The Underlying Problems Of Social Welfa
张航 12BE1 3112010567
The Underlying Problems of Social Welfare in China
The current Chinese social welfare system includes unemployment insurance, medical insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, maternity benefits, communal pension funds, individual pension accounts, universal health care, and a carbon tax [1]. With such social welfare system we can ensure a secure future for those in need. However, though many politicians has been perfecting it for decades, some underlying problems is still blocking our way to make it a more mature one.
The first one, also the most crucial, is the narrow coverage of this system and uneven level of its benefits. Current social welfare system has a narrow coverage for only limited number of citizens. According to the Constitution, citizens have basic rights to social welfare, but current Chinese social welfare system mainly targets at urban residents, not farmers, employees of township enterprises, and immigrants from the rural areas to urban areas, which comprise of the larger proportion of the population. Even within cities, social welfare system doesn’t cover all employees. Only employees in state-owned enterprise are all covered by social welfare system. Moreover, the current social welfare system is designed for full-time employees, not part-time workers [2]. And the uneven benefit level lies in the pension employees will get when they are retired. In most cases, those who retire from enterprise would have an average annual pension that is less than those retire from public institutions. And the highest pension would always goes to retirees of authority. Without doubt, welfare level of employees mostly depends on their economic units.
Another problem of this system is welfare institutions' lack of funds and the corruption in welfare agencies. Although our government has strongly support social welfare, but for China's huge population, it is very clear that depending merely on the investment of government is not
The Underlying Problems of Social Welfare in China
The current Chinese social welfare system includes unemployment insurance, medical insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, maternity benefits, communal pension funds, individual pension accounts, universal health care, and a carbon tax [1]. With such social welfare system we can ensure a secure future for those in need. However, though many politicians has been perfecting it for decades, some underlying problems is still blocking our way to make it a more mature one.
The first one, also the most crucial, is the narrow coverage of this system and uneven level of its benefits. Current social welfare system has a narrow coverage for only limited number of citizens. According to the Constitution, citizens have basic rights to social welfare, but current Chinese social welfare system mainly targets at urban residents, not farmers, employees of township enterprises, and immigrants from the rural areas to urban areas, which comprise of the larger proportion of the population. Even within cities, social welfare system doesn’t cover all employees. Only employees in state-owned enterprise are all covered by social welfare system. Moreover, the current social welfare system is designed for full-time employees, not part-time workers [2]. And the uneven benefit level lies in the pension employees will get when they are retired. In most cases, those who retire from enterprise would have an average annual pension that is less than those retire from public institutions. And the highest pension would always goes to retirees of authority. Without doubt, welfare level of employees mostly depends on their economic units.
Another problem of this system is welfare institutions' lack of funds and the corruption in welfare agencies. Although our government has strongly support social welfare, but for China's huge population, it is very clear that depending merely on the investment of government is not