USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Home / World

Better pension scheme needed

By Grayson Clarke | China Daily | Updated: 2013-03-12 07:51

Better pension scheme needed

One of the great successes of the Chinese government's social security policies in the past decade has been its expansion into the hitherto untouched area of the nation's countryside.

The introduction of nationwide rural pension scheme in 2009 was a landmark move. By the end of 2011, it had covered 326.43 million people, a number larger than that of the entire US social security system. The pension recognizes that farmers never strictly retire from work and instead become increasingly unable to maintain their income as they start getting old and weaker.

That, of course, is even truer in 21st century China, because the impact of the strict family planning policy and mass rural-to-urban migration has left many farming families with no one to depend on in old age. In this sense, the rural pension scheme fulfills the original purpose of a pension as a form of income replacement, rather than a reward for past employment as urban workers worldwide generally see it.

Better pension scheme needed

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US