Fulfilling Our Function of Meeting the Basic Needs of Extremely Vulnerable Groups

President Xi Jinping has emphasized that no issue concerning the people's wellbeing is too trivial and that every detail matters when it pertains to the overall context. We must, therefore, afford people in need extra consideration, compassion, and care and assist them in resolving their concerns and difficulties. President Xi has called on civil affairs departments at all levels to channel their efforts toward poverty alleviation, special groups, and the public's concerns. We must fulfill our responsibilities in ensuring basic needs are met, exercising community-level social governance, and providing basic social services, improve the social assistance and social welfare systems, and implement policies tailored to the characteristics and needs of extremely vulnerable groups. Through these efforts, we can guarantee that people’s basic needs are met in an accurate and effective way.

Improving the social assistance system

Working alongside relevant departments, we have refined basic living assistance systems, such as the subsistence allowance scheme. In doing so, we have incorporated people with serious illness or severe disability from families just above the threshold of eligibility. Such efforts have ensured coverage and assistance for all those who need it. By the end of November 2023, the urban and rural subsistence allowance program had provided assistance to 40.45 million people, including 6.62 million urban residents and 33.83 million rural residents.

We have rolled out a program for local governments to provide temporary assistance to people affected by disasters or emergencies in their jurisdictions, thereby enhancing support for people facing temporary hardships. In 2023, some 5.44 million recipients benefited from temporary assistance.

We have stepped up dynamic monitoring for low-income residents and established a tightly woven social security net by developing a multi-tiered and categorized social assistance system. We have put in place sharing mechanisms with the departments for education, healthcare, housing and urban-rural development, and rural revitalization, as well as with trade unions and disabled persons’ federations. This has helped ensure timely and regular assistance and support for all those who are eligible.

Assistance for those in financial difficulties has been bolstered, benefiting 4.7 million individuals, including 365,000 urban residents and nearly 4.33 million rural residents. We have enhanced alignment between government assistance and charitable support and provided guidance and support to public-interest and charitable entities involved in providing social assistance. We have also guided local authorities in effectively implementing special relief initiatives to provide essential support during severe winter cold and extreme summer heat. This has helped ensure the personal safety and basic living conditions of people affected by extreme weather.

Enhancing child welfare

In line with the principle of prioritizing children's interests, we have put in place a long-term mechanism to curb school dropout rates and ensure consistent attendance among children in adversity. We have strengthened the support measures for children without guardians and have taken well-conceived and targeted steps to protect the rights and interests of rural migrant workers’ children who either live with them in cities or those left behind in rural areas. We have steadily raised basic support standards for orphans and children without guardians, integrating them into the mechanism of social assistance and social security benefits against commodity price increases. Additionally, we have organized the implementation of the Tomorrow Plan, which focuses on medical rehabilitation for orphans, thereby providing support for the healthy development of children with disabilities.

To enhance educational support, we have implemented a welfare lottery-funded project to help orphans realize their dreams by providing scholarships for those who have been offered places at secondary vocational schools and higher education institutions. We have also advanced efforts to transform and improve child welfare organizations and adopted an integrated approach to childrearing, education, medical care, rehabilitation, and mental health. These efforts have resulted in a better environment for children to grow up in.

Improving the welfare system for people with disabilities

We have improved the living subsidy system for people with disabilities facing financial difficulties and the care subsidy system for people with severe disabilities. By the end of December 2023, these systems had benefited 11.82 million people with disabilities facing financial difficulties and 15.73 million persons with severe disabilities. Local governments nationwide have established dynamic adjustment mechanisms for subsidy standards.

We have launched an integrated mental health initiative to strengthen rehabilitation services for mental disorders. We have promoted the construction of 49 industrial parks for producing rehabilitation assistive devices and accelerated the development of community rental services for such devices.

Editor: Jiang Wenyan