Rules changed to speed compensation payouts

By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-28 08:56

They did not spend much time with each other in the past, but Ma Yunxiang has been feeling the absence of his elder brother more acutely in the past few weeks.

"He is a man of few words, but I always found him to be clear-minded," Ma said of his brother.

"I often went to him for advice on major decisions."

But the deadly quake that hit Sichuan province on May 12 has left the 42-year-old Ma with one less confidant.

His brother, 52-year-old Ma Yunjie, is one of the 18,457 reported missing from the disaster as of yesterday afternoon.

The chemist with a hospital in Beichuan, one of the worst-hit quake zones, disappeared after the temblor, leaving only a 10-year-old son.

"I worry most about my nephew and his future," Ma said.

"I can't afford to raise him on my own."

Ma is just one of many people facing financial difficulties as a result of missing quake victims.

In a notice posted on its website on Thursday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that the country's laws stipulate that it would take at least three years to verify the deaths of missing quake victims.

As most compensation policies currently cover only the relatives of the dead, the civil affairs authorities are coming up with alternative measures to ensure adequate compensation for the relatives of the missing.

"The earthquake came so unexpectedly the verification of their deaths (of the missing people) won't meet the stipulated timelines," Chen Binli, head of the civil affairs bureau of Mianzhu, one of the worst-hit cities, said.

To tackle these concerns, the central government has ordered that 5,000 yuan be given out to relatives of the dead.

Chen said that the relatives of the missing, once verified, will be compensated immediately with the 5,000 yuan.

Zhao Dengqiang, civil affairs bureau chief in Dujiangyan, also said that his city will give priority to relatives of the missing who are now living in dangerous or collapsing houses and in the process of being relocated.

Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said last month that life insurers will compensate half the amount of the insured money for the beneficiaries of those people confirmed to be missing by the local government.

They will have to pay the full amount to the beneficiaries once the missing people are confirmed dead.

The People's Bank of China also recently ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of those missing in the disaster-hit region, with beneficiaries only being able to withdraw funds after the implementation of relevant rules.

The civil affairs ministry said in the notice that it is difficult to account for the number of missing people, as it takes time to identify those missing from both in or outside the region.

"The identification of the missing people who are not permanent local residents is especially difficult, and governments at all levels are still carefully trying to verify the actual numbers," the report said.

A number of the missing quake victims were newly reported by their relatives who had just returned to Sichuan from their places of work in other provinces and regions recently, Chen Kefu, deputy chief of the Sichuan provincial civil affairs department, said.

Xinhua contributed to the story