Expand the scope of subsistence allowances, increase the price subsidies for people in need, and effectively grasp the bottom line of people’s livelihood.

A few days ago, the the State Council executive meeting deployed measures to increase the basic living security of the people in need, so as to secure the bottom line of people’s livelihood.

At the regular briefing on the State Council policy held by the State Council Office on August 26th, Yang Yinkai, deputy secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that from September this year to March next year, the linkage mechanism of price subsidies will be adjusted in stages, and the policy of "expanding the scope of protection and lowering the starting conditions" will be implemented, so as to increase the price subsidies for the needy people and effectively grasp the bottom line of people’s livelihood. It is estimated that the policy will cover 67 million people after the expansion.

One-time living allowance will be issued to people with difficulties such as the minimum living allowance, which will be fully completed by the end of August.

Since the beginning of this year, the bottom-up safeguard measures have been continuously improved, and the assistance to the people in need has also increased. By the end of June this year, 40.62 million people had received assistance from urban and rural residents, including 7 million urban residents and 33.62 million rural residents. The national urban minimum living standard is 734 yuan per person per month and the rural minimum living standard is 554 yuan per person per month; In the first half of this year, the accumulated expenditure on subsistence allowances was 92.62 billion yuan.

In order to implement the requirements of "expanding the minimum living allowance and increasing efficiency", the civil affairs department has continuously improved the minimum living allowance system. Liu Xitang, director of the Social Assistance Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that seriously ill and severely disabled people in marginal families have been included in the subsistence allowance alone, forming a combination of household insurance and personal insurance, and the system has more capacity; Encourage all localities to decentralize the examination and confirmation authority of subsistence allowances from the past counties to streets and towns to improve the efficiency of examination and verification; In addition, for low-income families whose per capita income exceeds the local minimum living standard after employment, a gradual retirement period of six months to one year will be given.

The temporary assistance system is mainly aimed at solving the sudden, urgent and temporary basic living difficulties encountered by urban and rural people. Since the beginning of this year, affected by epidemic and disaster, the number of people in need has increased. A few days ago, the the State Council executive meeting requested that the one-time living allowance issued to the needy people such as the minimum living allowance should be paid in place as soon as possible.

Residents, including migrant workers, who are unable to return to work due to the epidemic, have no income for three consecutive months, and are not included in unemployment insurance, can apply for a one-time temporary relief fund at their place of residence or domicile. Liu Xitang said that the work is progressing smoothly. Seventeen provinces in the country have all paid out, and all localities have issued an additional subsidy of 8.08 billion yuan for 40.18 million low-income recipients and extremely poor people, accounting for 90% of the total number of people in need. "It is expected that the work will be fully completed by the end of August, and the total amount of funds distributed is expected to be close to 10 billion yuan."

This year, the central government allocated 154.68 billion yuan to help the needy, an increase of 7.06 billion yuan over last year, and the local budget also increased investment accordingly. In the first half of the year, the national financial expenditure totaled more than 120 billion yuan, up 7% year-on-year.

Liu Xitang said, "Social assistance funds such as subsistence allowances are the focus of people’s livelihood security, and they are also the focus of financial support. It is no problem to implement special fund management and timely and fully distribute social assistance funds such as subsistence allowances."

The linkage mechanism of price compensation expands the scope of protection and reduces the starting conditions, which is expected to benefit about 9 million more people.

From January to July this year, China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.8% year-on-year, and rose by 2.7% year-on-year in July. Yang Yinkai said that due to factors such as imported inflationary pressure and seasonal increase in pork prices, the domestic price level may be slightly higher than that of the previous months in the latter months of this year to the first quarter of next year, which is lower than that of cardinal utility in the same period last year.

In order to alleviate the impact of rising prices on the basic livelihood of people in need, the linkage mechanism of price subsidies will be adjusted in stages from September this year to March next year.

After the adjustment, the scope of protection has been expanded. The current linkage mechanism of price compensation covers seven groups, including urban and rural minimum living allowances, destitute people, people receiving unemployment insurance benefits, special care recipients enjoying regular state pension subsidies, orphans, children who are actually left unattended and children infected with HIV, totaling about 58 million people.

On the basis of the above-mentioned seven groups, this time, two groups, namely, people receiving unemployment benefits and marginal population with minimum living allowance, will be added into the scope of protection of the linkage mechanism of price compensation. After expanding the scope of protection, it is expected to benefit about 9 million more people and cover about 67 million people in need. Conditional places can further expand the scope of protection.

Wan Jinsong, director of the Price Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the people receiving unemployment benefits and the marginal population with low living allowances will be included in the scope of protection in stages, mainly considering that the people receiving unemployment benefits are unemployed, their income sources are unstable, and their lives are facing certain difficulties; Although the income of the marginal population is slightly higher than the minimum living standard, the living standard is generally low.

After adjustment, the starting conditions are reduced. The monthly year-on-year increase of CPI in the starting conditions of the price subsidy linkage mechanism was reduced from 3.5% to 3.0% in stages, while other starting conditions such as issuing price subsidies when the food price in CPI rose to 6% year-on-year, were kept unchanged, and the price subsidy linkage mechanism was started when any conditions were met.

"Reducing the start-up conditions is mainly due to the impact of epidemic situation and disasters. The income growth of people in need faces more difficulties, and the feeling of rising prices may be more obvious." Wan Jinsong said that after lowering the starting conditions, it is expected that the number of months and the starting area of the price subsidy linkage mechanism will increase significantly, which means that more people in need can receive price subsidies.

All localities will grant temporary price subsidies of about 20 billion yuan to people in need.

According to statistics, since 2020, local governments have distributed temporary price subsidies of about 31.5 billion yuan, benefiting 530 million people in need.

After adjusting the linkage mechanism of price subsidies in stages, it is estimated that from September this year to March next year, all localities will provide temporary price subsidies of about 20 billion yuan to the needy, of which about 7 billion yuan will be increased due to expanding the scope of protection and lowering the starting conditions.

Where does the additional funds come from? According to reports, the additional funds for those who receive unemployment insurance benefits and unemployment subsidies are paid from the unemployment insurance fund; The central government will provide subsidies to other needy people in different regions, including 30% in the eastern region, 60% in the central region and 80% in the western region.

"Temporary price subsidies are issued by the local authorities first and settled by the central government." Wan Jinsong said, in the current situation that governments at all levels are living a "tight life", the state still decided to adjust the linkage mechanism of price subsidies in stages and increase the price subsidies for the needy people, which fully demonstrated that the CPC Central Committee and the State Council always cared about and cared about the needy people, and always placed the protection of their basic livelihood in a prominent position.

Yang Yinkai said that the National Development and Reform Commission will work with relevant departments to strengthen work guidance, ensure that all the work of price subsidies is carried out in an orderly manner, and ensure that policy deployment can be fully implemented. (Reporter Lu Yanan)