Urban Poverty and Anti-poverty Measures

I.China's current urban poverty situation

2011  is the first year for the implementation of the “12th Five-Year Plan”. During the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, China made significant achievements in economic and social development: As for social development, China established and improved the social security systems; as for economic development, in 2010, with GDP surpassing Japan, China became the world's second largest economy. Meanwhile, China's urbanization rate exceeded 50%. However, China is still in the list of backward countries from the perspective of per capita GDP. Due to the poor social security, the severe employment situation and the widening gap between rich and poor, a growing number of urban residents are facing the risk of poverty and China still has a long way to go in the field of urban poverty reduction.

　　The main reason for the poverty of urban residents is unemployment, disease and the lack of labor. The results of the fourth National Health Services Survey in 2008 show that 47.8% of the urban poor families fell into poverty due to unemployment, 28.4% due to illness or injury, 11.2% due to the lack of labor and 12.4% for other reasons.

　　China still has a large urban poverty-stricken population. The urban poor identified by the government are mainly the objects of the urban minimum living security system. In recent years, the number of the urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances was about 23 million, but it actually underestimates the scale of the urban poor in China because the low-income standard of China is relatively low, about 300 Yuan per person per month in 2012. In other words, only the families with per capita monthly disposable income of less than 300 Yuan can apply for the subsistence allowances. This standard can only maintain the basic survival in most of the cities in China. At the same time, there are about 150 million migrant workers in domestic cities, which are the urban groups with high risk of poverty but excluded by the urban minimum living security. Based on the research of the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as well as some local governments, the “Report on China's Urban Development” printed in 2011 pointed out that the urban poor accounted for about 7.5% -8.7% of the total urban residents. According to the calculation based on this figure, there are now about 50 million urban poor people in China, double the objects of the urban minimum living security system.[1]

　　The income situation of the poor is deteriorating. According to the comparison of income, there is a huge gap between the income of the urban poor and the income of the high-income residents and the average income of urban residents. In 2000, the per capita annual disposable income of the lowest income households – 10% of the urban families was 2653 Yuan, while this figure of the highest-income households was 13311 Yuan, 5.0 times that of the former. In 2010, the per capita annual disposable income of the highest-income households was 8.6 times that of the lowest income households. In 2000, the annual per capita income of the poorest families, which accounted for 5% of the urban households, was 2,325 Yuan, the annual per capita disposable income of the highest income group was 5.7 times that of the poorest. In 2010, the annual per capita disposable income of the highest income group was 10.9 times that of the poorest. Not only the income gap between the poor urban residents and the high-income families, but also the gap between income of the poor urban residents and the national average level are widening. In 2000, the per capita disposable income of the urban families in China was respectively equivalent to 2.4 times and 2.7 times that of the lowest income households. In 2010, the two figures respectively increased to 3.2 times and 4.0 times.

　　Table 1: Comparison of per capita annual disposable income of urban households

Year	2000	2001	2003	2005	2008	2009	2010
(1)    National average (Yuan)	6280	6860	8472	10493	15781	17175	19109
(2)    Lowest-income households (Yuan)	2653	2803	2590	3135	4754	5253	5948
（3）Poor households (Yuan)	2325	2465	2099	2496	3734	4198	4739
（4）Highest-income households (Yuan)	13311	15115	21837	28773	43614	46826	51432
（2）/（4）	5. 0	5. 4	8. 4	9. 2	9. 2	8. 9	8. 6
（3）/（4）	5. 7	6. 1	10. 4	11. 5	11. 7	11. 2	10. 9
（2）/（1）	2. 4	2. 4	3. 3	3. 3	3. 3	3. 3	3. 2
（3）/（1）	2. 7	2. 8	4	4. 2	4. 2	4. 1	4．0

　　Source: Previous "China Statistical Yearbook"

　　Unemployment is still one of the main causes of poverty of urban residents and the urban employment situation is still grim. In recent years, China's new urban working-age population has exceeded 10 million. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's registered urban unemployment rate remained at a low level of 4.0% -4.3%, and this figure was 4.1% in 2011. In recent years, the total number of unemployed people is less than 10 million. However, the registered unemployment rate greatly underestimated our unemployment situation and the real unemployment rate may be much higher than 4% because many flexible employees and migrant workers in the city have not been registered in the labor department and are not included in the registered unemployed or taken into account in the calculation of unemployment rate by relevant government department. In fact, however, they face high risk of unemployment. As the “No. 4 Report on China’s Urban Development” printed in 2011 pointed out, China’s urban unemployment rate was 5.5% [1]in 2009 according to the survey, but the registered unemployment rate was only 4.3% that year.

　　Figure 1：Registered number of the urban unemployed and registered urban 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 people: Among the registered unemployed in 2010, those aged 20-24 and 25-29 accounted for 22.1% and 14.2% of the total respectively and the younger age groups of 20-39 years old accounted for 59.6%. Among the registered unemployed, people with college and undergraduate or above education degree respectively accounted for 13.7% and 6.6%. Among the registered unemployed aged 20-24, those with college and undergraduate or above education degree respectively accounted for 26.2% and 12.3%; In the 25-29 age group of registered unemployed, those with college, undergraduate and graduate degrees respectively accounted for 22.1%, 13.9% and 1.2%.Among the unemployed college graduates, university graduates and post graduates, 45.1%, 52.0% and 44.8% did not find jobs after graduation. The statistics of occupational supply and demand in some cities in 2011 show that unemployed persons accounted for 54.2% of the job seekers and the new unemployed youth accounted for 24.5%. Among the new unemployed young people in 2011, however, 2.11 million were fresh college graduates, accounting for about 43.9% of that in 2010. The above analysis shows that the unemployment situation of highly educated groups and young people is relatively serious and it will cause a huge waste of human resources.

　　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 2011, there were a total of 253 million peasant workers in China, of which 153 million were migrant workers and 89 million were local peasant workers. Migrant workers face many risks of poverty: (1) Generally low level of education and skills of migrant workers. Illiterate and primary school graduates accounted for 15.9% of the total, junior middle school graduates accounted for 61.1%, the migrant workers with high school and above educational levels only accounted for 23.0%; the labors who received agricultural technical training accounted for 10.5%, those who received non-agricultural skills training accounted for 26.2%, and those never receiving any skills training accounted for 68.8%.  (2) Low contract signing rate and the lack of effective protection measures for some jobs. 43.8% of the migrant workers signed labor contracts with the employers. In the field of construction, about 73.6% of the migrant workers have not signed labor contracts with the employers, which is the highest proportion in all sectors. This proportion in service industry was 61.4% and that in accommodation and catering, wholesale and retail industry was respectively 64.6% and 60.9%.  (3) Low social security insurance participation rate. The proportion of the units or employers that bought pension insurance, injury insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance for migrant workers was respectively 13.9%, 23.6%, 16.7%, 8% and 5.6%. 

I.Urban anti-poverty policies and measures

　　The establishment of an effective anti-poverty strategy is essential for maintaining urban stability and harmony. The international anti-poverty practice shows that the social assistance - safety net measures can only maintain the basic livelihood of the poor and cannot prescribe the right medicine for the complex mechanisms for the incidence of poverty, thereby being questioned by more and more people. The concept of social protection developed on the basis of the "social safety net", however, proposes to establish poverty risk prevention network through social assistance, social insurance and empowerment [2], achieving the leap from safety net to springboard, thereby arousing wide attention of the international anti-poverty theories and practices.[3]

　　Social protection was defined by the World Bank (2011) as a series of measures to protect the human capital, covering labor market intervention, income-supported statutory unemployment, old-age insurance and other social insurance, with the purpose to help individuals, families and communities better manage the income risks faced by vulnerable groups [3]. Devereux (2004), however, included the dimension of the rights into the definition and defined social protection as the various measures for public and private institutions to provide income or consumption transfer payments for the poor, provide livelihood risk defense mechanisms for vulnerable groups and improve the social status and rights of marginalized groups with the purpose to reduce the vulnerability of the poor, the vulnerable and marginalized groups. [2]

　　Social protection puts forward four kinds of anti-poverty intervention measures: (1) Protective measures: Relief for the people in poverty who can hardly maintain their livelihoods, including temporary emergency relief and long-term social assistance for the poor; (2) Preventive measures: Measures to transfer the risk of poverty, including the official social insurance mechanisms and informal risk-sharing mechanisms (such as community insurance and savings clubs); (3) Promotive measures: Measures to increase income and improve capacity and thus achieve social protection. The campus lunch program and the provision of public employment opportunities, for example, have not only conducted food and cash transfer and achieved the short-term consumption expenditure, but also promoted the formation of long-term riches; (4) Transformative measures: Measures to eliminate social inequity and social exclusion leading to vulnerability, such as collective actions to safeguard workers' interests and protect minority groups from discrimination. [2]

　　If protective measures provide a minimal safety net, the preventive, promotive and transformative measures provide the poor and marginalized groups with a launching pad to escape the poverty trap while preventing and controlling the risk of poverty. In the following part, we’ll analyze China’s urban anti-poverty strategies from the perspective of four kinds of social protection measures and make suggestions for urban anti-poverty in the future.

（I）Protective measures: Improve the social assistance system to build a social safety net for the urban poor

　　In the mid-20th century, along with the reform and structural adjustment of state-owned enterprises, the problem of urban poverty due to lay-off and unemployment became increasingly serious. In this context, the Chinese government gradually established institutionalized systems of urban poverty alleviation from the initial basic life relief to the establishment of comprehensive social relief systems, mainly including the urban minimum living security system, urban medical assistance system, housing assistance and housing security system as well as educational assistance system [4-6]. Targeting at the poor and low-income people at the edge of poverty, the systems are set up to meet the basic needs of the poor.

1. Urban minimum living security system

　　Development overview: Objects and subsistence allowance

　　The urban minimum living security system was first established in Shanghai in 1993. After the State Council issued the "Notice on the Establishment of Urban Minimum Living Security System across the Country" in 1997, the urban minimum living security system became the most basic social relief system in urban China covering a growing number of people and gradually replaced former assistance system for urban poor residents. In 2000, the number of the objects of this system was 4.026 million. In 2004, this figure rose to 22.05 million. After that, the number of the objects of this system is about 23 million. In the first quarter of 2012, the urban minimum living security system covered 22.141 million people.

　　Table 2: General situation of the urban minimum living security system, 1997-2010

	Objects	Subsistence allowance standard (Yuan / month / person)	Allowance (Yuan / month /person)
2000	402. 6	157	—
2001	1170. 7	147	—
2002	2064. 7	148	—
2004	2205. 0	152	65
2005	2234. 2	156	72
2006	2240. 1	169	84
2007	2272. 1	182	103
2009	2345. 6	227	172
2010	2310. 5	251	189
2011	2276. 8	288	225
2012	2214. 1	300	255

　　Source: Previous “China Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook”; Social Services Statistics Quarterly Bulletin of the 1st Quarter of 2012

　　Covering an increasing number of people, the urban subsistence allowance standard (subsistence allowance protection line) and the average allowance also rise with the price index year by year. In 2004, the urban subsistence allowance standard was 152 Yuan per person per month and the allowance was 65 Yuan per person per month. In the first quarter of 2012, the average urban subsistence allowance standard in China was 300 Yuan per person per month and the allowance was 255 Yuan per person per month. During the eight years, the subsistence allowance standard and the allowance per person respectively rose by 97.4% and 292.3%. In the same period, the per capita disposable income of urban residents was 9,422 Yuan in 2004 and 21,810 Yuan in 2011, up 131.5%. It shows that although the growth rate of the subsistence allowance standard is lower than that of per capita disposable income of urban residents, the growth rate of the allowance per person is much higher than that of per capita disposable income. This indicates that the subsistence allowances are playing a more positive role in helping the poor.

　　The subsistence allowance standards are quite different in different areas. In the first quarter of 2012, the subsistence allowance standards in the east areas are generally higher. In the regions of the top five rankings of subsistence allowance standards, except Tibet, the other four are all in East China. The subsistence allowance standards in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Zhejiang are all more than 400 Yuan. In Guangdong, an economically strong province, the subsistence allowance standard is only 288 Yuan, ranking 20th in the country, even below the subsistence allowance standard of some central and western economically weak provinces and municipalities (such as Jiangxi and Shaanxi), not matching its economic development level. The subsistence allowance standards in the western regions are generally low. The last five regions in the ranking are all in the western areas except Henan. Among them, Xinjiang has a subsistence allowance standard of 202 Yuan, equivalent to only 40 percent of the subsistence allowance standard of Beijing, the first rank.

　　Table 3: Average standard of subsistence allowances in various provinces of China in the first quarter of 2012

Ranking	Region	Subsistence allowance standard (Yuan /month)	Number of counties / districts	Ranking	Region	Subsistence allowance standard (Yuan /month)	Number of counties / districts
1	Beijing	520	16	17	Guizhou	295	90
2	Shanghai	505	17	18	Fujian	293	87
3	Tianjin	485	16	19	Shanxi	289	121
4	Zhejiang	453	92	20	Guangodng	288	125
5	Tibet	396	73	21	Heilongjiang	287	141
6	Jiangsu	391	120	22	Jilin	271	70
7	Inner Mongolia	364	103	23	Hunan	258	138
8	Liaoning	343	107	24	Sichuan	250	186
9	Jiangxi	334	110	25	Guangxi	249	112
10	Shandong	323	168	26	Yunnan	247	134
11	Hebei	321	192	27	Qinghai	241	46
12	Shaanxi	315	109	28	Ningxia	240	22
13	Hainan	312	21	29	Henan	237	180
14	Anhui	312	115	30	Gansu	220	85
15	Hubei	303	104	31	Xinjiang	202	114
16	Chongqing	301	39

 

　　Source: Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

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

　　Among all urban residents receiving subsistence allowances, the disabled, people with no ability to work, people with neither sources of income nor family support, people whose family supporters do not have the ability to support them ("three-no people"), the unemployed (including registered ones and unregistered ones), the students at school and other "vulnerable groups" account for a higher proportion. From 2010 to 2012, the disabled accounted for 7.8% of the urban residents receiving subsistence allowances. The unemployed are the one of the most important sources of the objects of the urban minimum living security system. Among the 23.105 million urban residents receiving subsistence allowances, in 2010, 9.127 million were unemployed people, accounting for 40% of the total, but the proportion of the unemployed in the objects declined from 43.64% in 2007 to 39.5% in 2010, and then to 39.3% in 2011 and 2012. In 2010, 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 4：Proportions of the disabled, "three-no people", unemployed people and students in the objects of the urban minimum living security system

Year	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. 1	161	7. 1	125. 8	5. 5	991. 5	43. 6	321. 6	14. 2
2008	2334. 8	169. 1	7. 2	106. 9	4. 6	966. 5	41. 4	358. 1	15. 3
2009	2345. 6	181	7. 7	94. 1	4. 01	921. 1	39. 27	369. 1	15. 7
2010	2310. 5	180. 7	7. 8	89. 3	3. 9	912. 7	39. 5	357. 3	15. 5
2011	2276. 8	181. 0	8. 0	81. 1	3. 6	895. 4	39. 3	341. 2	15. 0
2012	2214. 1	172. 1	7. 8	72. 4	3. 3	869. 2	39. 3	328. 4	14. 8

 

　　Note: 2011 data are fourth-quarter data of various provinces and the country; 2012 data are the first-quarter data of the country

　　Source: Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

　　Construction progress of the urban minimum living security system

　　With the full implementation of the urban minimum living system in the country, in the past two years, the civil affairs departments actively promoted the standardized construction of the urban minimum living system, including the standardization of subsistence allowances, the mechanism for linkage of the standard of subsistence allowances and price hikes, the standardization of object identification of the minimum living security system and the standardization of the information system for subsistence allowances.

　　Standardization of subsistence allowances As there is no necessary demonstration or scientific calculations for the formulation of the poverty line, it has some subjectivity and arbitrariness and can hardly reflect the basic needs of life of local residents and the growth level of prices of commodities. The Ministry of Civil Affairs actively pushed forward the standardized construction of the subsistence allowance standards. In 2011, the Ministry of Civil Affairs 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 have developed the minimum standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances according to the above two methods can calculate the proportion of the minimum standard for subsistence allowances in the annual per capita consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents. After that, they 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.

　　The mechanism for linkage of the standard of subsistence allowances and price hikes In recent years, the prices of daily necessities, especially food prices rose too fast, and the poor can hardly maintain the basic living. In order to alleviate the adverse impact of price hikes on the life of the rural and urban poor, in 2011, the Chinese government established the mechanism for the linkage between the social relief standards and protection level and the price hikes, targeting at the objects of the urban and rural social assistance, including entitled groups, urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances, objects of the rural five-guarantee system and those receiving unemployment insurance benefits. When the residents’ basic living costs or monthly consumer price index rise to a critical point, the government will start the linkage mechanism and issue the temporary price subsidies. After the residents’ basic living costs or monthly consumer price index fall below the critical point for a certain period of time, the government will stop issuing temporary price subsidies. After the temporary price subsidies are continuously issued for a certain period of time, the government should enhance the urban and rural subsistence allowance standards in accordance with normal procedures and stop issuing temporary price subsidies after the subsistence allowance standards are raised. The subsidy standard mustn’t be below the actual impact of price hikes on the living of low-income groups.

　　continuous payment over a certain period of temporary price subsidies when, in accordance with normal procedures, improve urban and rural low standard, since to improve urban and rural low standard date to stop issuing temporary price subsidies. The subsidies standards should at least offset the impact of rising prices on the lives of low-income groups.

　　Standardization of object identification of the minimum living security system To solve the phenomena of non-standardization and unclear policies for the identification of objects of the 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 in the identification of objects of the system. The main contents include: (1) Standardized the conditions for household registration identification and only those urban residents from non-agricultural household can receive the subsistence allowances. 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) Standardized the categories and conditions of the family property. Family property refers to all the securities, deposits, real estate and vehicles and other assets owned by the family members living together. (3) Standardized the categories and calculation methods of family income. Family 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.  (4) Standardized 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.

　　Standardized construction of the information system for subsistence allowances  In 2011, the Ministry of Civil Affairs developed the subsistence allowance information system standards and established the national minimum living guarantee system, striving to achieve a dynamic and transparent management of the minimum living standard security system. The standardized construction of this information system includes two parts, namely the business standard specifications and technology and management standard specifications. The former include the “Operation Specifications of the Minimum Living Security System”, the “Operation Specifications of the Rural Five-guarantee System”, “Statistical Index for the Minimum Living Security”, the “Minimum Living Security Monitoring and Early Warning Index” and the “Operation Specifications for the Minimum Living Security Information System and Application System”. The technology and management standard specifications include the “Social Assistance Business Data Elements”, the “Core Metadata of the Minimum Living Security Information Resources”, “Classification of the Minimum Living Security Information”, the “Minimum Living Security Information Resources Directory Management”, the “Minimum Living Security Information Resources Identifier Encoding Scheme”, etc. The establishment of the information systems contributes to the effective monitoring and evaluation of the status of the minimum living security system in China.

2. Medical aid system

　　Urban medical assistance policy progress

　　Loss of manpower caused by medical expenses and diseases is one of the risks for poverty of the urban low-income groups and poverty-stricken people. In order to effectively alleviate the economic difficulties of the urban poor people for medical treatment, in 2005, the State Council promulgated the "Notice on the Establishment of the Pilot Urban Medical Aid System” and launched the pilot work of urban medical aid. Currently, this system has been widely set up in the urban areas nationwide, targeting at the urban poor, including the urban residents receiving subsistence allowances who have not participated in the basic medical insurance system for urban workers, or have participated in the basic medical insurance system for urban workers but still have a heavy personal burden, and other groups in special difficulties. This system mainly provide relief in two ways: First, pay the insurance premium for urban residents to participate in the basic medical insurance system; Second, reimburse the out-of-pocket medical expenses of urban residents after reimbursement of the basic medical insurance system according to a certain proportion through the urban medical aid system. Sources of the medical aid funds include the fiscal budget, special lottery fund and social contributions. In order to ensure the stability of the medical aid funds, the "Notice" requires the local government to arrange urban medical aid fund every year and include it into the fiscal budget of the government at the same level. The central and provincial government will provide appropriate subsidies for the areas in difficulties.

　　Overview on the development of medical aid system

　　In 2010, a total of 19.213 million urban residents received the assistance, including 14.612 million persons subsidized by civil affair departments and 4.601 million urban residents receiving direct assistance. The number of direct relief objects receiving financial aid increased significantly from 6.43 million in 2008 to 14.61 million in 2010, but the average relief fund continued to decrease. The average subsidy for the insured was 60.5 Yuan per person in 2008, but his figure dropped to 52.0 Yuan in 2010. Direct relief – direct reimbursement of the medical expenditure of the urban poor covered about 4.5 million people, but the level of per capita assistance was much higher. 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

　　Table 5：Basic situation of urban medical assistance, 2005-2010

Yea	Total person-times of the assistance	Direct assistance		Subsidy for insurance participation
	Total number of person-times of the assistance (ten thousand)	Number of person-times (ten thousand)	Per capita relief fund (Yuan)	Number of person-times (ten thousand)	Per capita relief fund (Yuan)
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"

　　Economic burden on the urban poor for medical treatment

　　In 2011, the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Beijing Normal University carried out field research on the urban poor in Bazhou City of Hebei, Chibi City of Hubei and Hechuan District of Chongqing and obtained effective data a total of 1893 urban poor residents. The study has the following outcomes:

(1)  The economic burden on the urban poor for medical treatment has been reduced to some extent, but still hinders its utilization of medical services. About 70% of the respondents said that the family economic burden for medical treatment has been greatly alleviated since the implementation of the medical aid system, but the economic burden of medical treatment still seriously restricts the utilization of medical services of the poor. 52.8% of the objects of medical assistance said that their ill family members did not see a doctor due to financial difficulty. In last year, the ill family members of 37.1% of the medical aid objects requiring hospitalization were not hospitalized and 29.2% of the medical aid objects requiring hospitalization stopped medical treatment due to lack of money. It shows that although the implementation of the basic medical insurance system for urban residents and the medical aid policy has reduced the economic burden on the poor for medical treatment to some extent, the out-of-pocket health care expenditures are still huge obstacles to seeking medical services.

　　Table 6: Difficulties of the urban poor in seeing a doctor

Seeing a doctor	Options	Bazhou	Chibi	Hechua	Total
Economic burden of medical treatment was reduced	Yes	68. 0	69. 5	85. 9	75. 1
	No	32. 0	30. 5	14. 1	24. 9
Not seeing a doctor due to lack of money	Yes	59. 5	50. 0	49. 5	52. 8
	No	40. 6	50. 0	50. 5	47. 2
No hospitalization due to lack of money	Yes	49. 3	29. 1	34. 4	37. 1
	No	50. 7	70. 9	65. 6	62. 9
Discharged early because of lack of money	Yes	33. 2	23. 6	31. 7	29. 2
	No	66. 8	76. 4	68. 4	70. 9

(2)  Medical security shares part of the burden of health care costs on the urban poor, but the individuals still have to pay most of the medical expenses. Per capita medical expenditure (including outpatient, inpatient, purchase of medicines, etc) of poor families is 2,728 Yuan, and the medical security system provides per capita reimbursement of medical costs of 574 Yuan (including medical insurance and medical relief), accounting for only 21% of the annual per capita medical expenses. Per capita out-of-pocket medical expenses are 1915 Yuan, accounting for nearly 80% of the per capita health care costs. In the three regions, Chibi has the highest proportion of individual contribution, up 72.6%. It shows that although the medical security system shares part of the medical expenditure and reduces the medical cost burden on individuals, in fact, the reimbursement rate is still low and individuals still have to pay most of the medical expenses.

　　Table 7: Per capita medical expenses and reimbursement

	Bazhou	Chibi	Hechuan	Total
Medical expenses per capita (Yuan)	3186	3426	2249	2728
Per capita reimbursement (Yuan)	455	940	336	574
Individual contribution (Yuan)	2731	2486	1914	2154
Medical security (%)	14. 3	27. 4	14. 9	21. 0
Individual contribution (%)	85. 7	72. 6	85. 1	79. 0

(3)  The out-of-pocket health care costs are beyond the affordability of most of the urban poor families. In the survey, the research group asked how much medical expenses at most the surveyed households can afford, i.e. the affordability of the families for medical costs. Table 6 compares their affordability for medical costs and how much out-of-pocket health care spending must be paid by the farmers (the ratio between out-of-pocket health care spending and the family’s affordability for medical costs). About 40.0% of the urban poor families cannot afford the out-of-pocket health care costs. It means that the out-of-pocket health care spending of 60.0% of the urban households doubles their affordability and that of about 40% of the poor families even triples their affordability. Among the three regions, the poor in Hechuan has the lightest burden of health care costs but the out-of-pocket health care spending of more than 50% of the families is beyond their affordability. It shows that despite the medical insurance and medical aid, the out-of-pocket health care spending of the poor is still beyond the affordability of most of the poor.

　　Table 8: Comparison of the out-of-pocket health care spending and the affordability of poor families (%)

Items	Bazhou	Chibi	Hechuan	Total
Within affordability	35. 7	33. 3	48. 1	38. 7
One to three times the affordability	18. 1	19. 1	15. 4	17. 6
Above three times the affordability	46. 3	47. 6	36. 5	43. 7

 

(4)  Limited impact of the medical insurance reimbursement on catastrophic medical expenses. In the field of international health policy, the catastrophic health expenditure is generally used to measure the economic burden of medical costs on residents. The so-called catastrophic health expenditure refers to the large amount of medical expenses that affect family life, usually measured by whether the medical expenses exceed 40 percent of household disposable income. If the medical expenditure paid directly by a family is more than 40% of the family’s disposable income, it can be thought as catastrophic health expenditure[7]. Before the expenses reimbursement of the basic medical insurance for urban residents and medical assistance, about 40% of the poor urban families had catastrophic health expenditure. After the reimbursement, there was only a reduction of 4% in the catastrophic health expenditure of the three regions and 36% of the poor still have catastrophic health expenditure. In Bazhou, even 44.0% of the families still have catastrophic health expenditure (See Table 7). It shows that medical aid and basic medical insurance for urban residents had limited effect on reducing the incidence of the poor’s catastrophic health expenditure and the burden of catastrophic health expenditure on the poor is still heavy.

　　Table 9: High catastrophic health expenditure

Items	Bazhou 　　（N=223）	Chibi 　　(N=260)	Hechuan 　　(N=232)	Total 　　(N=715)
(1)  Before reimbursement	46. 3	44. 4	29. 4	40. 3
(2)  After reimbursement	44. 9	38. 0	25. 7	36. 3
（1）-（2）	1. 4	6. 4	3. 7	4. 0

3. Education assistance system

　　Financial aid for tuition fees and living expenses of the students with financial difficulties decides whether they can complete their studies smoothly and thus shake off poverty rely on knowledge. After years of efforts, the Chinese government has initially set up a complete education aid policy system, covering all the students from low-income families at various education stages. In colleges and universities, the government established the aid system based on national scholarships and national student loan; 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; For pre-primary school education, the government began to provide financial aid for children from economically disadvantaged families, orphans and children with disabilities since fall semester in 2011.

　　In 2011, according to preliminary statistics, the state issued a total of 73.2 billion Yuan of subsidies for poor students, up 5.6% over 2010, including national scholarships and grant-in-aid for college and university students, student loans, national grant-in-aid and tuition-free policy for secondary vocational school students, national grant-in-aid for high school students and subsidies for boarding students during the compulsory education period. In addition, a total of nearly 90 billion Yuan of subsidies was issued to support education by local governments, schools, enterprises, units, social groups and individuals, 4.5 times that of 2006 before the establishment of the new subsidy policy system. The details are as follows: (1) At the stage of university education, in 2011, about 50,000 students obtained national scholarships of 400 million Yuan, 661,000 students were issued the national scholarships for encouragement of about 3.3 billion Yuan and more than 4.43 million students got the national grant-in-aids of 13.1 billion Yuan. In 2011, 1.178 million students applied for national grant-in-aids, up 3.5%, and 13.28 billion Yuan of grant-in-aids was approved, up 15.6%. In 2009, the state began to implement the tuition fee subsidy and state-subsidized student loan system for university graduates to join the army for obligatory military service. Since the implementation of the policy, a total of 66,500 university graduates have applied for enlistment in compulsory military service in the army and received the subsidies. At the same time, the government provides tuition fee subsidy and state-subsidized student loan system for graduates of central subordinate universities to serve in the grassroots units of central and western regions and remote border areas with harsh natural conditions. Since the policy implementation in 2007, as of the end of 2011, a total of 32,000 graduates of central subordinate universities went to serve the grassroots units in the central and western regions and remote border areas with harsh natural conditions and received tuition fee subsidies. In the fall semester of 2011, 702,800 fresh students were enrolled through the "green channel" in China, accounting for 41.1% of the students from needy families and 10.8% of the total fresh students. So far, almost no college freshmen will drop out of school due to financial difficulties; (2) At the stage of secondary vocational education, in 2011, a total of 9.06 million vocational school students received the state grants of 13.59 billion Yuan; a total of 3.95 million students enjoyed the policy of free tuition, accounting for about 20% of the total, involving tuition fee of 7.9 billion Yuan. (3) At the stage of high school education, in 2011, a total of 4.8 million high school students received state grants of 7.2 billion Yuan. (4) At the stage of compulsory education, in 2011, a total of 133 million school-age children across the country received free textbooks, accounting for 87% of the total; and a total of 15,680,000 boarders from needy families received living allowance of more than 14 billion Yuan.

4. Housing assistance and housing security system

　　Current situation of the housing assistance and housing security

　　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. In 2011, the Chinese government continued to promote the construction of affordable housing in a large scale. The central government allocated 171.3 billion Yuan of financial funds for the project implement, 2,2 times that of 2010. As of the end of 2011, China had basically set up 4.32 million sets of affordable housing and launched the construction of affordable housing for 10.43 million households.

　　However, the housing security of migrant workers is limited. According to the survey in 2011, the migrant workers mainly lived in the dormitories provided by the employers or units. About 32% of the employed migrant workers lived in the dormitories provided by the employers, about 10% of the migrant workers lived in the construction site or work sheds with poor living conditions, 6% lived in the business premises, 19% shared accommodation with others, 14% independently rented a house, 13% went back home every day despite working in other towns and less than 1% purchased their houses in the places where they worked. From the perspective of living burden on the migrant workers, about 50% of the migrant workers lived in the dormitories provided for free by the employers or units, approximately 9% of the employers of units of migrant workers did not provide accommodation but issued housing subsidies; 41% of the employers or units provided neither accommodation nor housing subsidy, and the migrant workers had to pay 335 Yuan per person per month for the accommodation, accounting for 16.0% of their average monthly income.

　　Housing assistance and housing security policy progress

　　During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, in order to solve the housing problem of low-income families and poor families in the city, the Chinese government gradually established and improved the housing security system and mainly implemented the low-cost housing system for the urban poor.

　　In 2007, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Solving the Housing Difficulties of Urban Low-income Families" and proposed to establish and improve the policy system to address the housing difficulties of urban low-income families. On this basis, in 2011, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on the Construction and Management of Affordable Housing Project”. By the end of the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, according to the “Opinions”, the affordable housing projects will cover 20% of the low-income families, aiming to basically solve the housing problem of low- and lower-middle-income families in the urban areas, effectively alleviate the housing difficulties of the employees and significantly improve the living conditions of migrant workers. The main provisions include: (1) In the construction of housing projects, it will focus on the development of public rental housing, targeting at the low- and lower-middle-income urban families in housing difficulty, newly employed workers without houses and the migrant workers with stable employment in the city. The building area of each affordable house is about 40 square meters to meet the basic living needs. (2) As for the supply of land, priority will be given to the construction of affordable housing. The reserved land and the state-owned land with use right withdrawn will be first allocated for the construction of affordable housing. (3) As for the increase in government investment, the central government will provide more financial aid and the local governments at all levels will give priority to affordable housing projects in the budget arrangements and increase financial inputs. In accordance with the principle of “provincial government taking the overall responsibility and city and county governments focusing on the implementation”, the provincial government increased efforts on the overall management to ensure the timely issuance of project funds in full. After being used as loan risk reserves and administrative expenses, all the incremental benefits of the housing funds will be used for the construction of affordable housing and public rental housing. The cities that cannot complete the affordable housing construction task may not build or buy any government office building. (4) As for tax breaks, we must seriously implement the existing preferential tax policies for construction, transactions and business operation and not charge urban infrastructure construction fee and other administration fee or government fund for the construction of rental housing, public rental housing and affordable housing as well as the transformation of shantytowns. (5) As for the approval procedures, the city and county governments should develop rational standards for the protection of the housing and family income (properties) of the objects in accordance with the level of local economic and social development, people's income and housing conditions. Sound systems should be set up for the housing security application, approval, announcement and review. (6) As for the housing management, the city and county governments should arrange affordable housing for the eligible families during the waiting period. The public rental house lease contract period is usually three to five years. After the expiry of the lease contract, the tenant can apply for renewal if he still meets the required conditions. (7) To strengthen the management of the use of affordable housing, the city and county governments should establish the housing security management information system and improve the files of affordable housing and the objects to conduct a dynamic monitoring of the changes in the population, housing and economic situation of the objects. Those who sell, lend or re-lease the affordable houses and those leave the affordable houses unused will be withdrawn the houses according to the relevant regulations or contractual terms. If intermediaries sell and rent the affordable houses, they’ll be punished according to law. (8) As for the exit mechanism, after the lessees of low-rent housing and public rental housing improved their economic situation or obtain other houses through purchase, inheritance or endowment and no longer meet the required conditions, they should vacate the affordable housing within the prescribed period. Those who do not vacate within the prescribed period should pay rental according to the market prices.

5. Social assistance system for migrant workers

　　Although the state actively encourages migrant workers to participate in urban social insurance and the gradual implements the equalization of public services, migrant workers’ social insurance participation rate is still relatively low and working situation is still unstable, so migrant workers can hardly bear the shock of any social risks. In case of unemployment, injury or disease, many migrant workers can hardly even maintain the basic living. Therefore, it is an urgent task to include migrant workers into the urban social relief system. Migrant workers are in urgent need of strong social relief, but there are no unified policy arrangements to solve this problem at the moment and only some temporary social relief projects have been launched in a few places to support the migrant workers.

（II）Preventative social protection measures：Improve the basic social insurance systems

　　As a preventive social protection measure, social insurance can effectively prevent the risk of poverty due to illness, old age, disability and unemployment. After the reform and opening up, the original “iron bowl” security system relying on units has gradually become a barrier for the improvement of the market economy system. In order to adapt to the trend of market-oriented reforms, in the late 1990s, the Chinese government initially established in the city the social pension insurance system, basic medical insurance system, unemployment insurance system, industrial injury insurance system and maternity insurance system, which played an important role in helping urban residents preventing and reducing poverty risk, especially in preventing the laid-off workers in the reform of state-owned enterprises from falling into poverty.

　　As a preventative social protection measures, social insurance can effectively prevent the risks of poverty because of illness, old age, disability and unemployment. After the reform and opening up, the iron rice bowl-style security system relying on units gradually began to restrain the improvement of the market economic system. In order to adapt to the marketization reform trend, in late 1990s, the Chinese government initially set up in the city the social pension insurance system for urban workers, basic medical insurance system, unemployment insurance system, industrial injury insurance system and maternity insurance system, which played an important role in helping urban residents prevent and alleviate poverty risk, especially in alleviating the poverty due to unemployment of the laid-off workers involved in the reform of state-owned enterprises.  

　　The basic social insurance systems set up in the 1990s mainly cover the in-service staff and retired people registered in urban areas, excluding the non-employees, the urban residents serving non-formal enterprises and the migrant workers, who face more poverty risks. The pilot projects of basic medical insurance for urban residents were launched in 2007 and comprehensively implemented nationwide in 2009, mainly covering primary and secondary school students, children and other non-employed urban residents, etc. In some places, migrant workers and flexible employees were also covered. The pilot project of basic endowment insurance for urban residents was launched in July 2011, covering urban non-employed people, aiming at establishing an endowment insurance system for urban residents combining individual contributions and government subsidies. In such a way, the main social insurance systems have almost covered all the urban residents.

1. Overview of the basic social insurance

　　During the period from 2006 to 2011, the coverage of the social insurance systems continued to expand and the number of participants and the amount of funds continued to rise, which effectively prevented the risks of poverty due to old age, illness, industrial injury and unemployment. As of the end of 2011, the pilot projects of the social old-age insurance for urban residents were launched in 2147 counties (cities, districts), covering more than 60% of the urban residents. The financial subsidy standard for the urban residents to participate in the basic medical insurance system was raised to 200 Yuan per person per year, and the work-related injury insurance system covered 3.12 million enterprises’ injured workers and relatives of the employees who died at work. The number of the participants of the basic pension insurance, urban basic medical insurance, unemployment insurance, industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance respectively reached 289 million, 473 million, 143 million, 177 million and 139 million, up 12.5%, 9.2%, 6.7%, 9.3% and 13.0% over 2010.

　　Table 10：Participants of the urban social insurance

　　Unit: million persons

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Participants of the basic pension insurance	1. 88	2. 01	2. 19	2. 36	2. 57	2. 89
Participants of urban the basic medical insurance	1. 57	2. 23	3. 18	4. 01	4. 33	4. 73
Participants of the  unemployment insurance	1. 12	1. 16	1. 24	1. 27	1. 34	1. 43
Participants of the industrial injury insurance	1. 03	1. 22	1. 38	1. 49	1. 62	1. 77
Participants of the maternity insurance	0. 65	0. 78	0. 93	1. 09	1. 23	1. 39

　　Source: "China Labor Statistical Yearbook 2011"; “Repot on Implementation of 2011 National Economic and Social Development Plan and the Draft of 2012 National Economic and Social Development Plan”

2. Social insurance of special groups

　　The social security conditions of the disabled were further improved in 2011. In the establishment of the pilot social old-age insurance system for urban residents in July 2011, 2.6 million persons with disabilities participated in the insurance system and the participation rate reached 59.2%. Among the 705,000 seriously disabled persons, 675,000 people received insurance subsidies from the government and 555,000 persons with non-severe disabilities received in full or part of the state subsidies. A total of 693,000 people received pensions, 2.993 urban residents with disabilities participated in the social insurance system and 4.331 million urban residents with disabilities participated in the basic medical insurance system.

　　According to statistics, in 2010, there were a total of 15,863 migrant workers in China, up 3.4% over 2009. 2010 No. 1 Central Document pointed out that we should further improve the social security system for migrant workers, promote the injury insurance to cover all migrant workers, strengthen the prevention and treatment of occupational diseases and health services for migrant workers, include the migrant workers who have established labor relationship with enterprises into the basic medical insurance system for urban residents and implement the transfer and continuity of the basic endowment insurance of migrant workers. As of the end of 2010, a total of 45.83 million migrant workers participated in the urban basic medical insurance system. In recent years, as the work units are required to buy injury insurance for migrant workers, the number of the insured migrant workers witnessed a rapid growth and reached 63 million at the end of 2010. The number of the insured migrant workers of the old-age insurance system and the unemployment insurance system was relatively small, respectively 32.84 million and 19.9 million at the end of 2010.

　　Table 11: 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: Previous "Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Human Resources and Social Security”

　　Despite a relatively substantial increase in the number of insured migrant workers, the insurance participation rate is still relatively low. According to the survey, the proportion of the employers or units of migrant workers that have bought pension insurance, industrial injury insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance for the migrant workers was respectively 13.9%, 23.6%, 16.7%, 8% and 5.6%. The insurance participation rate in the eastern areas was obviously higher than that of the central and western regions. The participation rate of the old-age insurance, industrial injury insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance in the east areas was respectively 16.4%, 27.0%, 16.7%, 8.0% and 5.6%, while this rates of the western region were only 8.3%, 17.0%, 11.1 %, 4.5% and 2.8%.

　　From the perspective of differences between the industries involved in social insurance, the situation of the manufacturing, wholesale and retail industry, transportation and warehousing as well as postal industry is better. The insurance participation rate of the migrant workers engaged in construction, accommodation and catering industry is obviously lower than that of the migrant workers in other fields.

　　Table 12: Social security participation rates of migrant workers in various industries in 2011

Unit: %
Industries	pension insurance	industrial injury insurance	medical insurance	unemployment insurance	maternity insurance
manufacturing	14. 1	28. 0	17. 8	7. 5	4. 8
construction	4. 3	14. 1	6. 4	2. 2	1. 6
transportation, storage and postal services	24. 4	32. 6	27. 7	15. 1	10. 4
wholesale and retail	15. 1	17. 7	16. 3	9. 6	7. 7
accommodation and catering	7. 3	11. 8	9. 0	3. 8	2. 5
resident services and other services	12. 4	16. 4	13. 7	6. 4	4. 5

　　Source: National Bureau of Statistics, 2012，“2011 Monitoring Report of Migrant Workers” 

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

　　The achievements made in the social insurance policies and regulations since 2010 mainly include 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 the promulgation and implementation of the “Guiding Opinions on the Pilot Program of Social Old-age Insurance for Urban Residents” and the "Social Insurance Law".

　　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 the urban residents without stable source of income, including 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 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 the participation rate of urban residents’ medical insurance must reach 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. It was approved by the NPC Standing Committee in October 2010 and is the first social insurance law since the founding of new China and 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" and the revised contents include: (1) Expanded the scope of application of the industrial injury insurance to cover various types of institutions and social organizations 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) Simplified the procedures of work-related injury ascertainment and 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 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

　　Major progress in social insurance policy in 2011 was the promulgation of the “Guiding Opinion on the Pilot Work of Social Old-age Insurance of Urban Residents” by the State Council, aiming to establish a social old-age insurance system for urban residents integrating individual contribution and government subsidies. Different from the basic endowment insurance of urban workers, the social old-age insurance system for urban residents targets at urban non-employed residents, the high-risk groups for poverty with a relatively low income level. The pilot project of social old-age insurance system for urban residents was launched on July 1, 2011 and almost achieved full coverage in 2012. (1) As for the payment, urban residents’ pension fund is primarily composed of individual contributions and government subsidies. Ten grades are set for the individual contributions, including 100 Yuan per year, 200 Yuan per year, 300 Yuan per year, 400 Yuan per year, 500 Yuan per year, 600 Yuan per year, 700 Yuan per year, 800 Yuan per year, 900 Yuan per year and 1000 Yuan per year. The government subsidies here refer to the basic pension paid in full by the government for the eligible urban residents to participate in the urban social old-age insurance system. The central government provides subsidies in full for the eligible insured in the central and western regions in accordance with the basic pension standard, and issues 50% of the subsidies to the eligible insured in the eastern areas. Meanwhile, local government should also provide subsidies of at least 30 Yuan per person per year for the insured. For the severely disabled with financial difficulty, the local government should pay all or part of the pension premium for them. (2) The state has established lifelong individual pension accounts for all the insured, covering the individual contributions, local government’s subsidies and other sources of assistance, with the one-year deposit rate of RMB accounts. (3) The pensions are composed o the basic pension and individual account’s pension payment and the pensions should be paid for the lifetime. The basic pension standard set by the central government is 55 Yuan per person per month; local governments can raise the basic pension standard according to the actual situations, and can issue more basic pensions for those who pay the insurance fee for a long time. The monthly pension issuance standard is the personal accounts' deposit balance divided by 139. (4) As for the conditions to receive pensions, when the insured person is 60 years old, he or she can receive a monthly pension. Those who are already 60 years old when the system is implemented and have not received any other pension subsidies do not need to pay and can receive a monthly pension. Those who need to wait for less than 15 years for receiving the pension have to pay annual pension premium for no more than 15 years; those who need to wait for more than 15 years for receiving the pension have to pay annual pension premium for no less than 15 years.

(III) Promotive social protection: Anti-poverty strategy to promote employment

　　Promotive social protection aims to help the poor develop the ability for sustainable development through enhancing their employability. In the urban anti-poverty measures of China, the promotive social protection include employment assistance, reducing the burden on enterprises, stabilize employment and providing employment services for people with disabilities and college graduates.

1. Improve the employment assistance system

　　Table 4 reveals that among the urban residents receiving the subsistence allowances, about 40% are the unemployed. Therefore, it is one of the fundamental urban anti-poverty strategies to solve the employment problem. In 2011, 12.21 million people got employed and the urban unemployment rate was 4.1% at the end of that year. The initial employment rate of college graduates reached 77.8%, 1.2 percentage points higher than that in 2010. 5.53 million laid-off workers and 1.8 million people with difficulties in finding a job achieved re-employment.[16] It is one of the fundamental urban anti-poverty strategies to provide employment assistance for the groups with high risk of poverty and help them find jobs. At present, the main employment assistance policies include tax relief, loan interest subsidies, social insurance subsidies and job subsidies. Through arranging public service jobs, the government strived to help people achieve employment.

　　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 "Guidance on Strengthening Employment Assistance" enacted in 2010 (Issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Ministry [2010] No. 29) made specific provisions on some key issues concerning employment assistance: (1) Clarify the objects of employment assistance, including all the members of the families in employment difficulty and zero-employment families as well as the people who were unemployed for a certain period of time and have not found a job. (2) Implement classified assistance and provide follow-up services. Develop personalized aid programs to achieve “one plan for one person” through signing assistance agreements, and provide follow-up services for the employed objects. (3) Vigorously develop working positions, especially the public welfare working positions to expand the employment scale, implement the position subsidy and social insurance subsidy policy and improve the public welfare working position and management systems. (4) Improve the employment assistance systems, including the registration accreditation system, the dynamic management system, the classified support system and the tracking service system, and strengthen the supervision and management of the implementation of the various systems. (5) Strengthen information technology support for employment assistance and include all the management information and service information into the public employment service information system for unified management. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, based on the prefecture-level cities or province-level regions, China has comprehensively achieved the unified acquisition, unified use and unified management of information on the registration, identification and employment status of the objects as well as the assistance service and relevant policies.

　　Meanwhile, through the activities of Employment Assistance Month, the Chinese government strived to create employment opportunities for the disadvantaged groups in finding a job.

　　Employment Assistance Month

　　The activity of Employment Assistance Month is carried out annually on the New Year's Day and during the Spring Festival, targeting at people in employment difficulties.

　　Themed on “Assistance and Employments for Specific Persons, Implementation of Relevant Policies and Good Service”, 2012 Employment Assistance Month last for one month from late December 2011 to mid-January 2012.

　　Assistance objects: (A) Eligible persons with employment difficulties, mainly including: the long-term unemployed, unemployed college or university graduates, registered unemployed persons of zero-employment families, some laid-off workers of state-owned enterprises and the laid-off workers of forestry enterprises and independent industrial and mining areas with financial difficulty. (B) Registered unemployed persons with disabilities, mainly the college and vocational school graduates with disabilities and the disabled from needy families and the families with many disabled members. (C) Other key objects identified by local areas.

　　Objectives: (A) All eligible persons with employment difficulties in the region can be registered and identified and included into the local employment information monitoring system for real name registration, management and assistance. (B) Each of the unemployed person covered by the assistance can receive vocational guidance at least for once and the introduction of three jobs; at least one of the registered unemployed from zero-employment families will achieve employment during the event. (C) All the eligible persons within the jurisdiction that have not obtained any policy assistance can timely enjoy the policy. (D) Every disabled person with the wish and ability to work shall be registered and get “one-for-one” employment service. Among them, the eligible disabled persons can enjoy the preferential tax policy for employment and the pension insurance subsidy policy. (E) The local residents can understand the contents of the national and local employment support policies and the time and service content of this activity. All the assistance objects are able to understand the specific assistance content and related policies.  

2. Reduce burdens on enterprises to stabilize employment

　　To help enterprises tide over the crisis and stabilize the severe employment situation, since 2008, the state has issued many documents to reduce the burden on enterprises. In 2009, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Notice on Further Reducing Burdens on Enterprises and Stabilizing Employment Situation in Various Regions". The main practices include: (1) Extend the implementation period of relevant preferential policies to stabilize working positions and support employment. In order to further reduce the burdens on enterprises and stabilize the employment situation, local governments should extend 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 them to carry out on-the-job trainings, etc; (2) Extend the deadline for social insurance subsidy. 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. (3) Priorities should be given to SMEs. Due to their relatively weak anti-risk ability, SMEs have been more severely affected by the international financial crisis, have more difficulties in production and operations and need more help and policy support. 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. (4) Simplify the approval procedures and increase efforts on implementation. Simplify the approval procedures, shorten the approval time and speed up the approval process to facilitate the application of enterprises for relevant policy support, and give full lay to the effectiveness of policies to help enterprises overcome difficulties and stabilize the employment situation.

　　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. In 2011, the government arranged jobs for 318,000 urban persons with disabilities, including 97,000 for concentrated employment, 75,000 based on a certain proportion, 21,000 for public welfare services and 125,000 for individual units and other flexible jobs. In urban areas of China, a total of 4.405 million persons with disabilities were employed. The number of job skills training bases for the disabled reached 5254 and a total of 299,000 urban residents with disabilities received job skills trainings.

　　In 2011, the "‘12th Five-Year Development Program’ for Undertakings of China's Disabled Persons" endorsed by the State Council proposed to implement the Employment Project of One Million Persons with Disabilities in Urban Areas from 2011 to 2015, and one million urban residents with disabilities will be employed.

　　Employment project of one million persons with disabilities in urban areas

　　In 2011, the China Disabled Persons' Federation issued the "Notice on Implementation of the Employment Project of One Million Persons with Disabilities in Urban Areas" and put forward the following measures to promote the employment of urban residents with disabilities. (1) Comprehensively promote the employment of persons with disabilities according to a certain proportion and promote various employing units at all levels to hire persons with disabilities according to the specific proportion provided by this law through a number of policies such as inspection, supervision, announcement, communications, reward and development of rigid constraint policies. The disabled persons’ organizations above county level and their subordinates should take the lead to arrange employments for the disabled. Among the newly hired workers, at least 20% should be persons with disabilities. Establish the post subsidy, social insurance subsidy, barrier-free employment environment improvement subsidy systems for the employing units using disabled persons according to or above the required proportion. Assist the tax and financial departments to collect disabled employment guarantee fund from the employing units not hiring the disabled according to the required proportion. (2) Implement the preferential tax policies for centralized job arrangements for persons with disabilities to stabilize the centralized employment of persons with disabilities. Support the development of the employing units of the disabled in the field of production, management, technology, capital, materials, venues, etc. Since 2011, every province can select two to five cities or counties (districts) with disabled employment work well done to carry out pilot projects of franchise production and operation, set up the product directory for government procurement preferences and promote the experience to other regions. (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. Give priority to the disabled in the arrangements of government shops, stalls and convenience service outlets and provide appropriate relief for them in booth fees, rental fees and management fees. (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. Include the full-time staffs of the street offices and communities to serve the disabled into the public welfare system so that they’ll enjoy the preferential policies. Actively get involved in the formulation of local community service and domestic service development planning and include the employment promotion for the disabled to serve communities and households into the planning. In the 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) Improve the employment assistance system for persons with disabilities. Coordinate human resources and social security department to include the disabled, especially the disabled university graduates, junior and senior middle school graduates and other new disabled labors into the assistance system as key objects, implement various employment assistance policies and measures, organize vocational trainings, employment introduction, career guidance, policy advice and other special employment assistance activities to help them achieve employment as soon as possible. (6) Strengthen vocational education and trainings for persons with disabilities. Relying on the colleges and vocational schools, the vocational schools (colleges) of human resource and social security departments as well as various kinds of social training agencies, establish vocational training bases for the disabled to strengthen disabled vocational education and vocational training and gradually improve the vocational training system for the disabled. Each prefecture-level city and each county (city, district) with certain conditions should set up at least one vocational training base for persons with disabilities. During the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, a total of 1000 vocational training bases for the disabled were set up and vocational technical trainings were organized for 1.8 million persons with disabilities.

4. Promote the employment of college graduates

　　In recent years, about 6 million college students graduate every year in China and the employment task is arduous. In order to solve the employment problem, in 2011, the State Council issued the “Notice concerning Further Promoting the Employment of College Graduates” and mainly adopted the following measures to promote the employment of college and university graduates: (1) By building a modern industrial system, create employment opportunities for college graduates. Develop production services and living services with market potential, actively encourage the development of service outsourcing, animation, modern information technology and modern services industry, create more employment opportunities for college graduates. Actively support and encourage college graduates to join the construction of modern agriculture and encourage agricultural enterprises to hire college graduates. (2) Encourage SMEs to employ college graduates. Local government should give priority to the SMEs employing a certain number of college graduates in allocating SME development funds and providing technological transformation loan interest subsidies. Labor-intensive small businesses that newly employed a certain proportion of registered unemployed college graduates may apply for small secured loans of no more than 2 million Yuan according to relevant regulation and may enjoy the financial interest subsidy. The government will provide social insurance subsidies for the enterprises that have employed and signed labor contracts with college graduates with difficulty in finding a job and paid social insurance premiums in accordance with the regulations. The college graduates working in SMEs enjoy the same treatment as the same type of staffs of state-owned enterprises and institution in the evaluation of professional titles, research project grant applications, scientific research or honorary title declaration, etc. (3) Encourage and guide college graduates to work in the grassroots units in urban and rural areas, the central and western areas, border areas, poverty-stricken regions and remote areas. Local governments should vigorously develop employments in the field of social management and public education, health care and culture to increase the employment opportunities of college graduates; further improve the relevant policies to solve their problems in wage payment, social security, staffing, account files, titles, education and training, mobility and financial support based on the requirements of balancing the economic development in urban and rural areas and accelerating the development of basic public services. Give social insurance subsidy and public service subsidy for the eligible college graduates working in public service positions. Since 2012, the authorities at and above provincial level should recruit public servants from those with at least two years of experience in grassroots units except for some special positions. The authorities below the city (prefectural) level, especially the count and town government should adopt effective measures to attract excellent fresh college graduates in public servant recruitment. (4) Based on the rise of the central and western regions, the implementation of the western development strategy and the needs of industrial gradient transfer, encourage and guide college graduates to work in the central and western regions. Provide relevant tuition fees and student loan repayment service according to relevant regulations for the college graduates who have worked in the grassroots units of central and western regions and remote districts and counties with harsh conditions for more than three years (including three years). Among the college graduates working in remote areas with harsh conditions or the key counties for national poverty alleviation and development, those working in government departments can get paid as formal staff in the probationary period and get double or three times wages of others after the probationary period; those working in public institutions can be transferred as formal staff ahead of schedule and get double or three times wages of others after the probationary period. (5) Implement and improve the entrepreneurial support policies. The business tax, urban maintenance and construction tax and the additional education and personal income tax of the college graduates with the "Employment and Unemployment Registration Certificate” (marked with “business launching tax policy” or attached the “college graduates own business card”) engaged in individual unit operation during the graduation year (the natural year from January 1 to December 31) can be reduced according to the standard of at most 8000 Yuan per person per year within three years. Give play to the positive role of small secured loans in promoting employment and issue small secured loans to the eligible college graduates who launched their own businesses in local areas according to relevant regulations. The college graduates engaged in low-profit projects can receive financial interest subsidy of no more than 100,000 Yuan. (6) Strengthen entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship training and entrepreneurial services. Actively develop and innovate entrepreneurship courses to improve the entrepreneurship education curriculum system, and include entrepreneurship education courses into the credit management. (7) Stabilize flexible employment. Local governments should encourage and support college graduates to engage in flexible employment and should give relevant policy support. Implement the social insurance subsidy policy for eligible college graduates with employment difficulties. The public employment and personnel service agencies at all levels should provide personnel, labor protection agent services for the college graduates engaged in flexible employment and do a good job of transfer and continuity of social insurance materials. (8) Support the college graduates to participate in vocational skills trainings and skills identification. Provide training subsidies based on the job qualification certificates (for the working positions without any professional technique standards, professional technical certificates or training certificates are required) and employment situation. Provide a one-time vocational skills identification subsidy for the college graduates who passed the initial vocational skills certification and obtained professional qualification certificate or a special certificate of professional competence in the graduation year. (9) Conduct registration of employment and unemployment. All levels of public employment personnel service agencies should make registration of the employed college graduates for free in accordance with the regulations of the Employment Promotion Law and provide agent personnel and labor protection services. Further improve the employment registration approach, establish the mechanism for the linkage of employment registration, labor contract management and social insurance premium payment to protect the employment rights and interests of labors. The unemployed college graduates can be registered according to regulation and included into the unemployment system of the places of domicile, and enjoy relevant employment support policy. (10) Strengthen employment assistance. Public employment services agencies at all levels should include the college graduates with employment difficulty into local employment assistance system, set up a specialized ledger, implement “one-for-one” career guidance and support and recommend them to the employing units or arrange public service jobs for them. Implement the social insurance subsidies and public service subsidies for eligible persons according to the relevant regulations.

　　In 2012, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security promulgated the “Notice on Strengthening the Vocational Training of College Graduates to Promote Employment” and put forward the following measures to strengthen the employment trainings of college graduates: (1)  Hold job skills upgrading training. In accordance with the principle of training before holding a post, relying on their respective training institutions or government recognized training institutions, organize pre-service trainings with basic job skills as the main contents for newly employed college graduates to help them adapt to the needs of the working positions and achieve the transition from a student to an employee as soon as possible. (2) Hold entrepreneurship trainings. Encourage the college graduates who want to launch their own businesses with demand of trainings to receive entrepreneurial trainings based on their own entrepreneurial projects, master the basic knowledge and skills for entrepreneurship and effectively enhance the entrepreneurial capacity. Through various forms of entrepreneurship seminars and competitions, stimulate the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of college graduates and guide the college graduates to correctly understand and treat entrepreneurship; (3) Strengthen the training information guidance. Link the public employment personnel service network with local college campus network, timely send the training policy, training information and position information to the campus to guide college graduates to participate in suitable training programs based on the market demand, their own professional characteristics, employment situation and the needs of employment apprenticeship and grassroots services. (4) Strengthen the entrepreneurial guidance and entrepreneurial services, actively set up the entrepreneurial guidance team of experts to provide policy interpretation, project introduction, risk assessment, opening consulting, financing services and other guidance and services for the college graduates. The regions with certain conditions may implement the business mentor system to provide targeted guidance and support for college graduates to launch their own businesses through the modes of “one-for-one” and “one-for-many”. (5) Implement the vocational training subsidy policy. Provide training subsidies for the college graduates who have participated in job skills trainings, passed the vocational skills certification, obtained primary vocational certificates, participated in entrepreneurship training in the graduation year and obtained the entrepreneurship training qualification certificates. Provide subsidies for the enterprises that have newly recruit fresh college graduates and signed labor contracts with them for service of more than six months, and provide financial subsidies for the college graduates who passed the initial vocational skill authentication and obtained vocational certificates or professional qualification certificate in the graduation year.

5. Establish employment information public service network

　　In 2011, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the “Notice Concerning Promoting the Construction of Employment Information Public Service Network” to promote the establishment of the ministrial, provincial and municipal employment information public service network and achieve recruitment information sharing between the public employment and personnel service agencies at all levels across the country, aiming to provide job seekers with free employment information with true content, effective working positions and convenient inquiry. At the same time, through extending the information network, it aims to make the job seekers find the recruitment information of the whole province or city on the grassroots labor employment and social security public service platforms of local street (township) and community (administrative village).

（IV）Transformational social protection measures

　　Transformative social protection measures are mainly related to the issue of rights protection, including the policies to promote the signing of collective contracts and to raise the minimum wage in the country.

　　In order to protect workers' rights, especially the rights of SMEs’ workers, the "Notice on Further Promoting the Collective Contract System and the Implementation of Rainbow Program" issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in 2010 put forward that from 2010 to 2012, we should practice the collective contract system in various enterprises with trade units to promote the collect contract signing between enterprises and the staff on the wages, output standards and other issues related to payments of labor. 

　　Meanwhile, in order to protect the interests of workers of low-income industries, in recent years, local governments all raised the minimum wage. In 2012, 14 provinces and municipalities adjusted the minimum wages. As of the end of April 2012, the highest monthly minimum wage after the adjustment is that in Shenzhen, 1500 Yuan, followed by that of Shanghai (1450 Yuan), Tianjin and Zhejiang (1310 Yuan). The minimum wage of Beijing was raised from 1160 Yuan to 1260 Yuan per month, ranking sixth in the country. But the highest minimum wage per hour for part-time workers is that in Beijing, 14 Yuan. The monthly minimum wage of Heilongjiang, Chongqing, Jiangxi and Hainan was the last four, all less than 900 Yuan

　　In order to protect the employment right and interests of college graduates, in addition to the municipalities directly under the central government, the cities gradually canceled the restrictions for college graduates to settle down and began to allow college graduates to handle relevant procedures for settling down in the places where they work or launch their own businesses. For the college graduates serving various employing units, their title assessment, wages, social insurance procedure handling and seniority determination are all conducted according to the relevant regulations. Meanwhile, the government canceled the relevant provisions of hepatitis B testing items in employment physical examination to prevent health employment discrimination.

　　We made important progress in protecting the rights and interests of migrant workers, but still have to further strengthen the work. Although the labor department actively promoted the signing of labor contracts, only 43.8% of the migrant workers signed labor contracts with the employers or employing units, with only an increase of 1.8 percentage points over the previous year. The proportion of the migrant workers not signing labor contracts was high in the field of construction, services, accommodation and catering as well as wholesale and retail industry, respectively reaching 73.6%, 61.4%, 64.6% and 60.9%. This proportion in the field of construction has maintained very high. The government actively intervened to protect the rights and interests of migrant workers, adopted a series of measures to address the phenomenon of migrant workers' wage arrears and achieved significant results. In recent years, the proportion of migrant workers wage arrears by the employer or units declined year by year, reaching 4.1%, 1.8%, 1.4% and 0.8% respectively in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

II.Urban anti-poverty: Problems and Prospects

　　China’s urban anti-poverty strategy shows that in order to solve the problem of urban poverty, we not only need to improve the social assistance system, integrate the social assistance resources and set up a tight social safety net, but also need to take multidimensional social protection measures integration preention, promotion and protection of rights and interests to achieve the leap from safety net to springboard and escape the poverty trap. Meanwhile, we should take effective measures to solve the existing problems and challenges.

（I）Increase financial input to improve the level of assistance

　　Currently, the level of social assistance for urban areas of China is still relatively low. For example, the current subsistence allowances can only maintain basic survival and cannot achieve sustainable development of the relief object. In case of a large amount of household spending, the current subsistence allowance can even not maintain the basic living. Among the urban medical assistance systems, for example, the social medical insurance and urban medical assistance only bear a small proportion of the medical expenses of the poor and the poor still have a heavy burden of medical costs. A large number of poor families even give up medical treatment for economic reasons. Therefore, the government needs to further increase financial input to improve the level of assistance.

（II）Create a fair opportunity and strengthen protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable groups

　　Due to enrollment expansion, China has more than 6 million university graduate job seekers every year, which brings huge employment pressure. A large number of units have discriminatory provisions on gender, age, ethnicity and health for recruitment due to an oversupply of college graduates on the job market. Meanwhile, college graduates from rural areas are usually at a disadvantage due to the lack of social relations and the phenomenon of unemployment and low-paid employment is relatively serious. The idea of the uselessness of study again prevailed. Therefore, we should take mandatory, open and transparent measures to address inequities in employment in order to create equal employment opportunities for college graduates.

　　In recent years, the Chinese government has strengthened social protection for migrant workers, but migrant workers still cannot integrate into the city life and it is difficult to realize urbanization, mainly reflected by migrant workers’ unstable work, low-end jobs, low coverage of social insurance, low labor contract signing rate, no access to housing security, unemployment insurance and urban social assistance, making them face the severe risk of poverty. In case of unemployment, injury or disease, many migrant workers can even hardly maintain the basic living, so it is an urgent task to include migrant workers into the urban social security system. The government should, therefore, on the one hand, continue to expand the coverage of social insurance for migrant workers and, on the other hand, include migrant workers into the urban social relief system. Meanwhile, we should strive to gradually achieve equalization of other basic public services and establish the social protection mechanisms for migrant workers.       

（III）Create elderly care and community services - based public welfare jobs

　　The phenomenon of aging population is becoming a more and more serious problem in China. Overseas experience shows that with the aging of people, nursing care will become one of the jobs with the highest growth rate of employment demand. At the same time, China’s unit system has been gradually disintegrated and it has become the consensus of society for communities to provide public services for urban residents. Elderly care and community services will provide a lot of labor-intensive jobs without high requirements for knowledge and skills. After receiving a short-term training, people can take the post. In future development of public-service jobs, the government will focus on the development of elderly care and community care jobs to solve the problem of insufficient supply of care and community services for the elderly and ease the employment pressure. To this end, we need to develop domestic service, senior service, community services, patient escort and other family and community services to promote the construction of a public information platform for family and community services and organize orientation trainings of family and community service personnel.

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

　　Urban poverty reduction involves many sectors, including department of civil affairs, department of human resources and social insurance, department of education, department of finance, department of tax and the department for protection of persons with disabilities, but the coordination between the departments is not so satisfying. Therefore, in the construction of the urban social protection system, 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.

　　References

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