The reform of social security system has developed in depth.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always regarded social security as an important institutional arrangement to promote economic and social development and realize that the broad masses of the people share the fruits of reform and development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has placed the construction of social security system in a more prominent position. Through a series of institutional and institutional innovations, China’s social security system reform has developed in depth. Nowadays, the goal of universal coverage of social security work is being achieved steadily.
Leading the people to create a better life is our party’s unswerving goal. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always regarded social security as an important institutional arrangement to promote economic and social development and realize that the broad masses of the people share the fruits of reform and development. After decades of unremitting efforts, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has put the construction of social security system in a more prominent position, adhered to full coverage, guaranteed basic, multi-level and sustainable, and made a series of major decisions and arrangements. Today, the largest social security system in the world has become the guarantee for 1.4 billion Chinese to live and work in peace and contentment. From centenarians to newborn babies, the goal of universal coverage of social security work is being steadily realized.
Practice has proved that the historic achievements in China’s social security cause are fundamentally due to the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, persistence in giving full play to the party’s leadership and the political advantages of the socialist system, and concentrating on doing great things. The valuable experience we have gained for a long time lies in adhering to the people’s supremacy and common prosperity, and taking improving people’s livelihood and promoting social equity as the fundamental starting point and end result of developing social security.
Solve the problem of "urgent difficulties and worries" of the masses
Achieving common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism. For a country with a large population like China, it is necessary to constantly improve the social security system so that everyone can share the fruits of economic and social development.
I often think about the sufferings of the people in my heart, and I often seek ways to enrich the people in my mind. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of the Party, China’s social security system has been consolidated step by step, and its coverage has gradually expanded from employees of urban enterprises to rural residents, and the goal of universal coverage is being steadily realized. In 2016, the International Social Security Association awarded the China Municipal Government the "Outstanding Achievement Award in Social Security" in recognition of China’s outstanding achievements in expanding social security coverage.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, social security started. "Workers in People’s Republic of China (PRC) have the right to get material help when they are old, sick or incapacitated." In September 1954, the Constitution of People’s Republic of China (PRC) adopted by the First National People’s Congress explicitly mentioned the rights of workers.
After the reform and opening up, China’s social security construction has entered the fast lane. During this period, in order to establish a multi-level social security system and provide social security suitable for urban and rural residents in China, China has successively launched the "Two Rivers Pilot" of the employee medical insurance system, put forward the "two guarantees" for laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises, established and improved the old-age insurance system for enterprise employees and the industrial injury insurance system, and comprehensively implemented the new rural social endowment insurance system and the old-age insurance system for urban residents. On July 1st, 2011, the Social Insurance Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) was officially implemented, and the social insurance system of new China had a special law formulated by the highest legislature for the first time.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s social security reform has witnessed the greatest strength, the fastest development speed and the widest coverage. It is also a period in which the people are most concerned about the most direct and realistic interests and the people’s "urgent difficulties and worries" are solved the most.
China has built the largest pension security system in the world. In February 2014, the basic old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents was unified. In October of the same year, the reform of the old-age insurance system in government agencies and institutions was initiated, and a unified basic old-age insurance system combining social pooling with individual accounts was implemented with enterprise employees. In 2018, the central adjustment system of the basic old-age insurance fund for enterprise employees was established, which strongly supported the full payment of basic pensions in difficult provinces. In 2020, the national overall plan for enterprise employees’ pension insurance was reviewed and approved by the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, and various preparatory work was in full swing. By the end of May 2021, China’s basic old-age insurance had covered 1.012 billion people, including 460 million employees, 547 million urban and rural residents and nearly 300 million pensioners. The old-age insurance system has enabled retirees and elderly residents in urban and rural areas to share the fruits of economic and social development, and their sense of acquisition, happiness and security has been significantly enhanced.
The "trinity" structure is in the same boat through thick and thin, and it is helpful to encounter work-related injuries. Bringing more people into the scope of protection of industrial injury insurance is the top priority of this basic guarantee. The "Same Boat Plan" launched for three consecutive years from 2015 to 2017 is the special expansion plan of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security for the construction industry. In 2018, it was made clear that migrant workers who are employed in various engineering construction projects such as railways, highways, water transport, water conservancy, energy and airport projects can be included in the work-related injury insurance protection by participating in the project, thus creatively solving the problem of difficulty in participating in the insurance for migrant workers in the engineering construction field. By the end of May, 2021, the number of people participating in industrial injury insurance nationwide was 272 million, including 89.91 million migrant workers. Nowadays, the industrial injury insurance system of prevention, compensation and rehabilitation is becoming more and more perfect. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and other eight departments jointly issued the Five-year Action Plan for Work Injury Prevention (2021-2025). The effective development of work injury prevention has promoted the decline of the incidence of work-related accidents and the improvement of working conditions in the workplace. During the treatment of the epidemic in COVID-19, the rights and interests of industrial injury insurance of infected medical staff and related staff were protected in time.
Economic "shock absorber" is stable and far-reaching
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, through a series of innovations in system and mechanism, the reform of China’s social security system has developed in depth, the level of security has been continuously improved with economic development, and the role of "shock absorber" in economic operation has become more and more prominent.
Reduce fees and reduce the burden on enterprises. In recent years, when all kinds of enterprises are experiencing major economic fluctuations, facing major reform initiatives and encountering major emergencies, social security policies have made timely moves, which have played a positive role in helping small and medium-sized enterprises, stabilizing and expanding employment. It is understood that from 2015 to 2019, China has reduced the social security rate six times, and the total social security rate of five items has dropped from 41% to 33.95%, which has reduced the expenses for enterprises by nearly one trillion yuan, effectively promoting the development of the real economy and private enterprises.
In 2020, in order to cope with the severe impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security introduced an unprecedented policy of "reducing the burden, slowing down the reduction and subsidizing". In the whole year, the three social insurances of pension, unemployment and work injury reduced the burden on enterprises by 1.54 trillion yuan, accounting for two-thirds of the total tax reduction and fee reduction. Bao Daorong, deputy director of the Labor and Employment Center in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, was deeply impressed by the measures taken to stabilize unemployment insurance in Fuzhou last year: "In 2020, we gave 17,700 small and medium-sized enterprises a stable job subsidy. In the past, enterprises were looking for social departments to honor their policies. During the epidemic, we were looking for enterprises by policy and took the initiative to help enterprises through difficult times. "
In recent years, China has implemented an unemployment insurance system to protect life, prevent unemployment and promote employment, which has played a decisive role in helping enterprises stabilize their posts and upgrading their skills. In 2015, in order to implement the central government’s "cost reduction" requirements, the unemployment insurance rate was "three reductions and four extensions", and the total rate was reduced from 3% to 1%. At present, this policy is still being implemented. In 2019, in order to implement the strategy of strengthening the country with skills, the human and social departments took out 100 billion yuan from the balance of unemployment insurance funds to support vocational skills upgrading. In 2020, in response to the impact of the epidemic, 104.2 billion yuan of stable return funds were distributed to 6.08 million insured enterprises throughout the year, benefiting 156 million employees. In the same year, in terms of expanding the coverage of unemployment insurance, the unemployment subsidy and temporary living allowance policies were innovated. For the first time, urban and rural unemployed people who voluntarily resigned, received unemployment insurance benefits and had been insured for less than one year were included in the coverage. In the whole year, 13.37 million unemployed people enjoyed unemployment insurance benefits.
The role of social security as an economic "shock absorber" is not only reflected in the fact that it can cover the difficulties in emergencies, but also in the fact that it has a certain countercyclical adjustment function of economic operation, creating environmental conditions for the smooth and orderly flow of labor factors. At present, China is building a new development pattern, the core of which is to smooth the national economic cycle so that production, distribution, circulation and consumption rely more on the domestic market. In order to meet the people’s new expectations for a high-quality life, social security benefits have been gradually improved. The basic pension for enterprise retirees has been continuously adjusted for 17 years, and the pensions for retirees from enterprises, institutions and institutions have been adjusted simultaneously for six consecutive times. At the same time, unemployment insurance and work injury insurance benefits have been greatly improved. At present, the minimum standard of basic pension for urban and rural residents provided by the central government has been transferred from 55 yuan to 93 yuan. All provinces have issued additional local basic pensions, and the monthly per capita pension for urban and rural residents is about 170 yuan.
At present, people’s social departments at all levels in the country are taking people’s livelihood security as the starting point and the end result of smoothing the domestic circulation, closely following the strategic base point of expanding domestic demand, improving the multi-level social security system, eliminating worries for the masses, improving people’s livelihood and expanding consumption.
Sustainable supply matters for a long time.
With the development of economy and society and the improvement of people’s health, China has entered the stage of population aging. Faced with the extension of life expectancy, the acceleration of population aging, the decline of working-age population and the shortening of average working years, China’s population aging has the characteristics of "getting old before getting rich" and huge scale, which has a great and far-reaching impact on economic and social development. The social security system must be actively coordinated, explore effective paths and measures, and continuously enhance sustainability.
Pension funds plan ahead and strive to achieve steady development. In August 2015, the State Council issued the Measures for the Administration of Investment in Basic Endowment Insurance Funds, which opened a new chapter in the market-oriented investment and operation of basic endowment insurance funds. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, in order to expand the scale of entrusted investment of pension funds and improve the efficiency of fund appreciation, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance successively issued a number of documents, and deployed all provinces in China to start entrusted investment of pension funds in three batches. By the end of 2020, all provinces in China and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have started the entrusted investment of pension funds, with the entrusted scale reaching 1.24 trillion yuan and the actually received scale reaching 1.05 trillion yuan. Since the pension fund was officially invested and operated at the end of 2016, the accumulated investment income is nearly 200 billion yuan, and the average annual rate of return is over 6%, far exceeding the average annual inflation rate and the 5-year time deposit interest rate in the same period, which has achieved the goal of maintaining and increasing value.
The development of annuity funds has accelerated, and the role of supplementary pension has gradually become apparent. Enterprise annuity and occupational annuity are the second pillar of old-age insurance, and are the important contents of building a multi-level old-age insurance system in China. In recent years, the enterprise annuity system has run smoothly and the occupational annuity system has made a major breakthrough. By the end of 2020, 105,000 enterprises across the country had established enterprise annuities, with 27.18 million participants. In terms of occupational annuity, since the establishment of the system in 2015, it has been gradually standardized from scratch in just a few years. By the end of 2020, the second pillar of endowment insurance has covered 69 million people, and the accumulated scale of the fund has exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, which has better achieved the long-term stable income goal.
At present, the overall healthy and orderly development of the annuity system has gradually played a positive role in promoting a multi-level pension system, enhancing the talent attraction of insured units, and improving the level of pension benefits for employees after retirement. At the same time, supplementary endowment insurance fund, as an important medium-and long-term fund, has also played a positive role in promoting the steady development of China’s capital market. (Economic Daily-China Economic Net reporter Rong Rong)