BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) You Jun, Vice Minister of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said today that there is a big gap between provinces in the accumulated surplus funds of endowment insurance, which is difficult to be solved by provincial-level overall planning, so it is necessary to improve the overall planning level and adjust the funds nationwide. The establishment of the central adjustment system of the basic old-age insurance fund for enterprise employees is mainly aimed at ensuring the safe and sustainable development of the old-age insurance system in China and the timely and full payment of pensions for enterprise retirees. First, establish a central fund adjustment system to balance the burden of pension funds between regions, gradually improve the system, and realize the national overall planning of pension insurance as soon as possible.
The State Council Press Office held a routine briefing on the State Council policy on 13th, and asked Vice Minister Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security You Jun to introduce the State Council’s Notice on Establishing a Central Adjustment System for Enterprise Employees’ Basic Endowment Insurance Fund, and answered questions from reporters.
A reporter asked: Why is the central adjustment system of basic old-age insurance for enterprise employees established, and what problems can be solved by the implementation of the system?
You Jun said that this issue should be viewed from history and reality, especially from the development process of China’s pension insurance system. China’s basic old-age insurance system for enterprise employees began to reform in the 1980s, and experienced a process from bottom to top, and then from top to bottom.
At the earliest, we began to explore the establishment of social pooling of county-level retirement expenses, and then gradually established an institutional model combining social pooling with individual accounts. During this period, the methods of endowment insurance were different in different places. By 1997, the State Council unified the national basic old-age insurance system for enterprise employees, and further improved it in 2005. On this basis, in 2010, the National People’s Congress passed the Social Insurance Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC), which was officially implemented on July 1, 2011. Since then, the development of China’s old-age insurance system has embarked on the legal track.
You Jun said that after nearly 30 years of reform, China’s basic old-age insurance system for enterprise employees has gradually realized provincial-level overall planning from the initial county-level overall planning. Provincial overall planning means that the endowment insurance fund can be adjusted within a province. However, with the acceleration of population aging and the diversification of employment situation, especially the strengthening of mobility, the labor force flows from the central and western regions to the east. Under the influence of these factors, the gap between regions in the dependency ratio of old-age insurance is widening.
Last year, there were 353 million employees participating in the endowment insurance for enterprise employees, including 259 million employees on the job and 94.6 million retirees receiving benefits. The total dependency ratio was 273: 1, that is, 2.73 employees supported a retiree.
Of course, there are great differences between different provinces, some provinces have a dependency ratio of 4: 1, and the highest is that Guangdong has exceeded 8: 1; The dependency ratio in some provinces is less than 2: 1, and the lowest in Heilongjiang is less than 1.3: 1, which is mainly caused by the different population structure and economic structure in different regions. Especially in the old industrial bases such as Northeast China, the historical burden is heavy, and there are many labor outflows, so the pressure on pension funds is greater. In the eastern coastal provinces, the historical burden was relatively light in the past, and there were more labor inflows, so the balance of pension funds was also more.
Although the accumulated balance of endowment insurance in China is 4.14 trillion yuan, nearly two-thirds of it is concentrated in a few provinces in the eastern region. The national accumulated balance can be paid for 17.4 months, and some provinces can pay for 40 or 50 months, and there are tens of billions of balances in the current period of each year. The balance in Guangdong last year exceeded 100 billion. Some provinces, such as Liaoning and Heilongjiang, are facing great pressure in fund operation, and the income in the current period has exceeded the expenditure, and the accumulated balance of individual provinces has also been used up.
You Jun said that social insurance follows the law of large numbers, which means that the higher the level of overall planning and the more participants, the stronger the fund’s ability to resist risks. The imbalance of funds between provinces is difficult to solve by provincial overall planning, so it is necessary to improve the level of overall planning and adjust funds nationwide.
The social security law clearly stipulates that the basic old-age insurance fund is gradually implemented nationwide. In the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it is also explicitly required to realize the national overall planning of endowment insurance as soon as possible. Whether we can achieve national overall planning in one step is closely related to the uneven development of regions in China. There are great differences in payment base, rate standard and treatment level in different places, so it is difficult to realize the idealized national overall planning model of unified fund collection and expenditure in one step.
A more prudent way is to start from a lower proportion and establish a central fund adjustment system as the first step of national overall planning, so as to alleviate the imbalance of endowment insurance funds between provinces and regions and enhance the sustainability of the basic endowment insurance system. On this basis, we will work out the timetable and road map for national overall planning, constantly improve the central fund adjustment system, solidly promote all work, and realize the national overall planning model of unified fund collection and expenditure as soon as possible.
You Jun said that just a few words were summarized, and the establishment of a central adjustment system for basic old-age insurance funds for enterprise employees was mainly aimed at ensuring the safe and sustainable development of China’s old-age insurance system and ensuring the timely and full payment of pensions for enterprise retirees. According to the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the requirements of the social insurance law, we should first establish a central fund adjustment system to balance the burden of endowment insurance funds among regions, gradually improve the system, and realize the national overall planning of endowment insurance as soon as possible.