Transfer of pensions

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is soliciting public opinion on temporary rules for the transfer of pension accounts among three different types of pension programs. These rules, due to take effect next year, are meant to protect the rights and interests of migrant workers and the urban unemployed and will hopefully be the prelude to the real integration of rural laborers into the cities as local residents.

The three pension programs are the pension insurance for urban workers, pension insurance for urban residents and pension insurance for rural villagers. The rules stipulate that those who have already entered either of the latter two programs can transfer the money in their accounts to that for urban workers if they have a job in an urban area and have paid into their urban workers' pension accounts for 15 years.

In reality, there will not be many rural laborers who will benefit from such rules since most of them work as odd-job laborers and thus do not enjoy an urban worker's pension. For young rural laborers, the new rules mean they can enter the rural pension program and pay into their rural pension account without ever worrying that they will lose the money once they get an urban job. The same is true for unemployed urban residents.