai received free compulsory education in local area. This year, Shanghai will take the lead in major cities to achieve full coverage of children of migrant workers in free compulsory education. It is reported that 15 of the 18 districts and counties in Shanghai have achieved the goal of providing free compulsory education for 100% of the children of migrant workers living together with them. About 70% of the children of migrant workers of schooling age were students of public primary and secondary schools in Shanghai, 30% of the students were sent to government-funded private schools and also received free compulsory education as government purchased the service for them. It has promoted the teaching management and training of migrant schools and helped the schools embark on the right track as early as possible, included migrant schools into formal management and evaluation system to improve the teaching quality of migrant schools and make more children of migrant workers enjoy the same high-quality educational resources as local students of Shanghai.

　　-              “100% of the Children of 400,000 Migrant Workers in Shanghai Received Free Compulsory Education This Year” (August 2010)

3. Housing security of migrant workers

　　In order to solve the housing protection of migrant workers, the Ministry of Construction and other four ministries jointly issued in 2007 the "Guidance on Improving the Living Conditions of Migrant Workers" and proposed to solve the housing problems of migrant workers by various channels. For example, the employing units can provide free living area or rent low-costing houses for migrant to live. If migrant workers solve the living problem by themselves, the employing units shall provide a certain amount of house-renting subsidy; the migrant workers’ dormitory building can be rented by employing units for migrant workers or rented by migrant workers themselves and mustn’t be sold or rented as commodity houses. The government should actively guide and encourage urban-rural fringe residents to rent their own houses to migrant workers.

　　In 2010, seven departments including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development promulgated the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Public Rental Housing" and pointed out that the regions where conditions permit can include newly employed migrant workers and the migrant workers with stable jobs living in the city for more than one year into the public rental housing system; in the development zones and industrial parks concentrated with migrant workers, the municipal and county government should guide investors to build public rental housing and rent the houses to employing units or the employees in the development zones and industrial parks.

　　In 2010, most of domestic provinces and autonomous regions introduced a series of relevant policy measures and some provinces included migrant workers into housing security system. The main practices to solve the housing problem of migrant workers mainly included: (1) Construction of migrant workers’ apartments: The government provide financial aid or reduce taxes and fees for the construction of migrant workers’ apartments as low-rent housing for migrant workers. Hangzhou adopted such measure; (2) Low-rent housing or public rental housing. For example, Guangdong Province encouraged local government to include backbone migrant technicians into low-rent housing security system, Qingdao City constructed low-rent housing and rent the houses to migrant workers with stable jobs, and Shenzhen City also promised to include the migrant workers that working in the city for a long time in the urban public rental housing security system; (3) Migrant workers’ housing fund. In Chongqing City, according to the relevant provisions, migrant workers can also participate in the housing fund program as urban residents by paying housing fund and can extract the housing funds once a year.

4. Employment training of migrant workers

　　The overall quality of China's rural labor forces is relatively low and most of migrant workers lack vocational skills, so it is difficult for them to transfer towards non-agricultural industries and get stable jobs in the city. In September 2003, six ministries including the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the "2003-2010 Training Program for Migrant Workers". The government shall provide funds to train migrant workers. This program is also called "Sunshine Project" for labor force transfer training. It mainly supports major labor transfer provinces, food producing provinces, old revolutionary base areas and impoverished regions to carry out employment skills trainings for rural labor forces to transfer towards non-agricultural fields to achieve stable employment and increase farmers’ income. It plans to carry out vocational skills trainings in the county from 2006 to 2010, establish and improve the rural labor transfer training mechanism and increase efforts on developing rural human resources.

　　After 2010, in accordance with the requirements for coordinated economic and social development in urban and rural areas, the government included rural labor training into the national education system, expanded the training scale and improved the level of trainings. The training funds are shared by the government and migrant workers. The government subsidies consist of central government’s financial aid and local matching funds. Government subsidies directly benefit farmers in the form of training vouchers or discount of training fees, not used for the infrastructure construction, improvement of training conditions and skills evaluation of training units. In 2009, Sunshine Project trained 3 million rural labors and the central government invested 1.1 billion Yuan.

　　As there is no overall planning for the training programs of migrant workers, the capital efficiency and quality of training are not so high and the supervisory and regulatory mechanism is not perfect, in 2010, the State Council issued the “Guidance of the General Office of the State Council on Further Strengthening Trainings of Migrant workers” and proposed to include training of migrant workers into the national economic and social development planning, gradually establish the unified system for coordination and management of migrant worker training programs and funds and, by 2015, provide at least one skills training for each migrant worker in need of training and help them learn one practical skill to meet the employment needs. In the raising of funds for training, the state emphasized that we should use the training funds based on provincial coordination and provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) should include training funds for migrant workers into fiscal budget, further increase investment in training of migrant workers and, in accordance with the requirements of overall planning, centralized utilization of funds and improving capital efficiency, make overall arrangements for the use of training funds for migrant worker allocated by the central and provincial governments. The department concerned should organize trainings in accordance with their duties and tasks and change the status of distributed arrangements and low efficiency of the funds; The central government departments should make overall arrangements for the use of training funds for migrant workers and provide appropriate subsidies to local governments; develop the basic subsidy standards for trainings of migrant workers, scientifically and rationally determine the basic standards of training subsidies according to the level of difficulty, the length of time and the training costs for migrant workers to learn skills, mainly skills for normal jobs, and adjust the standards based on actual situation to help migrant workers master a practical skill. In vocational skills trainings, at the same time, priority should be given to the migrant workers who have never received any government training subsidy to avoid multi-sectoral repeated training.

5. Social assistance system of migrant workers

　　Although the state actively encouraged migrant workers to participate in urban social insurance, gradually implemented the equalization of public services, the social insurance participation rate of migrant workers is still relatively low and their employments are still not stable. Migrant workers can hardly bear the impact of unemployment, illness and other social risks and even the basic living of many migrant workers cannot be guaranteed, so it is an urgent task to include migrant workers into the urban social assistance system. A survey on the migrant workers in Wuhan City conducted in 2010 showed that the migrant workers mainly worry about the problem of illness (23%), their children’s schooling (16.2%), unemployment (14.4%) and clothing, food and housing as well as other basic living difficulties (13%), etc. 41.8% of the surveyed people had unemployment experiences and 37% of them was unemployed for more than four months. 66.3% of the migrant workers relied on their previous savings for living during the period of unemployment and none of them relied on unemployment insurance or unemployment benefits to support themselves. The survey also showed that 37.8% of the migrant workers had the experience of "finding no job and running out of money". It can be seen that migrant workers have a strong need for social assistance. This survey also indicated that the overall awareness of social assistance of migrant workers is relatively low and more than half of the migrant workers never heard of social assistance. Those who heard of social assistance actually knew little about it and even did not know the meaning of the social assistance.

　　Currently, China still has unified policy arrangements for social assistance for migrant workers, but temporary social relief projects for impoverished migrant workers have only been launched in few places.

6. Other public service policies for migrant workers

　　In 2010, the Ministry of Health launched the health care program for migrant workers and planned to implement the program in 65 counties and cities nationwide since 2010. Employing units should establish health records for migrant workers with whom they have signed labor service contracts. Health records should be established for more than 80% of the migrant workers.

III.Urban anti-poverty: Problems and Prospects

　　The "12th Five-Year Plan on National Economic and Social Development" proposed to insist on the institutional arrangements to guarantee and improve people’s livelihood such as priority to people's livelihood, improvement of employment, income distribution, social security, health care and housing security, promote the equalization of basic public services and strives to make the fruits of development benefit all the people. In the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, urban poverty reduction still faces many challenges and we need to further improve and consolidate the existing policies and measures to prevent and reduce poverty in urban areas.

（I）Establish the inter-departmental coordination mechanism for urban poverty reduction

　　Social insurance, social relief, social welfare, health care, education, housing, employment services and other social protection measures are developed by various departments. Education relief, for example, is under the responsibility of educational department, medical relief, the minimum living security and social welfare are in the charge of civil affairs department, social insurance, employment training and assistance are responsibilities of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, while housing security is the responsibility of urban and rural construction departments. In the process of poverty reduction, based on sectoral interests and sectionalism, we often see the phenomenon of coexistence of repeated services or omission, resulting in waste of resources, affecting the overall efficiency of poverty reduction. Therefore, in urban poverty reduction, we need to establish the cross-sectoral coordination mechanism to achieve the convergence of various policies and strengthen the joint force and efficiency of various pro-poor policies while ensuring full coverage of urban residents including migrant workers of pro-poor policies.

（II）Establish the social protection mechanism for the new generation of migrant workers

　　The new generation of migrant workers born after the 1980s is the main body of migrant workers. Compared to the previous generation of migrant workers, they do not possess the basic skills and knowledge of agricultural production but have a strong incentive to live and work in the cit. The low income, unaffordable housing, low coverage ratio of social insurance and difficulties for them to get equitable access to basic urban public services, however, hinder the process of their urbanization. In recent years, the Chinese government stepped up the implementation of social insurance programs among migrant workers. However, the coverage ratio of social insurance is still relatively low as migrant workers do not have stable jobs and migrant workers remain largely excluded from the urban minimum living security system and housing assistance system, making them face severe impoverishment risks. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, therefore, on the one hand, we should continue to expand the coverage of social insurance for migrant workers and, on the other hand, we should include migrant workers into urban social assistance system. Meanwhile, we should gradually achieve the equalization of basic public services and establish the social protection mechanism for migrant workers.

（III）Create social work jobs to solve the employment problem of disadvantaged groups

　　Aging of China's urban residents is becoming an increasingly serious problem and there are still a large number of people with disabilities in China who are in urgent need of a large number of nurses. Overseas experience has shown that with the aging of citizens, nursing will become one of the employments with the highest market demand growth rate. On the one hand, there are a large number of unemployed people in both urban and rural areas of China and, on the other hand, nursing shortage for the elderly and persons with disabilities is a serious problem. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, therefore, we can establish a multi-level nurse training system, mainly for trainings of senior nursing personnel such as unemployed college students, social workers or college students majored in nursing; trainings of intermediate nursing personnel such as high school graduates and secondary school students; trainings of junior nursing personnel for 4050 people and young and middle-aged female migrant workers and short-term trainings of informal nursing personnel for urban elderly or family members. Meanwhile, we should combine such training with the development of working positions for serving the elderly in communities. These measures will have the effect of "killing two birds with one stone": On the one hand, they will help to solve the employment problem of a large number of unemployed people and, on the other hand, they will help to address the nursing shortage for the elderly.

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