Appendix VI

Appendix VI

Urban Poverty Alleviation

 

Study of Urban Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation in China

 

I. Current situation of urban poverty in China

       （I）Urban poverty cannot be ignored

1. The main reason for the poverty of urban residents is unemployment and the lack of labor

In recent years, the number of registered urban unemployed persons remains at 9 million or more and the registered unemployment rate is above 4%. At the end of 2012, the registered urban unemployment rate was 4.1%, the same as the previous year. According to the "Analysis of the Market Supply and Demand of Public Employment Service Agencies in Some Cities in the Fourth Quarter of 2012" issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, "the number of job vacancies in the fourth quarter decreased by 742,000, down 13.1%, and the number of job seekers declined by 916,000, down 16.7%".

Compared with the same period in 2011, there was a substantial growth in the number of fresh college graduates, unemployed persons and migrant workers among the job seekers. The unemployed accounted for 50.8% of the total job seekers [fresh unemployed youth accounted for 24.3% (fresh high school graduates accounted for 46.4%), the unemployed who had jobs accounted for 17.2% and other jobless people accounted for 9.3%] and migrant workers accounted for 37.9%, including local rural residents (17.3%) and non-local people (20.6%).

2. China still has a large urban poverty-stricken population with a complex structure. Laid-off workers and urban floating population including migrant workers, vagrants and beggars have become the new poor.

At the very beginning, the urban poor referred to low-income grassroots residents in the city with no ability to work, no source of income and no legal guardians, then referred to the laid-off workers and jobless persons due to reform of state-owned enterprises, plus a number of workers of state-owned enterprises in the cut-off or semi-shutdown state. In recent years, however, the objects of urban poverty reduction are landless farmers, migrant workers as well as a large floating population. In other words, at present, the urban poor in China include not only the objects of the urban minimum living security system, but more importantly, the migrant workers and floating population. Currently, the urban poor include: laid-off workers of restructured state-owned enterprises, urban residents with the ability to work in resource -exhausted cities, 30-40% of the unemployed young workers, the elderly living on the state pension who retired early, and a large number of migrant workers in the city as well. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, "as of the end of 2012, 279 million people lived away from their household registration places, including 236 million floating people", "the floating population size set a record in history and profound changes took place to the number, flow direction, structure and interest demand of the floating population".

3. Widening wealth gap between rich and poor in the city and slow income growth of the poor

On the one hand, the income of urban residents shows a downward trend in the national income distribution structure. According to the statistics of the "Urban Blue Book 2011" issued by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the proportion of the income of urban residents in GDP has declined rapidly since 2000 and fell to 0.572 in 2008, the lowest record over the past three decades.

On the other hand, the income gap between urban residents is widening. Measured by Gini coefficient, the Gini coefficient of urban residents was only 0.15 in 1981 and 0.23 in 1988, but this figure exceeded 0.3 in 1997 and was above internationally accepted warning level of 0.4 in 2005. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, among the urban residents in China in 2009, the income of the top decile was 8.6 times that of the bottom decile. Currently, the income gap between urban residents has reached its peak since the reform and opening up.

4. Coexistence of absolute poverty and relative poverty

Absolute poverty refers primarily to the poverty in survival sense, i.e. the poverty status of the lack of basic necessities of the urban poor; Relative poverty refers to the poverty status with basic necessities but a low standard of living and few or no development opportunities that reflect different development conditions and statuses of poverty-stricken people. According to the World Bank, people whose income is less than 1/3 of per capita income of the whole society are relatively poor people.

The coexistence of absolute poverty and relative poverty in China is a result of the rapid reform and opening up and economic growth. In recent years, China's urbanization process has been accelerated and a large number of landless farmers and low-income farmers of central and western regions went to work in the city. Plus the laid-off workers of restructured state-owned enterprises and the objects of the minimum living security system, the urban infrastructure construction can no longer meet the demand of the increasing population, and the social construction and development, social welfare systems and social insurance systems seriously lag behind. Many people have the ability to work, but lack the social or job skills required and can hardly find the right job.

The relatively poor people refer to the low-income group not covered by the urban minimum living security system or any other social security and social assistance system, mainly including migrant workers in the city who did not obtain urban household registrations yet and some registered urban residents living in poverty for a long time. The relatively poor are identified based on the standard for the rural absolutely poor. "China Urban Development Report 2011" of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences points out that "although the incidence of absolute poverty decreases year by year in China, the incidence of relative poverty in urban areas shows a significantly increasing trend", "the reasonable urban poverty line in China should be 7,500 – 8,500 yuan now and the number of urban poor is about 50 million, twice the poverty line and the number of people covered by the minimum living security system". A large number of migrant workers are flowing into the city, so the medical, education, pension and other social benefits and social assistance resources will inevitably become increasingly inadequate.

5. "Intergenerational transfer" caused by absolute poverty

Because of unemployment, industrial injuries, illness, medical and educational problems, some families cannot shake off poverty for a long time. Despite of the relevant insurance and relief, they still can hardly shake off poverty in a short period of time due to the low level of insurance and assistance and it is very likely for them to fall into long-term poverty. This status will probably pass to their children and bring them all kinds of pressure. According to data of the fifth census, 4.2 - 7.8 million urban children lived in poverty in China. CASS report noted that "in the urbanization process of China, there are widespread problems of school failure, mental imbalance and behavioral anomie among the children from needy families". Children's education problem of these poor families needs to be resolved urgently no matter from the perspective of individuals and families or from the perspective of the state and the society.

6. The proportion of elderly people increased significantly while that of the working-age population declined. China has entered the stage of "aging society" with an increasingly serious poverty problem among the elderly.

According to data of the sixth census, in 2010, the number of elderly people reached 178 million, accounting for 13.26% of the total population, including 119 million people above 65 years of age, accounting for 8.7%. According to "China Report of The Development on Aging Cause (2013)," " as of the end of 2012, China's elderly population reached 194 million, with an increase of 8.91 million over the previous year, accounting for 14.3% of the total population, but the working-age population decreased. In 2013, the aged population will exceed 200 million, up to 14.8% of the total, the juvenile and children dependency ratio increased from 23.96% in 2012 to 24.36% in 2013, and the elderly dependency ratio rose from 20.66% in 2012 to 21.58% in 2013, making the total social dependency ratio increase from 44.62% in 2012 to 45.94% in 2013". The report pointed out that "the problem of getting old before being rich and before the establishment of sound social security systems becomes increasingly prominent and the elderly face many problems and difficulties: A large number of poverty-stricken and low-income elderly people – 23 million across the country in 2012; living environment problem of the urban elderly is prominent, over 70% of the urban elderly’s old houses have not been equipped with elevators, increasing difficulties of the aged, the disabled and ill senior people; we see infringement cases involving aged people and see senior people being deceived or committing suicide; social management for the elderly needs to be improved and more than 30% of the elderly are not covered by the social management; some old people are used by illegal and underground religious organizations and there are still hidden dangers not conducive to social harmony and political stability."

（II）The urban social assistance system needs to be improved

Incompatible with the urban poverty-stricken population size, structure, status and other related issues, the construction of urban social welfare and social insurance systems is relatively slow and it is difficult for these systems to cope with the current complicated urban poverty situation. Based on the household registration, our social insurance and social welfare systems exclude migrant workers and other floating population. 80% of the floating population is rural registered migrant workers and there is a significant income gap between urban and rural residents, so most of the new poor are landless farmers or migrant workers in the city. Since the migrant workers have made contributions to urban construction, they should enjoy the same benefits and rescue treatment as urban residents, otherwise it is contrary to the principle of social justice and fairness. If this problem cannot be properly handled, it will slacken the pace of migrant workers’ integration into the city and lead to a variety of social risks or crises.

The "Analysis and Forecast of China's Social Development in 2013" released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that "the rural registered migrant workers are mainly covered by the rural minimum living security system, while a high proportion of urban registered floating population is covered by urban social security systems. As for the social security participation of floating population, the proportion of non-rural registered floating population covered by the social security systems of the working place is higher than that of rural registered floating population." In other words, rural registered floating population can hardly enjoy the city's welfare and insurance benefits. Due to the long distance, inconvenient traffic, long working time and period and heavy economic pressure, although the migrant workers in the city are covered by rural welfare and insurance systems, in fact, it is impossible for them to enjoy the benefits. Loss of land made them lose the foundation of survival and the inaccessibility to welfare assistance and insurance made them lose the basic life support line.

In recent years, the government has made a great deal of effort to encourage migrant workers to participate in social insurance and an increasing number of migrant workers have participated in social insurance, but the coverage of social assistance for migrant workers is not wide enough to help the poor shake off poverty. This is mainly because these migrant workers are not urban registered residents and household registration is a main basis for urban and rural social assistance systems to identify the objects.

On the other hand, the standard of subsistence allowances of China's urban minimum living security system is relatively low and the coverage is too narrow, so the rescue effect remains to be improved. What's more, the majority of migrant workers simply do not receive the subsistence allowances or other additional assistance, such as children's education, health care, employment and housing security. The income of migrant workers is less than that of urban residents and they depend more heavily on social assistance. Even if the coverage of the urban minimum living security system is extended to cover migrant workers, we are not sure it will have the same effect as that on urban residents. Currently, the allowance standard of the urban minimum living security system in China is too low and the coverage of this system is limited, not involving all eligible people. At the end of 2012, a total of 21.425 million people were covered by the urban minimum living security system in China, accounting for about 3% of the total urban residents. In 2012, the subsistence allowance standard for urban residents was 330.1 yuan / person / month, the annual security payments only accounted for 16.13% of the per capita disposable income of 24,565 yuan of urban residents, far below the per capita disposable income of urban residents. Compared with the rapid rise in prices and other living costs, such security standards will naturally not fundamentally alleviate and eradicate urban poverty.

In addition, with funding and technical support of the Asian Development Bank, Beijing Normal University launched the research of "Building Equitable Opportunities into Social Assistance" (Project No.: TA7702-PRC) and conducted in-depth study on the issues related to the employment of the objects of the minimum living security system. Combining questionnaire-based quantitative research and focus group interview-based qualitative research, the project carried out studies in Jinan, Changsha and Baotou. Questionnaire survey covered 2,810 households and at least one family member of reach household had the ability to work. Five focus group interviews were organized for 168 people, including the management and the objects of the minimum living security system. Many outcomes of this project are worthy of our attention.

1. Aid dependence

With the expansion of the coverage of the minimum living security system, a problem plaguing the implementation of relevant policies has begun to emerge: Although a large number of people covered by the minimum living security system have the ability to work, few of them will take the initiative to withdraw from system. In the city, from 2002 to 2010, about 60% of the objects of the minimum living security system had the ability to work. As for the way of employment assistance, more than half of the respondents wanted the government to directly provide jobs for them. With or without employment income, the families covered by the minimum living security system are unwilling to withdraw from the system. It shows that the current employment and social assistance policies have failed to provide any mechanism for the families covered by the minimum living security system to withdraw from the system and enter the labor market. As a result, most of these families have a long history of receiving subsistence allowances: 70% of the families received subsistence allowances for more than three years; 8% for more than ten years, 30% for six to ten years and 30% for three to five years. As China's urban minimum living security system was established in 1999, most of the families involved have never withdrawn from the system since they received subsistence allowances.

2. Level of education, job skills, health status, medical and family factors make it difficult for the objects of the minimum living security system to find jobs and most of the respondents have experienced long-term unemployment.

Among the employed respondents, about 70% had the experience of unemployment for five or more years; among the unemployed respondents, nearly 85% had the experience of unemployment for five or more years, over 60% had the experience of unemployment for ten or more years and 30% for 15 years or longer. For personal and family reasons, 80% of the respondents found a job but gave up and 60% failed to find a job. It is worth noting that about 1/ 3 of the respondents have never looked for a job because they need to take care of their family members. Among the 2810 respondents, more than 50% only received junior middle school education, less than 1/4 were high school graduates, 13% only received primary school education and only about 10% received college or university education; more than 50% suffered from chronic diseases and nearly half of them said their health status was poor or very poor; and more than 50% were between the age of 34-45; about one third of the surveyed families had old, weak, ill or disabled members who need to be looked after, over one fifth of the families had children under the age of 14 and 16% had old or disabled members. In these families, 70 percent of home care was provided by women, most of whom were at the working age of 35-54, indicating that home care may be the limiting factor of employment for some families covered by the minimum living security system, especially for women. Nearly 3 /4 of the respondent families had at least one family member suffering from chronic disease and one third of the families had at least one disabled member. It shows, on the one hand, the so-called "spending poverty" caused by health problems or illness is one of the main reasons for these families to fall into poverty or receive social assistance. It also indicates that although these families have wage income and live above the poverty line, it is still difficult to lift them out of poverty and make them withdraw from the minimum living security system as they need money to cope with emergency events.

3. Responsibility barriers exist between government departments

Lacking communication with each other, various government departments usually promote policy evolution according to their economic capacity and political influence. As a result, not only labor department but also civil affairs department provides employment services for the poor with the ability to work. "Focusing on survival rescue and blood transfusion assistance and ignoring development-oriented rescue and blood-making assistance", various departments seldom communicate with each other, and the relevant policies can hardly play a positive role as a whole, which is not conducive to the eradication of poverty among the masses.

From a policy perspective, as for the re-employment services for the objects of the minimum living security system, no matter from the perspective of policy design or the perspective of departmental functions, civil affairs departments have neither the responsibility to provide employment assistance or the ability or resources to assume the responsibility. It is the duty of labor and human resources department to help the unemployed achieve reemployment, but the services they provide are very limited. Services provided by labor departments are primarily employment trainings. Designed for all the unemployed, these services can hardly meet the special needs of the households covered by the minimum living security system. Household survey showed that only 12% of the respondents received trainings. Half of them said the trainings were useful and the other half did not think so. Focus group interviews also showed that the trainings organized by labor departments not only cannot benefit most of the households covered by the minimum living security system, but also lack pertinence, and coordination between civil affairs and labor departments is rarely seen.

4. Deficiencies exist in the system for the determination of poverty standard and the management of poverty-relief work

Without effective policy, technical and personnel support, the urban poverty monitoring system is imperfect and cannot determine the size of the urban poor and the real income and consumption levels of urban residents, and thus cannot develop relevant measurement criteria based on a reasonable standard. As a result, the subsistence allowance standards are different in various regions and are not so scientific, reasonable or standard.

It is difficult to calculate and monitor family income and some applicants or objects of the minimum living security system conceal their income. This is because most of the applicants and recipients are informally employed or self-employed persons and the investigation on their income mainly relies on their declaration. If they do not report the true situation, it is very difficult for the management personnel to make it clear. The focus group interviews also proved it. The objects of the minimum living security system probably have found a job through relatives or friends, but they usually do not report to the neighborhood or village committee. On the one hand, they do not think it is a formal job and, on the other hand, such job is usually temporary and is not a reliable source of income. Under normal circumstances, household survey is not organized by civil affairs departments unless there are disputes on the eligibility of a family, and it is difficult to carry out an investigation into most of the families as the grassroots service ability is generally rather weak.

Moreover, the study also verified that the urban subsistence allowance standard is too low in China. From the perspective of the income structure of the households covered by the minimum living security system, subsistence allowances account for 40% of the family income on average, followed by wage income (1/3) and mutual aid of relatives and friends (9%). In the three cities surveyed, the subsistence allowance standard accounts for 10% -15% of local average wage, and the actual supplementary subsidies account for over 50% of the family income.

II. Urban anti-poverty policies and measures

To sort out and study the urban anti-poverty measures, we must first understand the causes and positioning of urban poverty, which is the starting point, premise and foundation of urban anti-poverty measures. Some scholars believe that a consensus has been reached about the causes of China's current urban poverty: The occurrence of a large number of laid-off workers due to social transformation, state-owned enterprises’ reform and industrial restructuring is the main reason for the current urban poverty in China. To the new poverty-stricken group – migrant workers, however, unemployment, lack of employability and lack of job skills are the main causes of their poverty, similar to the causes of poverty of other disadvantaged groups.

In addition, despite some differences due to the difference in study time, width and depth, we have also basically reached a consensus about the classification and positioning of poverty-stricken groups. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the urban minimum living security system was first set up as a poverty relief system in China and the urban residents receiving subsistence allowances were the main poverty-stricken people at the time. Other aid systems and the subsequent interim relief or special assistance systems were all set up on this basis, linked with the minimum living security system. In other words, in most cases, only those covered by the minimum living security system were eligible to receive other assistance from the civil affairs departments. In the minimum living security system, the objects are divided into female, disabled and three-no groups based on their nature and divided into the elderly, in-service persons, flexibly employed persons, registered unemployed persons, unregistered unemployed persons, students and other persons based on age. Some scholars define the urban poor as: Urban laid-off workers, unemployed persons, staffs of state-owned enterprises in the cut-off or semi-shutdown state, landless farmers and migrant workers, and divide the poor into absolutely poor people and relatively poor persons. The former mainly refer to three-no people, some unemployed residents with low household income per capita and some in-service, laid-off and retired people with low family income per capita. According to some other scholars, the residents with the ability to work who retired early and live on the state pension in resource-exhausted cities also belong to poverty-stricken people.

China's social assistance system was established based on the positioning of the above poor. In 1993, Shanghai took the lead to explore the establishment of the minimum living security system, which was in its initial stage from 1993 to 1999 and has been in the stage of improvement since 1999. The "2007 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Civil Affairs" pointed out that China’s urban and rural minimum living security system achieved equal coverage.

In recent years, China's social assistance system has been adjusted from many aspects, but it still presents a situation of "multi-sector management": Financial departments are responsible for budgetary arrangements, use and supervision for social assistance funds; civil affairs departments provide urban and rural subsistence allowances, medical assistance, disaster victims assistance, temporary assistance, emergency relief and social assistance; labor and social security departments provide employment assistance; health departments implement medical aid policies; agricultural committees support the rural poor to develop production; construction committees provide low-cost housing assistance; education commissions implement education relief programs; labor unions mainly provide support for staffs in difficulties; CDPF and the women's federations implement relief projects for the disabled, women and children; and charitable organizations absorb donations and implement charity projects. As for some intersectional social assistance, public security, transportation, urban management, health and civil affairs departments are jointly responsible for the livelihoods of urban destitute vagrants and beggars; as for medical assistance, under the leadership of civil affairs departments, the health sector shall be responsible for the implementation of relevant projects, while labor and social security departments shall provide medical assistance for the staffs of enterprises in difficulties who suffer from major illnesses with household income per capita between the minimum wage of urban workers and the subsistence allowance. Such a situation is not conducive to the coordination of various departments, but increases the links and running costs of social assistance. Some sociological scholars point out that the social assistance systems in China have the problems of "multi-sector management" and compartmentalization.

However, Researcher Tang Jun from Social Policy Research Center of the Institute of Sociology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that the relevant departments have studied and adjusted the urban minimum living security system and other social assistance systems as well as their linkage with various types of social insurance, raised the subsistence allowances year by year and established the mechanism for the linkage of allowance standards and price hike, so he agreed with the opinion that "the new social assistance system has been basically established" put forward by the Report on the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Learning from existing international experience, China's pro-poor policies, especially urban poverty alleviation and development policies also formed an institutional system based on social assistance and social insurance, but our urban social assistance system is based on the urban minimum living security system, supplemented by medical care, housing, education, judicial, employment and disaster relief systems, as well as special relief system for vagrants and beggars, supplemented by temporary relief system and social mutual-aid measures. As different regions have different levels of economic development, there will be a slight difference between the relief measures of various regions, and the governments of different regions will launch some relief systems with local characteristics based on local economic strength. It is worth noting that in the social assistance policy practices of many areas, the objects of the assistance system are determined based on the urban minimum living security system, and the identification of eligibility for other supplementary aid policies, such as medical care, housing, education, justice, employment, disaster relief policies, special relief system and temporary assistance system is basically linked with the subsistence allowances system. That is to say, people not covered by the minimum living security system cannot receive the complementary assistance, special assistance and temporary relief. In addition to the above mentioned insurances set up in the United States, China has increased industrial injury and maternity insurance in the social insurance system.

Currently, China's social assistance systems and social insurance systems have formed their own clear positioning. The former mainly provide preventive protection measures for the urban poor before the occurrence of poverty as a solution to possible problems. The latter, however, provide supportive protection measures for the urban poor after they have fallen or are about to fall into poverty.

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

1. Overview of the basic social insurance

According to the "2012 Statistic Bulletin on Human Resource and Social Security Development in China" released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, in 2012, China continued to increase efforts on social insurance work and made significant progress in the construction of social security systems. In 2012, the total revenue of the five social insurance (excluding social pension insurance for urban and rural residents) funds amounted to 2.8909 trillion yuan, with an increase of 486.6 billion yuan over the previous year, up 20.2%. The total fund expenditure was 2.2182 trillion yuan, with an increase of 412.7 billion yuan over the previous year, up 22.9%. Over the past five years, the number of the insured of five major social insurance has witnessed a stable growth and medical insurance has the widest coverage.

Figure 1：Participants of the social insurance in the past five years

(Unit: ten thousand persons)



 

2. Social insurance of special groups

（1）Endowment insurance

At the end of 2012, 304.27 million people were covered by the basic endowment insurance system for urban workers, with an increase of 20.36 million over the previous year, including 229.81 million employees and 74.46 million retirees, respectively with an increase of 14.16 million and 6.19 million. At the end of 2012, 45.43 million migrant workers were covered by the basic endowment insurance system, with an increase of 4.03 million over the previous year; and 282.72 million people participated in the basic endowment insurance of enterprises, with an increase of 19.88 million over the previous year.

The basic pension for retirees of enterprises was raised and issued in full on time. At the end of 2012, 53.28 million retirees were covered by community management, accounting for 78.3% of the total, one percentage above that of the previous year.

In 2012, the urban basic endowment insurance fund revenue totaled 2.0001 trillion yuan, up 18.4%, of which 1.6467 trillion yuan was collected payments, up 18.0%, and the financial subsidies for basic endowment insurance fund amounted to 264.8 billion yuan. The total fund expenditure was 1.5562 trillion yuan in 2012, up 21.9%, and the balance of the basic endowment insurance fund was 2.3941 trillion yuan at the end of 2012.

At the end of 2012, 13 pilot provinces for personal accounts of the basic old-age insurance for enterprise employees, including Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Xinjiang, accumulated a personal account fund of 339.6 billion yuan for the basic endowment insurance. 31 provinces nationwide and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have set up the provincial overall planning system for endowment insurance and steady progress was made in the pilot reform of the basic old-age insurance system for staff of public institutions in five provinces and municipalities, namely Shanxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Chongqing.

       As of the end of 2012, all the county-level administrative districts nationwide had comprehensively launched the social old-age insurance program for urban and rural residents, and 48.37 million people had participated in the insurance system, with an increase of 151.87 million over the previous year, of whom 130.75 million people received the insurance proceeds. In 2012, the social old-age insurance fund of urban and rural residents amounted to 182.9 billion yuan, up 64.8%, of which 59.4 billion yuan was individual payment, up 41.0%, the fund expenditure was 115 billion yuan, up 92.2%, and the balance of the fund was 230.2 billion yuan.

As of the end of 2012, 54,700 enterprises nationwide had set up enterprise annuity, up 21.8%; 18.47 million workers were involved, up 17.1%, and the balance of enterprise annuity fund was 482.1 billion yuan.

（2）Medical insurance

At the end of 2012, 536.41 million people were covered by the urban basic medical insurance system, with an increase of 62.98 million over the previous year, of whom 264.86 million people participated in the basic medical insurance for urban workers, with an increase of 12.58 million, and 271.56 million people participated in the basic medical insurance for urban residents, with an increase of 50.4 million. Among the insured employees, 198.61 million were in-service employees and 66.24 million were retirees, respectively with an increase of 9.13 million and 3.46 million over the previous year. At the end of 2012, 49.96 million migrant workers participated in the medical insurance, with an increase of 3.55 million over the previous year.

In 2012, the total income of the urban basic medical insurance fund was 693.9 billion yuan and the expenditure was 554.4 billion yuan, respectively up 25.3% and 25.1%. At the end of 2012, the balance of the pooling funds for urban basic medical insurance was 494.7 billion yuan (including 76 billion yuan of balance of basic medical insurance fund for urban residents) and the balance of the individual accounts was 269.7 billion yuan.

（3）Unemployment insurance

As of the end of 2012, 152.25 million people were covered by unemployment insurance, with an increase of 9.08 million over the previous year, of whom 27.02 million were migrant workers, with an increase of 3.11 million. At the end of 2012, 2.04 million people received unemployment insurance benefits, with an increase of 70,000 over the previous year, and a total of 720,000 migrant workers who did not renew the labor contract or terminated the labor contract before the date of expiration received one-time extra allowance for living expenses.

In 2012, the unemployment insurance fund income was 113.9 billion yuan, up 23.4% over the previous year, and the expenditure was 45.1 billion yuan, up 4.1%. At the end of 2012, the balance of the unemployment insurance fund was 292.9 billion yuan.

（4）Work-related injury insurance

At the end of 2012, 190.1 million people were covered by the work-related injury insurance, with an increase of 13.14 million, of whom 71.79 million were migrant workers, with an increase of 3.52 million. In 2012, 1.174 million people were identified (regarded) as victims of work-related injury, with a decrease of 28,000; 513,000 people were identified as injured or disabled persons, with an increase of 3000 over the previous year, and 1..91 million people received benefits for work-related injury insurance, with an increase of 280,000 over the previous year.

Throughout the year, the work-related injury insurance fund income amounted to 52.7 billion yuan and the expenditure soared to 40.6 billion yuan, respectively up 12.9% and 41.9% over the previous year. At the end of 2012, the balance of work-related injury insurance fund was 73.7 billion yuan and the balance of the reserves was 12.5 billion yuan.

（5）Maternity insurance

At the end of 2012, 154.29 million people were covered by the maternity insurance system, with an increase of 15.37 million over the previous year, and 3.53 million people received benefits for maternity insurance throughout the year, with an increase of 880,000.

In 2012, the maternity insurance fund income was 30.4 billion yuan and the expenditure was 21.9 billion yuan, respectively up 38.4% and 57.6%. At the end of 2012, the balance of the maternity insurance fund was 42.8 billion yuan.

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

1. Review of the development of the urban minimum living security system

As of the end of 2012, the urban minimum living security system covered 11.149 million households and 21.435 million people. Throughout the year, the fiscal expenditure on urban subsistence allowances was 67.43 billion yuan, up 2.2%, of which 43.91 billion yuan was from the central government, accounting for 65.1%. In 2012, the average standard of urban subsistence allowances was 330.1 yuan per person per month, up 14.8%, and the subsidies issued to the objects of the urban minimum living security system was averagely 239.1 yuan per person per month.

Table 1：Average subsistence allowance standards for the urban poor of various provinces of China in December 2012 (Unit: Yuan / month)

Region	Average standard	No. of districts / countries	Region	Average standard	No. of districts / countries
National	330.1		Henan	271.76	180
Beijing	520	16	Hubei	334.52	109
Tianjin	520	16	Hunan	304.52	138
Hebei	335.01	192	Guangdong	313.98	125
Shanxi	308.48	122	Guangxi	270.48	112
Inner Mongolia	407.7	102	Hainan	316.19	21
Liaoning	366.64	110	Chongqing	326	40
Jilin	291.09	70	Sichuan	276.73	186
Heilongjiang	323.67	141	Guizhou	308.04	89
Shanghai	570	17	Yunnan	284.42	134
Jiangsu	434.33	120	Tibet	399.73	74
Zhejiang	462.67	92	Shaanxi	363.06	109
Anhui	339.39	115	Gansu	251.29	89
Fujian	324.1	87	Qinghai	310.83	46
Jiangxi	345.93	110	Ningxia	252.5	22
Shandong	364.12	168	Xinjiang	260.99	115




 

Table 2：Classified objects of the urban minimum living security system in various provinces in the fourth quarter of 2012

Region	Number of objects of the urban minimum living security system	Classified based on personal nature			Classified based on age
		Female	The disabled	"Three-no people"	The elderly	In-service staff	Flexible employment	Registered unemployed	Not registered unemployed	Students	Others
National total	21424714	8769161	1677082	649172	3363786	487734	4592521	3991851	4171438	3140062	1677322
Beijing	109842	49759	20696	2361	13548	7416	14133	28980	18481	17985	9299
Tianjin	166435	78571	21182	899	18211	5313	16174	46507	35476	28550	16204
Hebei	773434	309106	44329	19887	123108	17510	197321	141682	126467	118081	49265
Shanxi	890367	371752	56628	14209	93174	27501	259615	112123	135766	187425	74763
Inner Mongolia	808169	390284	64940	32	113533	4901	179707	140183	216399	98352	55094
Liaoning	1052537	439470	127815	17247	143199	17233	197194	241387	195086	182691	75747
Jilin	920322	433017	75209	16101	154276	7751	494555	54261	67715	106010	35754
Heilongjiang	1524581	605216	134298	32431	175636	16850	274591	357347	412406	192550	95201
Shanghai	223010	82878	28438	549	3537	21015	2079	76903	66038	50801	2637
Jiangsu	370162	154568	40577	6495	85936	9462	53296	64881	90355	46707	19525
Zhejiang	77839	27593	14211	4846	17418	2442	10867	10011	14726	11170	11205
Anhui	818129	334366	75765	41724	230525	9406	135501	113222	166203	109624	53648
Fujian	172355	56593	20725	7693	37298	2915	30978	32669	41258	17810	9427
Jiangxi	979531	416951	160057	59236	186279	26906	226388	181245	130448	132547	95718
Shandong	530065	208797	34563	17293	76463	31424	89653	159910	82838	64872	24905
Henan	1334416	511241	79970	64904	217394	21385	246392	307525	247684	178904	115132
Hubei	1296876	588228	78995	44511	221422	80382	367854	242605	220071	104573	59969
Hunan	1453967	550985	91018	54535	291091	22870	196599	365787	268330	178542	130748
Guangdong	371338	143078	39194	14811	73460	10590	75981	47415	67324	70013	26555
Guangxi	516708	173004	39038	38759	129030	15949	125436	68816	73413	68091	35973
Hainan	157701	73756	13347	6456	27186	3511	37057	15750	39268	24007	10922
Chongqing	515147	237101	62036	3729	96693	1266	112713	79615	112268	88575	24017
Sichuan	1862193	736550	107226	61785	300072	15579	414406	293139	428763	250983	159251
Guizhou	530527	199999	28250	14305	83898	4752	98631	65437	141322	98435	38052
Yunnan	935965	356296	50818	30771	137393	29431	176977	194412	177764	140860	79128
Tibet	47683	23001	3458	8668	8447	5259	11578	6415	7220	5663	3101
Shaanxi	748059	318093	30246	11014	56141	11991	148526	170977	106668	143478	110278
Gansu	883788	314818	37882	14220	88494	21536	167977	198762	183889	156989	66141
Qinghai	230347	110613	8227	4021	19907	6055	39406	24382	61084	49660	29853
Ningxia	177781	64214	14632	7432	34591	5620	30057	30851	30342	28934	17386
Xinjiang	945440	409263	73312	28248	106426	23513	160879	118652	206366	187180	142424

 



Table 3：Social Services Statistical Report Q4 2012

Indicators			Unit	Amount
Social services expenditure from Jan. to Dec.			Hundred million yuan	3180.5
	Including: Disaster relief expenditure Subsistence allowance expenditure Urban medical assistance expenditure Social welfare		Hundred million yuan Hundred million yuan Hundred million yuan Hundred million yuan	132.6 635.9 55.0 115.8
Social service beds			Ten thousand	429.8
	Beds of adoption agencies		Ten thousand	382.8
		Beds for the elderly and disabled Beds for Mentally retarded patients and mental patients Beds for children Beds for others	Ten thousand Ten thousand Ten thousand Ten thousand	363.3 6.8 7.2 5.5
	Social service beds for destitute vagrants and beggars Beds for community services Beds for retired and resigned soldiers		Ten thousand Ten thousand Ten thousand	8.8 17.6 20.5
Number of adoption social service units Number of adopted persons Number of social services beds per thousand people Number of pension beds per thousand elderly people			Ten thousand beds/thousand persons beds/thousand person	43141 271.8 3.2 20.6
Child adoption and rescue	No.		Ten thousand	54.1
	of	Centralized support of orphans Scattered orphans	Ten thousand Ten thousand	8.7 45.5
	orphans
	Registered			24635
	adoption	Foreign adoptions Rescue of street children	Ten thousand person-times	3311 14.6
Welfare enterprises providing jobs for the disabled	Welfare enterprises No. of disabled persons in welfare enterprises		Ten thousand	20401 59.6
Rescue services provided for people with living difficulties	Urban poverty relief	Citizens receiving subsistence allowances Households receiving subsistence allowances Average subsistence allowance for urban residents Monthly per capita expenditure of subsistence allowances Planned monthly expenditure of subsistence allowances	Ten thousand Ten thousand Yuan/person/month Yuan/person/month   Hundred million yuan	2142.5 1113.6 330.1 244.0 　——
	Medical assistance	Urban medical assistance Cooperative medical system participation funded by civil affairs department	Ten thousand person-times Ten thousand	666.4 1158.9
	Rescue of vagrants and beggars Temporary relief		Ten thousand Ten thousand person-times	216.8 523.0
Fundraising for disadvantaged groups	Social donations Total donated clothing Social donations transferred by other sectors Total donated clothing transferred by other sectors Value of other donated goods transferred by other sectors Beneficiary Number of social donation stations, points and charity supermarkets		Hundred million yuan Ten thousand Hundred million yuan Ten thousand Ten thousand yuan Ten thousand person-times Ten thousand	80.9 10145.2 3.1 1332.0 12222.8 893.5 2.9
	Total welfare lottery sales from Jan. to Dec.		Hundred million yuan	1510.3

 

3. Medical aid system

In 2012, medical aid was provided for a total of 20.77 million urban residents, of which: civil affairs departments provided financial aid for 13.871 million urban residents to participate in basic medical insurance, 84 yuan per person, and directly subsidized urban residents for 6.899 million person-times, 858.6 per person. Throughout the year, financial urban medical assistant funds amounted to 7.09 billion yuan, up 4.9%.

 

Table 4： Urban Medical Assistance, Insurance and Expenditure in the Fourth Quarter of 2012

Region	Special assistance		Urban medical assistance expenditure	Subsidies for medical insurance participation
	Number of people receiving urban medical assistance	Number of subsidized insured persons
National total	6664215	11588745	549909.2	93012.9
Beijing	33260	29901	6803.2	127.5
Tianjin	144	-	160.4	275.0
Hebei	137838	162009	14843.5	1990.6
Shanxi	147487	661825	19746.9	4194.5
Inner Mongolia	156702	329578	18369.9	3622.2
Liaoning	137245	185759	7812.2	1635.3
Jilin	137928	128541	17871.3	1862.5
Heilongjiang	664227	1340296	49143.5	9685.1
Shanghai	67582	40868	9541.5	1398.5
Jiangsu	232187	296738	22805.4	7264.6
Zhejiang	136600	38463	10615.8	850.7
Anhui	138296	238829	23288.1	2236.1
Fujian	35716	53772	4052.4	485.7
Jiangxi	231376	538809	40945.2	7866.8
Shandong	72532	192177	16202.5	2220.9
Henan	217273	492967	15007.6	3416.4
Hubei	247337	1020774	28450.6	4518.6
Hunan	427680	749800	32245.8	5157.1
Guangdong	233087	180591	7714.8	2742.7
Guangxi	95405	248169	8308.6	1220.9
Hainan	49481	116760	5128.6	1015.1
Chongqing	621567	729860	20687.3	3501.8
Sichuan	862815	859458	52043.6	8636.7
Guizhou	245509	437019	11701.9	1086.3
Yunnan	411238	944291	20469.0	6207.4
Tibet	1231	182	2235.7	122.8
Shaanxi	38100	25931	16609.4	918.6
Gansu	188715	143004	20532.8	771.6
Qinghai	241043	196173	8209.6	1637.3
Ningxia	108521	112440	5833.3	609.6
Xinjiang	346093	1093761	32528.8	5734.0

 

4. Education assistance system

From 2007 to 2011, a total of 352.617 billion yuan of subsidies was issued to 340 million students of relevant universities, secondary vocational schools, high school and primary and secondary schools to ensure that "no student will drop out of school because of financial difficulties of his family".

With the expanding size of migrant workers in the city, there are more and more migrant children completing compulsory education in the city and their admission test problem is becoming increasingly prominent. On August 30, 2012, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the “Opinions for Migrant Children to Take Part in Admission Test in the City After Completing Compulsory Education” issued by the Ministry of Education, etc. 

According to the Website of the Ministry of Finance, to effectively address the schooling problem of migrant children in the city, from 2008 to 2012, the central government arranged awarding subsidy funds of 15.83 billion yuan for migrant children, of which 5.03 billion yuan was issued in 2012. The Awarding subsidy funds were mainly used to support the urban compulsory education schools receiving migrant children to improve the school conditions, giving priority to public schools with poor conditions receiving a large number of migrant children, and support the private schools receiving migrant children as well.

From 2008 to 2012, according to statistics, the central government arranged tuition subsidies of 15.72 billion yuan, of which 3.17 billion yuan was issued in 2012. More than 29 million students receiving compulsory education in the city enjoy tuition-free policy or receive relevant subsidy every year. In such way, the government reduced the burden on urban residents and fully achieved free compulsory education in both urban and rural areas.

Exempted from tuition fees, migrant children are arranged to study in the nearby public schools and do not need to pay temporary schooling fee. The central government provided an appropriate amount of awards for the provinces outstanding in addressing the compulsory education problem of migrant children in the city. At present, migrant children who meet the requirements of local governments are mainly arranged to study in the public schools of the city where their parents work, enjoying equal rights for compulsory education

5. Social assistance system for vagrants and beggars

（1）Policy progress

On December 22, 2012, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the “Guiding Opinions on Mobilizing Social Forces to Participate in Rescue Service for Vagrants and Beggars”. The “Opinions” clarified that we must mobilize the enthusiasm of social organizations, enterprises, public institutions and volunteers, guide social workers, volunteers and warm-hearted people to timely report information on vagrants and beggars, and mobilize enterprises, public institutions and industrial and commercial businesses to provide funds, materials, equipment and intellectual support for vagrants and beggars. Based on local conditions, through service purchase, project cooperation, funds allowance and “substituting subsidies with rewards”, local governments should strive to meet the needs of daily care, medical treatment and education correction of vagrants and beggars.

In March 2012, the “Project Directory of the Social Services Participated by Social Organizations with Financial Support of the Central Government” issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs included social assistance services, social welfare services, social work services, poverty alleviation and disaster relief and community services. Social assistance services include poverty-relief projects, medical aid projects and education aid projects, social welfare services include projects to support the elderly, projects to support children and projects to support the disabled. Social work services include social network building for rural people left behind, social work caring projects for special groups, and reconstruction projects to improve the livelihoods of affected people; poverty alleviation and disaster relief services include poverty alleviation projects and disaster-relief projects; community service projects provide financial aid for community’s elderly people, community correction, community health, community culture, community environment and the management and service of urban floating population to improve the quality of life of urban residents.

（2）Development overview

　In 2012, 99,000 urban “three-no” people received social assistance.

 

Table 5: Rescue and beds for vagrants and beggars in the fourth quarter of 2012

Region	Special relief			Region	Special relief
	Number of  recipient vagrants & beggars	Number of beds			Number of  recipient vagrants & beggars	Number of beds
			Beds for children				Beds for children
National total	2167694	87896	19975	Henan	71351	3006	557
Beijing	224276	7268	652	Hubei	143174	3466	1371
Tianjin	9403	1118	257	Hunan	182684	5100	1059
Hebei	72341	2795	913	Guangdong	132592	7338	1545
Shanxi	55325	2251	808	Guangxi	37219	2110	470
Inner Mongolia	29980	2055	455	Hainan	6737	220	38
Liaoning	52799	4010	1070	Chongqing	53283	1519	373
Jilin	34381	2865	550	Sichuan	179267	7634	1634
Heilongjiang	31879	2057	187	Guizhou	72946	2282	780
Shanghai	87914	1704	285	Yunnan	47617	1794	241
Jiangsu	75629	4075	1215	Tibet	4262	290	89
Zhejiang	58472	3044	471	Shaanxi	82687	3793	330
Anhui	68631	3421	1290	Gansu	20328	1300	272
Fujian	70956	1515	158	Qinghai	1536	82	9
Jiangxi	101503	3786	1071	Ningxia	4831	313	148
Shandong	145504	3550	933	Xinjiang	8187	2135	744

 

 

In 2012, temporary relief was provided for 6.398 million households, of which 2.566 million were urban households; 6.177 million were local households and 221,000 were non-local households; 5.181 million households received expenditure type temporary relief and 1.217 million households received emergency temporary relief.

（III）Promote social protection: Employment-oriented anti-poverty strategy

"Employment Promotion Plan (2011-2015)" points out that during the "12^th Five-Year Plan" period, China's employment situation will become more complex, employment pressure will continue to increase, the structural contradiction between workers’ skills and job requirements and between labor supply and business labor demand becomes more prominent and the employment task is more onerous. Therefore, in addition to social relief work for the unemployed and temporary employed people, we should also promote the employment of fresh college graduates and people with disabilities through improving the employment assistance system, reducing the burden on enterprises, stabilizing employment and establishing the employment information public service network and labor rights protection system, etc.

In 2012, 12.66 million people found jobs in the city, 5.52 million urban unemployed people were re-employed and 1.82 million people had difficulties in employment. At the end of that year, the country helped 58,600 zero-employment families to find a job for at least one family member and organized 28,400 university graduates to engage in “three supports and one assistance” work in rural grassroots areas.

1. Improved the employment promotion system

In Accordance with the overall arrangements for public employment and personnel service projects in 2012, to further promote employment assistance work for people with difficulties in finding a job, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and China Disabled Persons' Federation jointly issued the "Notice on the Implementation of the Activity of 2012 Employment Assistance Month" and called for local governments to organize the employment assistance month activities themed on "support and jobs for individuals, policy implementation and service provision" from late December 2011 to mid-January 2012, aiming to help those who have difficulties in find a job, the disabled and the registered unemployed to find a job.

During the employment assistance month, in accordance with the requirements of the "Notice", local governments organized investigations on the recipients and effectively helped a number of people find jobs and achieve stable employment. According to statistics, during the event, they visited a total of more than 620,000 households nationwide with difficulties in finding jobs and zero-employment families; registered more than 517,000 unemployed persons, including 75,000 persons with disabilities helped more than 360,000 people with difficulties in finding jobs achieve employment, including 42,000 people with disabilities; helped over 590,000 people with difficulties in finding jobs enjoy relevant support policies, identified nearly 22,000 zero-employment families, and helped more than 23,000 people from over 18,000 zero-employment families find jobs.

In accordance with the unified requirements of the country, in the activities of Employment Assistance Month, local governments organized the implementation of many projects such as "enacting policies and providing jobs, skill training and employment services" and paid more attention to mechanism building for real-name registration, careful assistance, follow-up support and service optimization as well as other employment assistance work with the purpose to promote the institutionalized, long-term development of employment assistance. Specifically, work was done in five aspects:

First, achieved real-name registration and strengthened the dynamic management. With the renew and issuance of the "Employment and Unemployment Registration Certificate" in a unified style and the establishment of the national employment information monitoring system, some regions included people with difficulties in finding jobs into the real-name system and the informationized dynamic management system. Through public employment and personnel service agencies at all levels, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, Yunnan and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps identified and registered eligible people with difficulties in finding jobs, issued the  "Employment and Unemployment Registration Certificate" to them, included them into the employment information monitoring system, implemented real-name management and provided assistance for them.

Second, provided careful assistance to enhance employment rate. In the implementation process of employment assistance, local governments paid more attention to classified support and main assistance for people with difficulties in finding jobs, provided refined services to enhance the employment rate of the recipients giving full consideration to their actual difficulties. Hefei City of Anhui Province, Sanmenxia City and Nanyang City of Henan Province, for example, screened the collected information first based on different needs of the recipients and directly delivered appropriate jobs to the families in need to enhance the assistance efficiency and the employment rate. Hubei Province established the system for classified assistance and provided free practical skills trainings for landless farmers of low educational level without any labor skills to enhance their employability; provided “one-dragon” services for capable college graduates who are willing to launch their own businesses to achieve entrepreneurship dreams, including policy advice, venture training, business guidance, small loans, policy support and follow-up support; and introduced public service jobs for long-term unemployed senior people with living difficulties to ease their living difficulties.

Third, strengthened follow-up support to promote stable employment. To consolidate the assistance results, various regions increased efforts on follow-up services and support work, not only finding jobs for the unemployed but helping them achieve stable employment. To intensify the assistance effect, Beijing, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Chongqing, Guizhou, Gansu and Qinghai Province, for example, paid a return visit to the recipients, their families and work units to understand their employment situation, and timely implemented various support policies to improve employment stability; included those who were found unemployed again or had the desire to work but failed to find a job in the return visit into the daily assistance program and provided timely, targeted employment assistance services for them; understood the basic situation of the employed recipients and actively implemented employment support policies such as social insurance subsidy and work position subsidy policy for those not enjoying support policies to help them achieve stable employment.

Fourth, strengthen personnel training to enhance service capabilities. In order to do a better job of employment assistance, in the assistance month activities, various regions also organized relevant forces to strengthen grassroots team training and the construction of relevant systems and institutions. Panjin City of Liaoning Province, for example, organized trainings on employment assistance policies for more than 500 staffs of local sub-districts (towns) and communities. In accordance with the requirements of "simplifying things by cutting out the superfluous for convenience", Shandong Province re-sorted and optimized the employment services business processes and unified the service standards to make the links more reasonable, the operation more standardized and the process more smoothly, not only facilitating the masses but also reducing the pressure on grassroots working staff.

Fifth, institutional linkage to promote the employment of people with disabilities. Local departments of human resources and social security actively cooperated with local disabled persons' federations to create jobs and implement policies to promote the employment of people with disabilities. Hubei Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation, Hubei Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and Hubei Daily jointly held the "basic photography technology entrepreneurship training course for people with disabilities" and provided related services to help many people with disabilities achieve entrepreneurship dreams. The employment personnel service agencies in Chongqing City opened up a special window to timely issue the "Employment and Unemployment Certificate", the "Employment Assistance Card" and the "Urban Zero-employment Family Card of Chongqing City" for the disabled and established the basic account on a classification basis. Qinghai Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation and the Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security provided position subsidy, social insurance subsidy and one-time awarding funds of 4.96 million yuan for ten enterprises of disabled persons in line with the relevant requirements.

2. Established employment information public service network to protect the rights and interests of workers

Further standardized the management of human resources market. Issued the "Circular on Strengthening the Construction of Credit System of Human Resources Service Agencies", launched the activity of credit system building themed on "establishing brands by credit services and boosting development by standardized management" for human resources service agencies nationwide to promote service agencies to operate business according to law and provide credit services, and create a unified, open, fair, honest, competitive, orderly market environment. Organized a nationwide campaign to clean up the human resources market order, involving nearly 150,000 recruitment agencies and employers, conducted investigations into nearly 10,000 cases, banned 2815 illegal activities of recruitment agencies and revoked 133 licenses and 1126 business licenses. The human resources service system was further improved. As of the end of 2012, the government departments above the county level established a total of 28,000 public employment and personnel service agencies. In 2012, based on the market demands, the human resources service agencies provided various kinds of human resources services for 18.88 million employers, constantly expanded the areas of human resources services, enriched the service contents and enhanced the service levels.

Comprehensively promoted the implementation of labor contract system of small enterprises and continued to carry out the "Spring Action" of signing labor contracts with migrant workers to promote the contract signing and implementation between employers and workers. At the end of 2012, the labor contract signing rate reached 88.4%.

Vigorously promoted the collective contract system and implemented the "Rainbow Plan". At the end of 2012, a total of 1.311 million valid collective contracts were verified and registered by local departments of human resources and social security, covering 145 million workers.

In 2012, labor dispute mediation and arbitration organizations at all levels handled 1.403 million labor dispute cases and concluded 1.261 million cases (not including those not handled by arbitration organizations), of which 618,000 were mediation cases, accounting for 49.0%. Arbitration agencies put on records for 641,000 labor disputes with a clearance rate of 94.7%. Mediation organizations received 762,000 cases (including mediation by arbitration agencies).

In 2012, arbitration institutions at all levels put on records for 641,000 labor disputes, up 8.8%, involving 882,000 labors, up 13.2%, of which 7,000 were about collective labor disputes, involving 232,000 workers, and concluded 641,000 labor dispute cases, up 8.5%.

At the end of 2012, there were a total of 3291 labor security supervision organs nationwide and 25,000 labor security supervisors were equipped for human resources and social security departments at all levels.

Conducted a national campaign to clean up the human resources market order and make clear whether employers complied with labor and social insurance laws and regulations and whether migrant workers were paid. Throughout the year, the government organized inspections for 2.076 million employers, involving 110 million labors, conducted a written survey on 2.131 million employers, involving 90 million workers, and handled 412,000 labor and social security law violations, up 8.4%, of which 366,000 were report and complaint cases, up 5.5%. By labor security supervision and law enforcement, the government ordered the relevant employers to sign labor contracts with 8.055 million workers and pay wages of 20.08 billion yuan for 6.225 million workers, urged 84,000 employers to handle social insurance registration and declaration, urged 125,000 employers to pay social insurance charges of 5.22 billion yuan, and ordered the relevant employers to repay risk-guaranty money of 30 million yuan to the employees. Meanwhile, the national labor security supervision organs banned 4133 illegal employment agencies according to law.

（IV）Improve the public service system for migrant workers to respond to the risk of poverty.

According to Statistical Bulletin 2012 released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2012, there were a total of 262.61 million migrant workers in China, with an increase of 9.83 million over the previous year, up 3.9%, including 163.36 million working outside their local areas, with an increase of 4.73 million, up 3.0%, 129.61 million of relevant households, with an increase of 3.77 million, up 3.0%; 33.75 million accompanied by all family members, with an increase of 960,000, up 2.9%, and 99.25 million local migrant workers, with an increase of 5.1 million, up 5.4%.

1. Social insurance for migrant workers

In 2012, the social insurance participation rate of non-local migrant workers was enhanced to some extent, but still at a relatively low level. The proportion of employers that purchased pension insurance, industrial injury insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance for migrant workers was respectively 14.3%, 24%, 16.9%, 8.4% and 6.1%, respectively 0.4, 0.4, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.5 percentage points above that of the previous year. In accordance with the survey data of the recent five years, migrant workers’ pension insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance participation rate increased by 4 percentage points. Work-related injury insurance participation rate, however, which was relatively high in that previous year, did not increase significantly.

The insurance participation rate of the migrant workers in central and western regions was lower than that in the eastern areas. Seen from the situation of the rural areas where migrant workers come from, there are still some differences in the social security statuses of migrant workers. The insurance participation rate of the migrant workers in central areas is almost the same as that in western region, but much lower than that of the eastern areas. In 2012, the growth rate of the insurance participation rate of the migrant workers in central areas was slightly higher than that in eastern and western regions.

 

Figure 2：Social security participation rates of migrant workers in various areas in 2012  (Unit: %)

 

 



Social security levels of migrant workers in various industries are quite different. From the perspective of the industries migrant workers engaged in, the insurance participation situation in manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, postal services, wholesale, retail and service industry was relatively good. In the construction, accommodation and catering industry, however, the insurance participation rate was significantly lower than that of other sectors. In 2012, the insurance participation rate of manufacturing industry witnessed a rapider growth than other industries.

2. Housing security for migrant workers

In 2012, the accommodations of non-local migrant workers were still mainly provided by the employers. 32.3% of the employed migrant workers lived in the dormitories of their work units, 10.4% lived in construction sites or work sheds, 6.1% in production and business establishments, 19.7% in rented houses with someone else, 13.5% in the houses independently rented by themselves, 13.8% worked in the township but went back home every day and lived at home, and only 0.6% purchased houses in the working place. Seen from the changes in the living conditions of non-local migrant workers in recent years, more migrant workers tend to rent houses together with someone else rather than rent houses independently by themselves, and the proportion of the migrant workers who bought houses in the work places showed a declining trend.

In addition, 40% of the employers did not provide accommodation or housing subsidy for migrant workers. As for the housing burden, 49.5% of the migrant workers enjoyed free accommodation provided by the employers or work units, 9.2% of the employers and work units of migrant workers did not provide accommodations but offered housing subsidy, and 41.3% of the employers or work units provided neither accommodation nor housing subsidy. Compared with the previous year, the proportion of the employers or work units that provided free accommodation dropped by 0.4 percentage points, and the proportion of the employers or work units that provided no accommodation but offered housing subsidies increased by 0.4 percentage points.

3. Employment training of migrant workers

In 2012, most of the migrant workers did not receive any skills training and a small proportion of the young migrant workers took part in the agricultural technology training. Among the migrant workers, 10.7% received agricultural technology training, 25.6% received non-agricultural vocational skills training, and 69.2% received neither agricultural technology training nor non-agricultural vocational skills training. The proportion of young migrant workers receiving non-agricultural vocational skills training is higher than that of senior migrant workers, and the proportion of senior migrant workers receiving agricultural technology training is higher than that of young migrant workers. The young the migrant workers, the lower proportion of their participation in agricultural technology training.

4. Social assistance system for migrant workers

In recent years, the Ministry of Civil Affairs vigorously promoted the establishment of temporary assistance system, included migrant workers into the temporary assistance system and accelerated the construction of temporary relief stations, etc. Henan, Hebei, Hunan and Guizhou have made ​​certain attempts and efforts in this field, and some other regions have conducted research on the medical and employment problems of migrant workers.

In addition, through warmth-delivery activity in the Spring Festival, the All-China Federation of Trade Union raised warmth-delivery funds of nearly 4 billion yuan and organized 17 consolation groups to visit the employees in difficulties and migrant workers in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities for 7 million person-times, achieving full coverage of employees in difficulties. It focused on the following work: First, carried out large-scale investigations to make clear the situations of relevant enterprises and workers. Second, organized four aid actions to protect the legal rights and interests of migrant workers. Third, launched five major assistance projects to guarantee the livelihoods of the families of employees in difficulties. Fourth, provided six kinds of services to enrich the material and spiritual lives of the employees.

5. Other public service policies for migrant workers

In 2012, the wage arrears situation continued to be improved. 0.5% of the non-local migrant workers were not paid by the employers or work units, down by 0.3 percentage points compared to that of the previous year, and 1.5% of the migrant construction workers were not paid, down by 0.4 percentage points. According to the survey data of recent years, the proportion of the migrant workers not paid by employers or work units keeps declining year by year, and policies to address and curb wage arrears for migrant workers have achieved significant results.

Labor contract signing situation of migrant workers has not been significantly improved. 43.9% of the migrant workers signed labor contracts with the employers, almost the same as that of the previous year, and the situation has not been significantly improved according to the survey data of recent years. From the industry perspective, as of the end of 2012, 75.1% of the migrant workers in construction industry signed labor contracts with employers, up 1.5 percentage points; 48.8% of the migrant workers in manufacturing industry, 60.8% of the migrant workers in service sector, 62.4% of the migrant workers in accommodation and catering industry and 59.9% of the migrant workers in wholesale and retail industry signed labor contracts with employers, respectively down by 0.8, 0.6, 2.2 and 1 percentage points.

III. Urban Anti-poverty: Problems and Suggestions

（I）Make adjustments to existing social assistance policies

Take employment promotion and employment services as an integral part of the social assistance work and arrange relevant administrative resources to implement the task, including personnel and administrative expenses, etc.; meanwhile, take it as an indicator for the assessment of local social assistance performance to promote the employment of households covered by the minimum living security system. To achieve this goal, however, we do not have to set up a division to provide employment services in the civil affairs department, but can adopt two measures: On the one hand, through the establishment of an effective sectoral cooperation mechanism for information share, one-stop services or co-working service, we may set up a long-term effective cooperation mechanism between civil affairs departments and human resources and social security departments to jointly provide employment services for people receiving subsistence allowances. On the other hand, we should explore the establishment of mechanisms for employment service in other forms. For example, civil affairs departments may purchase services from NGOs, other governmental departments or public institutions.

　　Currently, employment promotion service for the objects of the minimum living security system is seldom included in the subsistence allowance work of civil affairs sector or other social assistance systems, and human resources and labor departments have not attracted enough importance to this problem as they mainly serve unemployed people. In practice, neither civil affairs departments nor human resources and labor departments have incentives to promote the re-employment of the people receiving subsistence allowances. In terms of policy design and the division of labor, civil affairs departments have neither the obligation nor the ability and incentive to play such a role, and their primary concern is the development of subsistence allowance standard and the targeting mechanism. This is because the minimum living security system was designed as a security assurance network for the laid-off workers of state-owned enterprises in the 1990s to guarantee their basic living, ignoring whether the recipients had the ability to work or not, and did not take into account their employment problem or employment services for them.

　　Therefore, China's social assistance systems set different rescue objectives for different groups of people. For those with the ability to work, we should help them enter the labor market to increase wage income and thus withdraw from the minimum living security system. It has a positive impact on national economic and social development to help the objects of social assistance enter the labor market. Many studies show that children living in the families receiving long-term social assistance will have a lot of adverse consequences. For instance, there is no a good example for demonstration of self-struggle. As a result, their attitude towards work and responsibilities will be distorted. In the long term, therefore, it is not only of great importance to poverty reduction and the prevision of social exclusion, but also helps these families better educate their children to lay a solid foundation for their future work to help the aid recipients with children to enter the labor market.

　　To achieve this goal, the government not only needs to adjust relevant rules and regulations or issue relevant policies, but also has to make appropriate resources and institutional arrangements for the local civil affairs departments to fulfill this task. Currently, the administrative capacity of local civil affairs departments is generally weak due to inadequate funding and staff and they cannot provide specialized employment services for the objects of the minimum living security system. It is also not realistic to add a new function to civil affairs departments. Local governments should be encouraged to explore the development of policies in line with existing policy environment. For instance, the civil affairs departments can choose to purchase services from non-governmental organizations or other government agencies, such as departments of human resources and social security and the poverty alleviation offices in rural areas, which all have the resources and conditions for employment services but lack motivation.

　　Currently, many nonprofit social work agencies have signed a cooperation agreement with local governments to provide community services for local children and elderly people. This pattern can be copied for employment services for objects of the minimum living security system. Another possible option is to build a joint work station of civil affairs departments and human resources and social security departments to effectively combine cash assistance with employment services. Another measure: the central government shall establish performance evaluation and awarding system for local subsistence allowance projects and take it as one of the indicators of performance evaluation to help the objects of the minimum living security system achieve re-employment. In this way, the local government will get some momentum incentives, and will then actively provide employment services for the recipients with the ability to work.

（II）A very effective way to strengthen sectoral cooperation proved by international experience is to establish a social assistance management information system for multi-sectoral cooperation at different levels of government.

The information management system should be shared by the relevant government departments, including civil affairs, human resources and social security, health, education, housing construction and poverty alleviation departments, community organizations, the Communist Youth League, women's federations and disabled persons' federations as well because it cannot rely totally on one department to promote the employment of those covered by the minimum living security system but needs the cooperation and support of many sectors and parties. Therefore, it will significantly enhance the management effectiveness and efficiency of social assistance to establish a multi-sectoral shared information management system. Through information sharing between departments, it can not only better coordinate the work and services, but also enhance the timely income and employment monitoring and support for the applicants and aid recipients. In addition, the information management system can also provide reliable data for the performance evaluation of the minimum living security system.

In fact, in recent years, local governments have been increasingly concerned about the re-employment of the objects of the minimum living security system and many cities have implemented positive employment policies similar to that of developed countries, such as income exemptions, relief waning, employment incentives and insurance subsidies, but the effectiveness of these measures is extremely limited. Services obtained from the employment sector are very limited and people rarely quit subsistence allowances after they find jobs. The subsistence allowance and employment promotion policies are not coordinated well, so it is difficult to achieve the desired effect. As a result, most of the objects covered by the minimum living security system have their own work and have additional income, but they are unwilling to quit subsistence allowances.

In this regard, China's current labor market is not standardized and the wage level is rather low, not covered by social insurance, which is a facilitating condition for many objects of the minimum living security system to do low-paid informal work. In addition, civil affairs departments do not conduct effective monitoring on the employment or income change of the objects of the subsistence allowance system. Even if these people have wage income, they usually keep it secret so that they will still receive subsistence allowances. However, we should also not restrict them to increase family income through employment because it will not help encourage them to quit subsistence allowances but will make them do informal work for a long time.

We can effectively overcome or alleviate these problems through the establishment of an information management system. Such a system will effectively promote information sharing and strengthen the cooperation between government departments and social organizations for service delivery. It also helps evaluate the demand of the relief objects (including employment, training, temporary care and other ancillary services). In addition, an effective information management system plays an important role in reviewing the qualifications of the relief objects, monitoring their income and employment situation and evaluating the effectiveness of the relief system.

To establish an information management system, we can proceed from the existing subsistence allowance information management system. Although MIS is not widely used in the management of subsistence allowances in China, most of the local governments above county level have established similar management modes. As for poverty targeting, income monitoring and relief fund payment, for example, the existing subsistence allowance management systems have detailed information. Currently, these systems usually have only the information of the households receiving subsistence allowances, which is under the independent management of civil affairs departments. Based on existing experience, we can also select a number of cities to launch pilot MIS program, aiming to achieve information share with other government departments responsible for the employment or services for households receiving subsistence allowances, such as human resources and social security departments and poverty alleviation offices. We can also share information with NGOs through signing employment service agreement. As the systems mature, employment and training opportunities as well as community services information can all be integrated in and we can establish a one-stop service platform jointly with other departments or organizations. As a result, the households covered by the minimum living security system will have more options for choice while receiving services, including cash assistance or other services.

（III） Increase the functions of existing community service center

Establish the community service center-based child care and family services facilities to look after the children, disabled or elderly persons for households receiving subsistence allowances in need so that able-bodied family members will be freed from responsibility for family care and enter the labor market or engage in higher-paying jobs. We can provide subsidies for the households receiving subsistence allowances to receive these services or offer free services for them, but other families need to pay. These services are not only necessary for helping the households receiving subsistence allowances achieve employment, but are needed by many other households as well.

Under normal circumstances, for needy families with the ability to work, we should follow the principle of employment services prior to cash assistance. In other words, we should first try to solve these families’ poverty problem through helping them find jobs rather than directly provide cash relief. It does not mean civil affairs departments must have the function to provide employment services for the households covered by the minimum living security system. Civil affairs departments can achieve this goal through purchasing services from other government departments or d non- governmental organizations. Specifically, while checking the eligibility of applicants for subsistence allowances, we should first make assessment of the causes of poverty and employability of the applicants. If it can better solve their problems by providing child or family care services, we should do so rather than offer cash subsidies. For the current households receiving subsistence allowances, we provide child or family care services to help them find jobs or obtain the opportunity for higher income and thus help them gradually integrate into the labor market and quit subsistence allowances.

According to the findings of this study, 1/3 of the households receiving subsistence allowances have family members to look after, 1/5 of the households have minors under 14 years of age, 16% of the households have elderly or disabled members and 70% of the home care services are provided by women aged 35-54. Obviously, for some objects of the minimum living security system, home care needs have limited their opportunities for employment or higher incomes, especially for women. The study also found that for personal and family reasons, 80% of the objects receiving subsistence allowances gave up the jobs after they found appropriate jobs and 60% of them tried to find jobs but failed. Among them, about one third did not look for work opportunities because they had to look after family members. Focus group interviews also proved it. Many objects of the minimum living security system have a heavy burden of looking after family members, which prevents them from looking for higher-paying jobs. Many people hope society will provide relevant services for them so that they will be liberated from the heavy burden of family care and enter the labor market.

To support or encourage the people receiving subsistence allowances to enter the labor market or quit subsistence allowances, civil affairs departments should provide more services rather than only cash assistance. One of the basic services is family and child care, and other services include vocational skills training, job recommendations and employment counseling. In practice, we should make assessment of the employability and personal and family circumstances of the people covered by the minimum living security system or the applicants. If they have the ability to work, we should first provide employment services for them, including home care services.

In practice, there are many different ways of service delivery. First, purchase services from NGOs or community service organizations. Second, help those receiving subsistence allowances with the ability to work establish and operate community organizations that offer such services and provide them with necessary operation support. Many people with the ability to work can become the labor sources of these service organizations through receiving appropriate trainings. Third, provide inclusive child allowances. Such a system is very common in many developed countries, i.e. to provide cash subsidies for the families with children to look after to purchase relevant services. In China, currently, there is not any cash subsidy system for normal children and their families, but it can be established in some regions with good economic conditions.

（IV）Job trainings for household receiving subsistence allowances should be held jointly with the employers, or after employment arrangement

That is because the common objects of the minimum living security system have multiple disadvantages in the labor market and employment training for these people should be different from that for ordinary unemployed people - open to the market. It should be recognized that we encourage or help the poor to enter the labor market and quit subsistence allowances not because the government cannot afford to support them, but because it has other significance. Simply speaking, it has a positive meaning to national economic and social development to help the poor successfully enter the labor market and become self-reliant members of society, including long-term anti-poverty effect, a positive impact on children behavior and the cultivation of civic responsibility. Therefore, employment support for the poor has the nature of many public goods and we should give priority to employment support. In other words, we should first find jobs or employment opportunities for the people receiving subsistence allowances and then provide them with relevant technical trainings. In such a way, we can not only make the job training more targeted, but make the poor more active in receiving employment training. In short, vocational skills training should be consistent with the work demand and the personal conditions of people covered by the minimum living security system, and only in such a way can it achieve better results. If we cooperate with the employers to provide vocational trainings for the poor, we will get better effect.

This approach will significantly improve the situation of poor effect of the current employment services. The results of this study show that on the one hand, the employment service agencies failed to provide effective employment training services for households receiving subsistence allowances, the number of people receiving employment training was rather limited, and only 12% of the interviewees received such services. On the other hand, the people covered by the minimum living security system said that the employment training was not targeted or effective. Organized by human resources and social security departments, the employment training must have unified content, so it ignores the specific situations of the poor. As a result, many people receiving subsistence allowances are unwilling to take part in the employment training as such training cannot help them achieve re-employment. Many people even think that the training is a kind of waste of public resources as it has no real content. In addition, most of the able-bodied poor aged 40-50 can hardly find jobs even if they receive the employment training due to their age and low level of education.

（V）Implement more positive employment incentives in the subsistence allowance system so that the personal or family welfare of the people receiving subsistence allowances will not be affected after these people choose to work. Three ways can be chosen to achieve such an effect:

First, expand the coverage of medical, education and housing assistance to the low-income families with children, elderly people, disabled or chronically ill persons. It will effectively reduce the benefits cliff effect of these additional rescues and reduce the negative incentives for the employment and subsistence allowance quit of the objects of the minimum living security system. A good signal is that in 2012, the average compensation level of health insurance reached about 70 percent of medical expenses. With a rising medicare reimbursement level, the negative incentives caused by the medical aid will gradually be eased.

Second, extend the time span of relief waning for the objects of the minimum living security system after they find jobs from the current three months in many regions to at least one year so that they will have plenty of time to integrate into the labor market, covering the households receiving subsistence allowances with access to formal employment. This policy should be implemented together with personalized employment services. In other words, after the people covered by the subsistence allowance system find jobs, the government should continue to provide follow-up services for them, including career guidance, skills training and other support measures to help them adapt to the working environment and improve job skills.

Third, to support the active employment incentive system, we should significantly increase the amount of employment income of the households receiving subsistence allowances not included in the survey on household livelihoods. The study shows that the subsistence allowance standard is generally low. For more households covered by the minimum living security system, subsistence allowances can hardly meet their basic living needs, so it is necessary for them to maintain family livelihood with employment income. Therefore, it is necessary to completely ignore the employment income of the poor in the qualification examination in a certain period of time so that the households covered by the minimum living security system will not lose the qualification for subsistence allowances even if they have employment income. On the one hand, in such a way, they will take the initiative to report the real situation of their household income and, on the other hand, it is also a more effective employment incentive countermeasure and is conducive to the operation of social assistance management information system (MIS).

One performance of the so-called active employment incentives is that after the households receiving subsistence allowances choose to work, their families' living standard will not be reduced but will be improved. The study shows that most of these households covered by the minimum living security system have a long history of receiving subsistence allowances, 70% of them received subsistence allowances for more than three years, 8% for more than ten years and some have never quit subsistence allowances. However, this is not simply because they are lazy or do not want to work. The survey found that 60% of the poor with the ability to work have their own jobs, but do not want to quit subsistence allowances no matter whether they have employment income or not. Simply speaking, they do not want to quit subsistence allowances because it will bring them more losses. Obviously, the current employment or social assistance policies do not provide sufficient employment incentives for the households covered by the minimum living security system.

One of the negative factors is the special relief system linked with the subsistence allowances. As found in the focus group interviews, staffs of civil affairs departments and the people covered by the minimum living security system both said that these fringe benefits are one of the main reasons why the poor do not want to quit subsistence allowances. If not covered by the minimum living security system, the households will lose the qualification for all related special relief. To many poor and low-income families, the relief is even more important than the subsistence allowances. Being afraid of losing these related benefits, they do not want to quit subsistence allowances.

Another negative incentive is the problem of the labor market. The wages of the households receiving subsistence allowances are usually rather low, even not up to the minimum wage level. Relevant survey shows that 70% of the households have employment income, but the income level is rather low and the wages cannot meet their basic needs for livelihood. In fact, subsistence allowances account for 40% of their family income as an important source of income of the families. Wage, subsistence allowances and mutual-aid of relatives and friends are the three main sources of income of the households covered by the minimum living security system. The focus groups also found that most of the jobs of the people covered by the minimum living security system are temporary or informal jobs and cannot become a main source of income of the families, but subsistence allowances can be regarded as a reliable and stable source of income, and guaranteeing payment is considered a reliable and stable source of income.

This requires the government to implement more stringent labor market policies, standardize the wage system and strive to improve the professional skills of the poor covered by the minimum living security system. Social relief, especially the minimum living security system, however, should also play a more active role. Many regions implemented some active employment supporting measures such as income-ignoring and relief waning policies to encourage the poor to work. The effectiveness of these measures, however, is limited. Three-month transition period is not enough to make them integrate into the labor market. If they cannot find a stable job with a certain level of income, they will, they think, face many risks to quit the subsistence allowances and enter the labor market.

（VI）It is the most practical policy on helping the households receiving subsistence allowances enter the labor market to provide them with employment opportunities by developing public and social services

China's public and social services are not mature on the whole, but most urban families have an urgent need for community service, especially child and old-age care, providing conditions for the development of communities and social services. For the majority of people covered by the minimum living security system, especially middle-aged women, community service is their ideal work as it not only facilitates their home care, but has a relatively low cost.

Employment opportunities can be created and developed by the following ways: First, provide financial incentives for existing agencies that can hire the persons covered by the minimum living security system, such as financial subsidy or tax breaks. Second, support or organize the poor with the ability to work to provide social services or launch social enterprises through public-private partnership, while the government can provide hardware equipment and initial capital and purchase services to support their operation. This model has been widely implemented in social services nationwide and can be used in employment service for the households receiving subsistence allowances. Similarly, no matter in what manner, we should hold a large number of vocational trainings for the relief objects.

The study found that the people covered by the minimum living security system generally do not have advantage in either age or human capital in the labor market. Among the 2810 respondents, more than 50% only received junior middle school education, less than 1/4 were high school graduates, 13% only received primary school education and only about 10% received college or university education; more than 50% suffered from chronic diseases or aged 45 -54 and would soon reach the retirement age. Many focus group participants also acknowledged that it is difficult for them to find jobs as their educational levels and vocational skills cannot meet the job requirements. Obviously, they have very limited job opportunities in a fully open and competitive labor market, and that is also a reason why the job recommendation service did not play a role as the objects of the minimum living security system cannot meet the conditions for the recommended jobs.

（VII）Introduce social work services in the field of social assistance

Social workers can not only provide the recipients and their families with a lot of targeted assistance, including support services other than cash for elderly and disabled people and children, but also help them analyze relevant problems, provide them with suggestions and information on how to improve their family livelihoods and help them get necessary policy support and services from the government and communities. In addition, social workers can also provide employment services for the poor with the ability to work or help them find jobs. Finally, the introduction of social work services to the field of social assistance also means the provision of a top-down resources integration method for the fragmentation or segmentation situation of China's current social services and social assistance. With professional knowledge and skills, social workers can play their role in the needs assessment, resources linkage and service effect monitoring for communities and the households receiving subsistence allowances. When some policies cannot solve the problems, social workers can also play a role in policy advocacy. In such a way, social resources and policies can be effectively coordinated and integrated at the terminals of policy and policy targets so that various social policies will play a synergistic effect.

Many persons who receive subsistence allowances and have the ability to work are confronted with a variety of barriers to employment, so we need to provide them with personalized services to help them achieve re-employment and quit subsistence allowances. Social workers can effectively achieve this goal. The study shows that many of the households receiving subsistence allowances have family members to look after, including elderly and disabled persons, chronically ill persons and children. The current minimum living security system only provides cash support for the basic living of poor households and ignores many other needs. These families are likely to encounter a lot of difficulties other than income, such as family care, children's education and health care, which can be addressed by social workers' services.

(Zhang Xiulan, Beijing Normal University)

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